Silicon–Organic Hybrid Electro-Optic Modulator and Microwave Photonics Signal Processing Applications

• Published in: Micromachines (Basel) Vol. 14; no. 11; p. 1977
• Main Authors: Zhou, Zihan, Chao, Meng, Su, Xinxin, Fu, Shuanglin, Liu, Ruonan, Li, Zhihua, Bo, Shuhui, Chen, Zhuo, Wu, Zhenlin, Han, Xiuyou
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-11-2023
• Subjects: Bandwidths; Communications systems; Electric fields; electro-optic modulator; Equipment and supplies; Etching; Fiber optics; Hybrid systems; Mach-Zehnder interferometers; Mach–Zehnder modulator; Microwave photonics; Optical communication; Optical fibers; Optics; Organic materials; Phase shifters; Photonics; Polymers; Polymethyl methacrylate; Power consumption; Semiconductors; Signal processing; Silicon; silicon photonics; silicon–organic hybrid; slot waveguide; Ultrawideband; Waveguides; China; United States > US
• ISSN: 2072-666X; 2072-666X
• DOI: 10.3390/mi14111977

Electro-optic modulator (EOM) is one of the key devices of high-speed optical fiber communication systems and ultra-wideband microwave photonic systems. Silicon–organic hybrid (SOH) integration platform combines the advantages of silicon photonics and organic materials, providing a high electro-optic effect and compact structure for photonic integrated devices. In this paper, we present an SOH-integrated EOM with comprehensive investigation of EOM structure design, silicon waveguide fabrication with Slot structure, on-chip poling of organic electro-optic material, and characterization of EO modulation response. The SOH-integrated EOM is measured with 3 dB bandwidth of over 50 GHz and half-wave voltage length product of 0.26 V·cm. Furthermore, we demonstrate a microwave photonics phase shifter by using the fabricated SOH-integrated dual parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator. The phase shift range of 410° is completed from 8 GHz to 26 GHz with a power consumption of less than 38 mW.