A −115 dBc/Hz Integrated Optoelectronic Oscillator in a BiCMOS Silicon Photonic Technology

An optoelectronic oscillator implemented in a 250 nm SiGe BiCMOS Silicon photonic technology is presented. It features a monolithic integration of the electronic amplifier components, the electro-optical modulator and the photodiode to achieve a low-parasitics and compact solution on a single chip. A phase noise of −115 dBc/Hz at a frequency offset of 100 kHz from the fundamental frequency of 750 MHz was measured. The phase noise is among the lowest for monolithically integrated optoelectronic oscillators. The frequency response gives a promising outlook to future fully monolithic integrated optoelectronic oscillators when a low loss micro-resonator is utilized to simultaneously act as an optical delay element and filter at frequencies above 20 GHz.