Post Deadline Paper OFC 2024

The paper, “O-Band SOH Mach-Zehnder Modulator Operating at a PAM4 Line Rate of 384 Gbit/s with Sub-Volt Drive Voltage”, written by Adrian Schwarzenberger, a PhD candidate at IPQ, was accepted as a post-deadline paper at OFC 2024.
OFC

March 2024: The optical fiber communication conference (OFC) is the largest global conference on optical communications and networking. Each year, only a small number of post-deadline submissions are accepted for presentation by a panel of experts. Those papers represent the latest groundbreaking technical advancements in the field of optical communications. The paper, “O-Band SOH Mach-Zehnder Modulator Operating at a PAM4 Line Rate of 384 Gbit/s with Sub-Volt Drive Voltage”, (Paper number: Th4B.6) submitted by Adrian Schwarzenberger, a PhD candidate at IPQ, was accepted as a post-deadline paper and the results were presented at OFC 2024.

The paper specifies how KIT researchers from IPQ and IOC in cooperation with SilOriX, a KIT spin-off, managed to demonstrate a silicon organic hybrid (SOH) Mach-Zehnder modulator operating in the O-band. The O-band offers effective chromatic dispersion free data transmission in a single-mode fiber and is particularly attractive for applications in data centers. Combining CMOS-compatible sub-volt drive voltages with data rates approaching 400 Gbit/s per lane, the SOH platform paves the way for highly efficient next generation transceiver modules. The 500 µm long device offers a Uπ of 0.92 V and a UπL product below 0.5 Vmm on a compact footprint. The modulator permits PAM4 transmission at symbol rates (line rates) of 192 GBd (384 Gbit/s) with sub-1V drive signals.