Experimental Demonstration of 35 GHz RF -over-Fiber Silicon- Photonics Link

Abstract

This paper presents the design and demonstration of a 35 GHz transmitter for RF-over-fiber (RFoF) communication link using complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) compatible silicon-photonics technology. This proof of the concept has addressed the high-frequency integration challenges and been realized using a fabricated broadband silicon-photonics microring modulator, driver amplifier, and were integrated on Kovar substrate using 50 Ω transmission line. The integrated test set-up has demonstrated the measured electro-optical (S21) bandwidth of 35 GHz, maximum gain of 12.4 dB, RF matching at driver amplifier input in the range of −5 dB to −42 dB and optical matching at microring modulator input in the range of −8 dB to −21 dB for 50 Ω load across 35 GHz frequency bandwidth.