High-speed Low-voltage Single-drive Push-pull Silicon Mach-Zehnder Modulators

We demonstrate a single-drive push-pull silicon Mach-Zehnder Modulator (MZM) with a !-phase-shift voltage of 3.1 V and speed up to 30 Gb/s. The on-chip insertion loss is 9 dB due to the use of a 6 mm-long phase shifter. Higher switching speed up to 40-50 Gb/s is also demonstrated in devices with shorter phase shifters which require higher drive voltages but have lower insertion losses. ©2011 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: (230.3120) Integrated optics devices; (250.7360) Waveguide modulators; (250.5300) Photonic integrated circuits.