Modelling and Analysis of a Corrugated PN Junction Phase Shifter in Silicon MZM

The essential requirement for an efficient optical modulator is to have high modulation efficiency at a high data rate. The performance of the phase shifter determines the efficiency of the modulator. In this paper, a corrugated PN junction phase shifter on a silicon waveguide is designed and analysed. Doped horizontal slabs of corrugated structure are designed to produce multiple PN junctions to maximise the index change that influences the optical modulation. With the travelling wave electrode, the optical group and RF effective index are matched to obtain high-speed modulation. The optimised design is imported in a silicon Mach Zehnder modulator, and circuit-level simulation analysis is performed. At 70Gbps, a maximum extinction ratio of 10.57dB with a bit error rate of 1.94 x 10(- 6) is obtained at V pi L of 0.75V.cm for the phase shifter length of 1.5mm. The energy per bit transmission is calculated to be 3.3pJ/bit. Further analysis is performed to identify the maximum communication distance supported by this proposed phase shifter design in the silicon Mach Zehnder modulator for the data centre requirements.

Automated summary

A novel corrugated PN junction phase shifter on a silicon waveguide is designed to achieve high-speed modulation efficiency, with good performance at 70Gbps. Further analysis is conducted to determine the maximum communication distance supported by this phase shifter design in the silicon Mach Zehnder modulator for data center requirements.