• Photonics Research
  • Vol. 13, Issue 2, 433 (2025)
Qiang Zhang1, Qikai Huang2, Penghui Xia2, Yan Li3..., Xingyi Jiang2, Shuyue Zhang2, Shengyu Fang2, Jianyi Yang2 and Hui Yu1,*|Show fewer author(s)
Author Affiliations
  • 1Zhejiang Lab, Hangzhou 311100, China
  • 2Institute of Integrated Microelectronic Systems, College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
  • 3Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
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    DOI: 10.1364/PRJ.538014 Cite this Article Set citation alerts
    Qiang Zhang, Qikai Huang, Penghui Xia, Yan Li, Xingyi Jiang, Shuyue Zhang, Shengyu Fang, Jianyi Yang, Hui Yu, "All-optically linearized silicon modulator with ultrahigh SFDR of 131 dB · Hz6/7," Photonics Res. 13, 433 (2025) Copy Citation Text show less

    Abstract

    Integrated high-linearity modulators are crucial for high dynamic-range microwave photonic (MWP) systems. Conventional linearization schemes usually involve the fine tuning of radio-frequency (RF) power distribution, which is rather inconvenient for practical applications and can hardly be implemented on the integrated photonics chip. In this paper, we propose an elegant scheme to linearize a silicon-based modulator in which the active tuning of RF power is eliminated. The device consists of two carrier-depletion-based Mach–Zehnder modulators (MZMs), which are connected in series by a 1×2 thermal optical switch (OS). The OS is used to adjust the ratio between the modulation depths of the two sub-MZMs. Under a proper ratio, the complementary third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) of the two sub-MZMs can effectively cancel each other out. The measured spurious-free dynamic ranges for IMD3 are 131, 127, 118, 110, and 109dB·Hz6/7 at frequencies of 1, 10, 20, 30, and 40 GHz, respectively, which represent the highest linearities ever reached by the integrated modulator chips on all available material platforms.
    Iout={|Ein|216·{exp[2α(Vb1+vRF22)L]+exp[2α(Vb1vRF22)L]+2exp{[α(Vb1+vRF22)+α(Vb1vRF22)]L}cos(Δθ1)}·{(1+sinφ)exp[2α(Vb2+vRF22)L]+(1sinφ)exp[2α(Vb2vRF22)L]+2exp{[α(Vb2+vRF22)+α(Vb2vRF22)]L}cos(Δθ2)cosφ},

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    MD=1+sinφ4{cos[Δθ(v02)+θbias]cos[Δθ(v02)+θbias]}.

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    Qiang Zhang, Qikai Huang, Penghui Xia, Yan Li, Xingyi Jiang, Shuyue Zhang, Shengyu Fang, Jianyi Yang, Hui Yu, "All-optically linearized silicon modulator with ultrahigh SFDR of 131 dB · Hz6/7," Photonics Res. 13, 433 (2025)
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