A monolithically integrated segmented driver and modulator in 0.25 µm SiGe:C BiCMOS with 13 dB extinction ratio at 28 Gb/s

In this work, a monolithically integrated segmented driver and Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) in 0.25 μm SiGe:C BiCMOS technology is presented. The driver and the modulator are divided in 16 segments and the MZM has a total length of 6.08 mm. The driver has a maximum gain of 14.5 dB. Electro-optical time-domain measurements were performed and an optical eye-diagram with more than 13 dB of extinction ratio at 28 Gb/s is demonstrated. The driver dissipates a total of 2 W of DC power. To the best knowledge of the authors, the presented work shows the highest extinction ratio achieved at 28 Gb/s in silicon modulators.