Ring Resonator Modulators in Silicon for Interchip Photonic Links

Abstract

Silicon photonics is the most promising pathway to achieve >10 Tb/s off-chip I/O bandwidth required by next-generation high-performance computing and switching systems. Ring resonator modulators offer the advantages of small footprint, low power, high efficiency, low loss, high speed, and CMOS compatibility for silicon photonic links. This paper presents an in-depth discussion of practical microring modulators in silicon, covering their performance metrics, design tradeoffs, optimization, p-n junction geometries, complex ring configurations, and tuning solutions. Various demonstrated Si ring modulators are reviewed and potential future developments are briefly discussed.