Optical frequency transmission using IQ modulator based on silicon photonic integrated circuit

We presented and experimentally demonstrated a compact, low-power-consumption and inexpensive optical frequency transmission system based on photonic integrated circuit and complementary metal–oxide– semiconductor electronic chip. The photonic integrated circuit includes a photonic IQ modulator and a balanced photodetector (BPD). The frequency stabilities of 4.8×10⁻¹⁶ @ 1 s and 3.3×10^–17 @ 10⁴s are obtained by using on-chip IQ modulator, on-chip SiGe BPD and CMOS TIA electronic chip. The integrated scheme has high transmission accuracy and lighter weight, lower power consumption, lower cost compared to acousto-optic modulator.