High speed, silicon-based electro-optic modulator

US7065301B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• SiOptical, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Kalpendu Shastri · Orefield, US
• Prakash Gothoskar · Allentown, US
• Margaret Ghiron · Allentown, US
• Vipulkumar Patel · Emmaus, US
• Robert Keith Montgomery · Easton, US
• Soham Pathak · Allentown, US
• Katherine A. Yanushefski · Emmaus, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 10, 2004
• Grant date: Jun 20, 2006
• Expiry date: Jun 5, 2024

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G02F1/225
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

An electro-optic modulator arrangement for achieving switching speeds greater than 1 Gb/s utilizes pre-emphasis pulses to accelerate the change in refractive index of the optical waveguide used to form the electro-optic modulator. In one embodiment, a feedback loop may be added to use a portion of the modulated optical output signal to adjust the magnitude and duration of the pre-emphasis pulses, as well as the various reference levels used for modulated. For free carrier-based electro-optic modulators, including silicon-based electro-optic modulators, the pre-emphasis pulses are used to accelerate the movement of free carriers at the transitions between input signal data values.