Universal silicon ring resonator for error-free transmission links

We report the design,fabrication,and characterization of a universal silicon PN junction ring resonator for C band error-free communication links operated up to 50 Gb/s with co-designed optical modulation and detection performance.The universal p-n junction ring device shows co-designed detection responsivity up to 0.84 A/W,in conjunction with a modulation efficiency of～4 V.mm and＞8 dB optical modulation extinction ratio,enabling C band 50 Gb/s NRZ communication link with a bit error rate ≤ 3 × 10-12.Individually,the speed of modulation and detection is measured up to 112 Gb/s and 80 Gb/s,respectively.The principle of co-designing the PN junc-tion ring modulator and detector performance required for error-free communication links can significantly ease the fabrication yield challenges of ring structures by reducing the number of types of devices.The principle can also be applied to O band wavelengths.To the best of our knowledge,for the first time,a device of this type has achieved both error-free modulation and detection operation up to 50 Gb/s in the C band individually or in conjugation as an error-free communication link,which paves the way to realize a＞1.6 Tb/s all-silicon WDM-based error-free optical transceiver link in the future and is essential for future programmable photonics circuits.