Four-channel WDM transmitter with heterogeneously integrated III-V/Si photonics and low power 32 nm CMOS drivers

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate a novel four-channel wavelength division multiplexing transmitter operating at 1.3 μm wavelength employing heterogeneously integrated III-V/Si photonic circuit copackaged with low-power 32-nm SOI CMOS driver integrated circuits (ICs). Error-free operation (BER < 1-12) has been achieved across all four channels for back-to-back, 2 and 10 km single-mode fiber transmission at 25 Gb/s per each channel, targeting intra- and inter-datacenter interconnect applications. Power consumption as low as 19.2 mW for four CMOS driver ICs has been recorded, which yields 0.19 pJ/bit energy efficiency.