Ultrahigh-bandwidth silicon photonic nanowire waveguides for on-chip networks

An investigation of signal integrity in silicon photonic nanowire waveguides is performed for wavelength-division- multiplexed optical signals. First, we demonstrate the feasibility of ultrahigh-bandwidth integrated photonic networks by transmitting a 1.28-Tb/s data stream (32 wavelengths × 40-Gb/s) through a 5-cm-long silicon wire. Next, the crosstalk induced in the highly confined waveguide is evaluated, while varying the number of wavelength channels, with bit-error-rate measurements at 10 Gb/s per channel. The power penalty of a 24-channel signal is 3.3 dB, while the power penalty of a single-channel signal is 0.6 dB. Finally, single-channel power penalty measurements are taken over a wide range of input powers and indicate negligible change for launch powers of up to 7 dBm. © 2008 IEEE.