High-speed modulator

Abstract

The present invention discloses a high-speed modulator which comprises an optical waveguide structure and a traveling wave electrode structure, the optical waveguide structure comprises a first optical waveguide arm and a second optical waveguide arm, a traveling wave electrode comprises a grounding electrode and a signal line, and the signal line applies electric fields or voltages in opposite directions to the first optical waveguide arm and the second optical waveguide arm. The first optical waveguide arm and the second optical waveguide arm are both of a folding structure, and the signal line is folded along with the first optical waveguide arm and the second optical waveguide arm, so that an electric field or voltage applied to the first optical waveguide arm and the second optical waveguide arm is kept unchanged. Or the electric field or the voltage applied to the first optical waveguide arm and the second optical waveguide arm is synchronously changed. Compared with the prior art, the device has the advantages that the folding structure of the optical waveguide is matched with the ground-signal-ground coplanar waveguide traveling wave electrode structure, modulation addition of light in different sections of the waveguide is achieved, the longer phase shift waveguide length can be achieved within the limited device length, and meanwhile it can be ensured that the bandwidth meets the application requirement.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to an optical component, especially a high-speed modulator. Background technique [0002] With the continuous development of optical communication systems, the requirements for the transmission rate of optical communication are constantly increasing, and the performance requirements for modulators are also getting higher and higher. The performance of traditional directly modulated lasers or electro-absorption modulated lasers can meet short-to-middle-distance data transmission, but it is difficult to make breakthroughs in ultra-long-distance and ultra-high transmission rate signal transmission. Therefore, the Mach-Zehnder based on phase modulation (MZ) modulators become the obvious choice for this generation and even the next generation of ultra-high performance modulators. Commercially available high-speed MZ modulators today include traditional bulk lithium niobate modulators, silicon optical modulators, and indium phosphide-b...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0005] In fact, although the method of increasing the length of the modulation arm of the modulator will reduce the modulation bandwidth of the device to a certain extent, and can effectively reduce the half-wave voltage to less than 1.5V, the result of this is that the length of the device is less than 2 cm. above, unless future in the half-wave voltage-length product value (V π L) has a large reduction, otherwise the length of the device will be difficult to have a large reduction

However, the excessive device length will make this type of device encounter great difficulties in the process of commercialization, and the size of the device will become a difficult problem to be solved in the process of packaging.

[0006] To sum up, it is difficult for today's MZ modulators to maintain a small device size while achieving a low half-wave voltage, and there is an urgent need for a high-speed modulator that simultaneously achieves a low half-wave voltage and a smaller size on-chip.

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