Cascaded modulator architecture for WDM applications

• Main Authors: Debnath, Kapil (Author), O'Faolain, Liam (Author), Gardes, Frederic Y. (Author), Steffan, Andreas G. (Author), Reed, Graham T. (Author), Krauss, Thomas F. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2012.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

Integration density, channel scalability, low switching energy and low insertion loss are the major prerequisites for on-chip WDM systems. A number of device geometries have already been demonstrated that fulfill these criteria, at least in part, but combining all of the requirements is still a difficult challenge. Here, we propose and demonstrate a novel architecture consisting of an array of photonic crystal modulators connected by a dielectric bus waveguide. The device architecture features very high scalability and the modulators operate with an AC energy consumption of less than 1fJ/bit. Furthermore, we demonstrate cascadeability and multichannel operation by using a comb laser as the source that simultaneously drives 5 channels.