Balanced differential modulation schemes for silicon photonic modulators

• Main Authors: SIEW, SHAWN YOHANES, LI, QIANG, LUO, XIAN-SHU, YANIKGONUL, SALIH
• Format: Patent
• Language: Chinese; English
• Published: 01.03.2024
• Subjects: DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS, THE OPTICAL OPERATION OF WHICH ISMODIFIED BY CHANGING THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIUM OF THEDEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF THE INTENSITY,COLOUR, PHASE, POLARISATION OR DIRECTION OF LIGHT, e.g.SWITCHING, GATING, MODULATING OR DEMODULATING; FREQUENCY-CHANGING; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICS; PHYSICS; TECHNIQUES OR PROCEDURES FOR THE OPERATION THEREOF

The invention relates to photonic differential modulators and more particularly different electrode configurations for differential driving schemes for reducing the driving voltage for a given phase shift and device footprint. The embodiments comprise of two reverse-biased p-n junctions driven in a push-pull configuration from signal (S) to signal bar (S-bar). The first embodiment shares the S-bar electrode between two p-n junctions to reduce the device footprint at the expense of difficult impedance matching. The second embodiment does not contain any shared electrode and instead adds additional electrodes for the sake of easier impedance matching. Specifically, the second embodiment decouples the two p-n junctions along with their respective transmission lines for ease of impedance matching. The third embodiment shares both the S and S-bar electrodes through an interleaved electrode design to reduce the device footprint, and makes impedance matching easier by slow-wave effect on the transmission lines.