Towards High-Speed Energy-Efficient Pulse-Switching Networks Implemented In Carrier-Injection-Based Si-Photonics

We show that carrier injection based Si-photonics modulators [1] can form the basis for building compact, low-loss and power efficient reconfigurable networks, enabling the switching of ps-pulse trains with sub-GHz repetition rates. The use of pre-emphasis-based activation [2] permits ns-scale switching transitions. Although the steady-state energy consumption in this platform is well studied, the impact of the dynamic energy consumption for these ns switching periods is not well known. Here, we show pre-emphasis-based sub-ns transitions and present a novel large-signal analysis that allows the driving scheme optimization for energy-efficient pulse switching.