130 nm CMOS enabling 20 Gb / s optical interconnection with Mach-Zehnder modulator

This version is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. The N over N cascode push-pull laser driver is demonstrated at 20Gbit/s with IBM 130nm technology. Elec-optical measurement of laser driver integrated with Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) is also presented. This laser driver achieves 50Ω output impedance matching (for MZM) with only on-chip termination. The power consumption of laser driver is 312 mW and output swing is 3.4V pp on differential. Introduction: In the field of Silicon Photonics, an optical interconnection link using electro-absorption (EA) and a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) is common and well researched. In the area of electrical modeling, most of these modulators are treated as transmission lines. Previous designs [2], [3] and [5] use a current-mode logic circuit with resistive loads which can generate a high voltage swing on output with good impedance matching performance, however, the problem is that most of these designs require external biasing system (such as a biasing tee) to be integrated with an optical modulator. For interconnection applications, the laser driver design is expected to be low-cost and compact-integration. This paper presents a laser driver providing 20Gbits/s data rate transmission for a 50Ω MZM at low cost and low power. The laser driver and MZM are integrated using a multiple die package (bond wires or flip chip), without the need for additional off-chip biasing circuitry.