Low voltage 25Gbps silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator in the O-band.

In this work, a 25 Gb ps silicon push-pull Mach-Zehnder modulator operating in the O-Band (1260 nm - 1360 nm) of optical communications and fabricated on a 300mm platform is presented. The measured modulation efficiency (V-pi L-pi) was comprised between 0.95 V cm and 1.15 V cm, which is comparable to the state-of-the-art modulators in the C-Band, that enabled its use with a driving voltage of 3.3 V-pp, compatible with BiCMOS technology. An extinction ratio of 5 dB and an on-chip insertion losses of 3.6 dB were then demonstrated at 25 Gb ps. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America