Design of low-loss silicon MZ electro-optic modulator driving electrodes

In order to meet the requirements of silicon optical interconnect applications with high data bandwidths, the designofhigh-speed silicon optical modulators is of vital importance. Based on the silicon photonic SOI process of IMEC, a driving electrode for a low-loss and high-bandwidth traveling wave MZ modulator is proposed. Based on a detailed analysis of the effects of skin effects, traveling wave loss, proximity effects and other physical effects on the traveling wave electrode signal, a small amount of metal with a certain width is added to the top of traveling wave electrode, which leads to the low-frequency loss of MZ modulator decreasing by 13% and the high-frequency lossdecreasing by 5%. Additionally, the 3dB bandwidth of MZ modulator is enhanced to 28GHz.