Quantum well micro-resonator optical modulator based on electrically controlled coupling

Micro-resonator optical modulators fabricated with Si/SiO2 planar waveguides have been reported for the optical interconnect application and the modulation is achieved by control of the resonant frequency through resonator index change. In these devices, thermal control is used to adjust/stabilize the resonant frequency and the input coupling constant. In this paper, an III–V based micro-resonator is described in which the modulation is achieved through voltage control of the input coupling parameter and the resonator frequency is adjusted/stabilized through control of the resonator index. This approach offers significant advantages for integrated circuit based optical connectivity. The modulator performance is analyzed via FDTD simulation with refractive index profiles based on measured absorption parameters. The performance is confirmed via MATLAB and a circuit based model for HSPICE is developed and run in a transient simulator to confirm the modulator speed and eye diagram characteristics yielding an extinction ratio of 10.7 dB, a bandwidth of 31 GHz and a energy consumption <2.5 fJ/bit for device dimensions of 28×4 µm2.