Transmission of 120 Gbaud QAM with an all-silicon segmented modulator

Segmenting a silicon modulator can substantially increase its electro-optic bandwidth without sacrificing modulation efficiency. We demonstrate a segmented silicon IQ modulator and experimentally explore both modulator design and operating point to optimize systems trade-offs in coherent detection. An electro–optic bandwidth of greater than 40 GHz is measured for a 4-mm-long segment, and greater than 60 GHz for a 2-mmlong segment. We evaluate optical transmission experimentally at 120 Gbaud for 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and 32QAM. The segments are operated in tandem with identical data at each segment. We present an experimental method to align data timing between the segments. Through the optimization of segment biasing and linear compensation, we have achieved a bit error rate (BER) of 16QAM well below the 20% forward error correction (FEC) threshold (2 × 10−2 ). Adding nonlinear pre-compensation allows for 32QAM with a BER below the 24% FEC threshold (4.5 × 10−2 ), enabling a net rate of 483 Gbs per polarization. The modulator can also be operated as an optical digital analogy converter for complex optical signal generation, for which 100 Gbs is achieved for a proof of concept