A few days ago, the National Optical Electronics Innovation Center (NOEIC) and the State Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Communication Technology and Network of CITIC Group have made important progress in the direction of ultra-high-speed silicon optical chip technology. For the first time, a 200 Gb/s PAM4 was produced using a silicon optical micro-ring modulator optical signal (previously the highest level was Intel’s 128Gb/s), and successfully realized 2km single-mode fiber transmission. This achievement provides ultra-low power consumption and ultra-high integration chip technology solutions for the next generation of 800G optical modules and co-packaged photonic engines.
This achievement of the National Optical Electronics Innovation Center was published as a PDP (post-deadline paper, papers accepted after the deadline) at the ECOC 2020 conference. This is also the second consecutive year that NOEIC has published the ECOC PDP report after last year. The PDP paper of the ECOC Conference aims to publish the latest technological progress and documentary achievements in the field of optical communications, representing the current highest technological level in the industry. There are only 7 PDP articles in this ECOC conference, and NOEIC’s paper is the only optical chip PDP article in this conference, and it is also the only work done entirely by Chinese units and researchers.
With the rapid development of 5G, Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, the next-generation data center optical interconnection urgently needs to upgrade the single-channel rate from the current 100Gb/s to 200Gb/s. The ultra-high-speed silicon-based micro modulator in this work has many advantages such as high bandwidth, small size, low driving voltage, and low power consumption. It provides a very competitive and useful solution for the next generation of low-cost, low-power high-speed optical interconnection.
This time, NOEIC and China Xinke’s R&D personnel are based on a silicon-based micro modulator with a bandwidth greater than 67GHz (limited by the test equipment, the extrapolated bandwidth is 79GHz), combined with the self-developed Nyquist shaping and adaptive equalization algorithm, and successfully demonstrated the generation of single-channel 120Gb/s OOK and 200Gb/s PAM4 high-speed optical signals, realizing the highest rate silicon optical modulator in the world.
As a national-level innovation research and development institution approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the NOEIC has always attached great importance to the development and standardization of silicon photonics technology. It has successively achieved breakthrough achievements such as the first 100G silicon-based coherent optical transceiver chip in China, and many optical chip products have realized localized replacement. Recently, the NOEIC, in cooperation with CITIC Group, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, ZTE and other domestic superior units, submitted a number of optical device industry standards and research topics around 800Gb/s optical devices and silicon optical technology, all of which were approved. Facing the major industrial changes brought about by silicon photonics technology, the NOEIC will give full play to the industry’s leading and demonstrative role. The key scientific research and industry units within the United Nations will fully promote the technological research, industrial transformation and standardization of high-end optoelectronic chips.
