128-Gb/s Line Rate OFDM Signal Modulation Using an Integrated Silicon Microring Modulator

Compared with Mach-Zehnder modulators, silicon microring modulators have the important advantages of smaller footprint and significantly lower energy per bit but suffer the disadvantages of inherent wavelength dependence and a modulation bandwidth that is limited by the resonator bandwidth. Here, we address the latter disadvantage of using an integrated silicon microring modulator with spectrally efficient modulation with 16-quadrature amplitude modulation on direct detection orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). We demonstrate a line rate of 128-Gb/s and a net data rate of 107.6-Gb/s OFDM signal modulation using this tunable microring modulator. The 6.6- and 10-km single-mode fiber transmission of the modulated signal is presented. The measured bit error rates of back-to-back, 6.6-km, and 10-km fiber transmission are well below the forward error correction threshold.