Advanced silicon photonic modulators

Various electrical and optical schemes used in Mach-Zehnder (MZ) silicon plasma dispersion effect modulators are explored. A rib waveguide reverse biased silicon diode modulator is designed, tested and found to operate at speeds up to 13 GHz with a V"L of 1.2 Vcm. MOS capacitor modulator designs are investigated as an alternative, but are not found to offer significant advantages. Modulators are also designed for fabrication in an actual CMOS process -a crucial step in the quest for low-cost integration with modern electronic devices. Photonic crystal structures, which promise smaller footprint sizes and lower power requirements, are also investigated, but it proves difficult to obtain a physically feasible design. Finally, a linearization scheme for Mach-Zehnder modulators is proposed to significantly improve signal fidelity in analog applications. Simulations are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of this scheme for reverse biased silicon diode modulators.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Sorace, Cheryl M

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Franz X. Kärtner.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62431

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/62431