Increasing Silicon integration leads to better performance in optical links but necessitates a corresponding co-design strategy in both electronics and photonics. In this project a 3D-integrated CMOS/Silicon-photonic receiver is presented. The receiver is specifically designed to take advantage of low-cap 3D integration and advanced silicon photonics.
As the resonance wavelength of micro-ring modulators is susceptible to temperature fluctuations, they require thermal tuning. The power consumed by wavelength stabilization circuitry is often higher than the transmitter itself. In this project a monolithic PTAT temperature sensor is proposed for low-power thermal stabilization of micro-ring resonator modulators through direct measurement of temperature.
In design of Micro-ring modulators it is desirable to have high-Q rings since for a given extinction ratio a higher Q results in better energy efficiency. However, there is a trade-off between the Q of the ring resonator modulator and its optical bandwidth. In this project we propose a new structure is proposed that breaks the optical bandwidth/quality factor trade-off known to limit the speed of high-Q micro-ring modulators. This structure, called the “differential ring modulator”, maintains a constant energy in the ring to avoid pattern-dependent power droop.
