Optical Transmitter with Silicon Slow-Light Modulator and BiCMOS Current-Mode Driver Achieving 0.78 pJ/Bit Total Bit Energy and 0.66 mm2 Footprint

The silicon photonics transmitter that combines a photonic crystal waveguide slow-light Mach-Zehnder modulator with a BiCMOS current-mode open-collector driver achieved an ultralow bit energy of $0.78 \text{pJ} / \text{bit}$ and a compact footprint of $0.66 ~\text{mm}^{2}$.