A 40Gb/s PAM4 Transmitter based on a Ring-resonator Optical DAC

Sajjad Moazeni and Vladimir Stojanovic

EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley

Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2017-23

May 1, 2017

This publication is archived. It is kept only for reference purposes, so it is no longer being updated and may not meet accessibility standards. If you need this content in a different format, please email webteam@eecs.berkeley.edu.

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2017/Archive/EECS-2017-23.pdf

Next generations of large data-centers and supercomputers are lagging due to the stagnation of interconnects speed. Silicon-photonics has been proposed as a potential solution to achieve low-cost, high-speed, and energy-efficient optical links in silicon-based processes. This work presents an optical digital-to-analog converter based on a segmented, active microring resonator in a zero-change commercial 45nm SOI CMOS process. Using this design approach, a monolithically integrated 40Gb/s PAM4 transmitter is demonstrated with 42fJ/b modulator and driver energy and 0.67Tb/s/mm2 bandwidth density. This scheme is suitable for systems-on-chips with large number of I/O links such as processors and switches in large-scale computing and storage systems.

Advisors: Vladimir Stojanovic

BibTeX citation:

@mastersthesis{Moazeni:EECS-2017-23,
    Author= {Moazeni, Sajjad and Stojanovic, Vladimir},
    Title= {A 40Gb/s PAM4 Transmitter based on a Ring-resonator Optical DAC},
    School= {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year= {2017},
    Month= {May},
    Url= {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2017/EECS-2017-23.html},
    Number= {UCB/EECS-2017-23},
    Abstract= {Next generations of large data-centers and supercomputers are lagging due to the stagnation of interconnects speed. Silicon-photonics has been proposed as a potential solution to achieve low-cost, high-speed, and energy-efficient optical links in silicon-based processes. This work presents an optical digital-to-analog converter based on a segmented, active microring resonator in a zero-change commercial 45nm SOI CMOS process. Using this design approach, a monolithically integrated 40Gb/s PAM4 transmitter is demonstrated with 42fJ/b modulator and driver energy and 0.67Tb/s/mm2 bandwidth density. This scheme is suitable for systems-on-chips with large number of I/O links such as processors and switches in large-scale computing and storage systems.},
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Thesis
%A Moazeni, Sajjad 
%A Stojanovic, Vladimir 
%T A 40Gb/s PAM4 Transmitter based on a Ring-resonator Optical DAC
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 2017
%8 May 1
%@ UCB/EECS-2017-23
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2017/EECS-2017-23.html
%F Moazeni:EECS-2017-23