Plasmonic modulators enable unprecedented transmitter performance for future data centers

Monolithic transmitter operating beyond 100 GBd enabled by plasmonic modulators

Plasmonic modulators enable the first high-speed monolithic transmitter operating beyond 100 GBd. IEF researcher Ueli Koch presented the work "Monolithic High-Speed Transmitter Enabled by BiCMOS-Plasmonic Platform", which demonstrates 120 Gbit/s NRZ-OOK integrated on a single chip of only 1.5 mm x 3 mm. The chip comprises of an electronic-photonic layer stack including a 4:1 SiGe BiCMOS multiplexer and a plasmonic Mach-Zehnder modulator. This groundbreaking work accelerates the co-integration of electronics and photonics. It was made possible by the collaboration of ETH Zürich, Universität des Saarlandes, Micram Microelectronic GmbH, University of Washington, Mellanox Technologies Ltd., Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and the IEF spin-off Polariton Technologies Ltd.

Plasmonic modulators: world-record symbol rate for intra-datacenter communications

Plasmonic modulators enabled a new world-record demonstration for intra-datacenter and rack-to-rack communication. The work "222 GBaud On-Off keying transmitter using ultra-high-speed 2:1-selector and plasmonic modulator on silicon photonics” demonstrates how plasmonics brings highest symbol rates to datacenters using low-cost intensity modulation / direct detection schemes. The plasmonic Mach-Zehnder modulator was directly driven by an InP DHPT 2:1 selector, without the need of any expensive driver amplifiers. The work was made possible by the collaboration of ETH Zürich, University of Washington, Nokia Bell Labs, III-V Lab, and the IEF spin-off Polariton Technologies Ltd.
 

See also external pagepost-deadline contributions at the 45th European Conference on Optical Communicationcall_made