Carrier Depletion Based Linear Silicon Modulator

Stanley M. G. Lo, Chao Li, Hon Ki Tsang

Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, ShaTin, Hong Kong
Tel: (852)2609 8252 E-mail: hktsang@ee.cuhk.edu.hk

Abstract: We show that the linearity of a silicon electro-optic modulator can be improved by optimizing
the embedded diode structure. Optimized designs of silicon modulators can give 5.9 dB improvement in
SFDR over conventional LiNbO
3
modulators.
OCIS codes: Optical Modulator, Silicon Photonics, Radio over fiber
Silicon optical modulators are of interest for Radio over Fiber (RoF) applications because of their potential for low
cost integration and deployment in remote antenna units for the remodulation of the downlink optical signal. Silicon
Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) based modulator based on the free carrier plasma dispersion effect [1] has been
proposed for analog optical links [2, 3].The linearity of the modulator can be improved by tuning the biasing voltage
[3]. Our previous work shows that modulator linearity depends on structure design and bias condition [4]. In this
paper, the linearity of carrier depletion based modulators is theoretically analyzed and an optimum diode design is
proposed to linearize the transfer function of the silicon modulator.
Here we investigate several p
+
-p-i-n-n
+
diode structure designs for the conventional MZI based modulator
structure. The cross-sectional schematic of the diode-embedded optical waveguide and schematic of MZI modulator
are depicted in Fig. 1(a). The waveguide width is 500 nm, height is 340 nm while slab thickness is 140 nm. The p
+

and n
+
doped regions are separated from the waveguide sidewalls with a spacing of 500 nm. The doping
concentration for the n+ and p+ slab region is around 110
20
cm
-3
. The lightly doped n and p concentration is
2x10
18
cm
-3
in order to achieve an efficient amount of depleted carriers in about 5 V.. We analysis several diode
designs by changing the intrinsic region that is defined by the distance from the center of waveguide to the lightly
doped region (x1 and x2, shown in Fig.1 (a)), and (x1, x2) are (0nm, 0nm), (-50nm, 50nm) and (-150nm, 150nm) for
design A, B and C.

Fig. 1. (a) (upper)The cross-sectional schematic of the p+-p-n-n+ diode and the optical transverse electric (TE) mode field distribution (middle)
the p
+
-p-n-n
+
diode schematic (lower)the schematic of MZI modulator structure (b) The calculated effective refractive index change as a function
of drive voltage. (c) (upper) The calculated absorption losses and (lower) the required doping length to obtain phase shift.
The change in hole concentration P(x,y) and electron concentration N(x,y) as a function of the applied
reverse bias voltage is obtained by using the commercial semiconductor simulation software ATHENA and ATLAS
[5]. Thus the free-carrier-induced refractive index change n(x,y) and absorption loss coefficient (x,y) can be
calculated by the empirical relations for the plasma effect [6]. The calculated effective index change against applied
voltage is shown in Fig. 1(b). The corresponded absorption loss against applied voltage and required modulator
length with different biasing voltage are shown in Fig. 1(c). The required modulator doping lengths were derived to
satisfy the phase change by assuming a 5 V peak to peak modulation (V
pp
) with a various biasing voltage (V
bias
)
OSA/ CLEO 2011
JTuI6.pdf

Optical Society of America

from 2.5 V to 12.5 V. We assume only one arm of the MZI is modulated and the wavelength of the optical signal is
1550 nm.

Fig. 2. (a) The transfer functions of the Silicon based MZI modulator when bias voltage is 2.5V, LEO based MZI modulator is added as reference.
(b) Output signal power and 3
rd
IMD power of both Silicon and LEO based MZI modulator as a function of input signal power.(2.5V bias voltage)
(c) The simulated SFDR of the Silicon based MZI with different bias voltages.
First, we combine the calculated refractive index change and response of MZI structure to simulate the transfer
function of different modulator designs. The transfer functions of the silicon modulator design C and linear electro-
optic effect (LEO) based MZI modulator at 2.5 V biasing voltage are shown in Fig. 2(a), the transfer function of
Silicon modulator is different from the LEO based modulator since the change of refractive index against applied
voltage is no longer linear when modulation is based on plasma effect. Second, we analysis the modulator linearity
the by spurious free dynamic range (SFDR), we evaluate the SFDR of the modulator by employing the two-tone
input frequency (f1 = 2.2 GHz and f2 = 2.4 GHz) to the transfer function and from the Fourier Transform of the
modulated output signal we obtain the 3
rd
order intermodulation (3
rd
IMD) signal at 2.6 GHz and fundamental signal
at 2.2 GHz. The modeled output RF power versus the input RF power is shown in Fig. 2(b). The SFDR of modulator
design C has a 5.9 dB advantage compared with conventional LEO based modulator. We contribute the improved
linearity to the non-linear EO effect in silicon which induces the non-linear n (shown in Fig. 1(b)). The SFDR of
Silicon based MZI with different bias voltage is shown in Fig. 2(c). When V
bias
= 2.5 V, the SFDR of the modulator
design C is 116.7 dB and decreases to 111.5 dB when the bias is increased to 7.5V, similar results are obtained from
modulator design A and B.
Our analysis shows that the linearity of silicon MZI optical modulator can be optimized by changing the diode
design. The SFDR of Silicon MZI modulators based on a reverse-bias p+-p-i-n-n+ diode have a highest
improvement of 5.9 dB compared with conventional linear electro optic effect MZI modulators. Our simulation
results suggest that the linear silicon modulators offer improved linearity for use in Radio-over-Fiber systems.

Acknowledgment: This work was fully supported by Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Fund project number
ITS/041/09.
Reference:
[1] R. A. Soref and B. R. Bennett, Electrooptical Effect in Silicon, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics Vol. QE-23, pp. 123-129, Jan. 1987.
[2] S. J. Spector et al , CMOS-compatible dual-output silicon modulator for analog signal processing, Opt. Express, Vol. 16, pp. 11027-11031,
Jul. 2008.
[3] F. Vacondio et al, A Silicon Modulator Enabling RF Over Fiber for 802.11 OFDM Signals, Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum
Electronics, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp 141-148, 2010
[4] S. M. Lo et al, Linearity of Carrier Depletion based Silicon Optical Modulators, the 15
th
OptoElectronics and Communications Conference,
Sapporo, Japan, 5-9, July, 2010
[5] SILVACO, Inc, http://www.silvaco.com/
[6] R. A. Soref and B. R. Bennett, Kramers-Kronig analysis of E-O switching in silicon, SPIE integr. Opt. Circuit Eng., Vol. 704, pp. 32-37,
1986
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