Modeling and Analysis of Optical Modulators Based on Free-Carrier Plasma Dispersion Effect

• Published in: IEEE transactions on computer-aided design of integrated circuits and systems Vol. 39; no. 5; pp. 977 - 990
• Main Authors: Chen, Xuanqi, Wang, Zhifei, Chang, Yi-Shing, Xu, Jiang, Feng, Jun, Yang, Peng, Wang, Zhehui, Duong, Luan H. K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.05.2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Bandwidths; Basic optical switch integration model (BOSIM); Capacitors; Computer simulation; electro-optical model; Energy conservation; Energy consumption; Extinction; Integrated optics; Mach-Zehnder interferometers; Mach–Zehnder interferometers (MZI); microresonator (MR); Modulators; Network latency; Optical interferometry; Optical modulation; optical modulator; Optical sensors; Optical switches; Optical switching; Photonics; PIN diodes; Silicon; SPICE; steady and transient state analysis; Switching theory
• ISSN: 0278-0070; 1937-4151
• DOI: 10.1109/TCAD.2019.2907907

Silicon photonic networks are revolutionizing computing systems by improving the energy efficiency, bandwidth, and latency of data movements. Optical modulators, such as microresonators (MRs) and Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs), are the basic building blocks of silicon photonic networks. This paper proposes a SPICE-compatible electro-optical co-simulation model, basic optical switch integration model (BOSIM), to systematically study optical modulators using PN, PIN, and metal-insulator-silicon (MIS) capacitor device technologies. BOSIM holistically models both transient and steady state properties, such as switching speed, power, transmission spectrum, area, and carrier distribution. BOSIM is validated by the measured data from eight research groups and companies. Compared to MRs, BOSIM shows MZIs are fast, with a high extinction ratio and large bandwidth but in the sacrifice of loss, energy, and area. Using a PIN diode over a PN diode can save area, but retain the loss and energy, while an MIS capacitor has the shock response of carrier distribution in a narrow range and is marginalized gradually. For instance, an MZI can achieve a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">2.5 {\times } </tex-math></inline-formula> bit rate, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">6.06{\times } </tex-math></inline-formula> extinction ratio, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">71.04 {\times }\,\,3 </tex-math></inline-formula>-dB bandwidth, but costs at least <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">1.93 {\times } </tex-math></inline-formula> passing loss, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">1.46 {\times } </tex-math></inline-formula> energy consumption, and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">16.67 {\times } </tex-math></inline-formula> area, compared with MR.