Wouter Soenen

40 Gb/s PAM-4 Transmitter IC for Long-Wavelength VCSEL Links

Conventional 850 nm multimode fiber links deployed in warehouse-scale data centers will be limited by modal dispersion beyond 10 Gb/s when covering distances up to 1 km. This can be resolved by opting for a single-mode fiber (SMF), but typically requires the use of power-hungry edge-emitting lasers. We investigate the feasibility of a high-efficiency SMF link by reporting a 0.13 μm SiGe BiCMOS laser diode driver optimized for long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). Bit-error rate experiments at 28 and 40 Gb/s up to 1 km of SMF reveal that four-level pulse amplitude modulation can compete with non-return-to-zero in terms of energy efficiency and scalability. With 9.4 pJ/b, the presented transmitter paves the way for VCSEL-based SMF links in data centers.

A 64 Gb/s PAM-4 linear optical receiver

We present a linear optical receiver realized on 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS. Error-free operation assuming FEC is shown at bitrates up to 64 Gb/s (32 Gbaud) with 165mW power consumption, corresponding to 2.578 pJ/bit.

A 40-GBd QPSK/16-QAM integrated silicon coherent receiver

Through co-design of a dual SiGe transimpedance amplifier and an integrated silicon photonic circuit, we realized for the first time an ultra-compact and low-power silicon single-polarization coherent receiver operating at 40 GBd. A bit-error rate of <;3.8 × 10-3 was obtained for an optical signal-to-noise ratio of 14 dB for QPSK modulation (80 Gb/s), and 26.5 dB for 16-QAM (160 Gb/s). We also demonstrate robust performance of the receiver over temperature and wavelength.

Low-Power 1.3-µm VCSEL Transmitter for Data Center Interconnects and Beyond

Unprecedented standard single-mode fiber reach of 20km and 4.5km respectively for 28Gb/s and 40Gb/s VCSEL-based intensity-modulation/direct detection optical transmission was obtained with a low-power transmitter assembly including a 4-channel 0.13-μm SiGe driver wire-bonded to a novel 2×1 1.3pm-VCSEL array.