Micrometre-scale silicon electro-optic modulator
Micrometre-scale silicon electro-optic modulator
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DOI：
10.1038/nature03569
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发表时间：
2005-05-19
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Lipson, M
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Xu, QF;Schmidt, B;Lipson, M
随着晶体管尺寸的不断缩小，金属互连预计将成为电子系统性能的限制因素。在从机架到机架到芯片到芯片和芯片内互连的不同级别上，用光学互连代替它们，可以提供所需的低功耗、低延迟和高带宽（1-4）。光互连的实现依赖于与片上微电子集成的微光学器件的发展。硅低损耗波导（5-7）、光发射器（8）、放大器（9-11）和激光器（12，13）的最新示范接近这一目标，但是具有足够小的尺寸以用于芯片级集成的小型硅电光调制器尚未被示范。在这里，我们实验证明了一个高速电光调制器在紧凑的硅结构。该调制器基于共振光限制结构，该结构增强了光对硅的折射率的微小变化的敏感性，并且还能够实现高速操作。该调制器直径为12微米，比以前演示的小三个数量级。电光调制器是光电子集成中最关键的部件之一，并且减小其尺寸可以实现新颖的芯片架构。
Metal interconnections are expected to become the limiting factor for the performance of electronic systems as transistors continue to shrink in size. Replacing them by optical interconnections, at different levels ranging from rack-to-rack down to chip-to-chip and intra-chip interconnections, could provide the low power dissipation, low latencies and high bandwidths that are needed(1-4). The implementation of optical interconnections relies on the development of micro-optical devices that are integrated with the microelectronics on chips. Recent demonstrations of silicon low-loss waveguides(5-7), light emitters(8), amplifiers(9-11) and lasers(12,13) approach this goal, but a small silicon electro-optic modulator with a size small enough for chip-scale integration has not yet been demonstrated. Here we experimentally demonstrate a high-speed electro-optical modulator in compact silicon structures. The modulator is based on a resonant light-confining structure that enhances the sensitivity of light to small changes in refractive index of the silicon and also enables high-speed operation. The modulator is 12 micrometres in diameter, three orders of magnitude smaller than previously demonstrated. Electro-optic modulators are one of the most critical components in optoelectronic integration, and decreasing their size may enable novel chip architectures.