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 pi-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. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America