Abstract: In Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) based modulators (MZM) input laser light comes in from one side, gets split into two MZI arms, then recombined at an opposite side. Each MZI arm may be phase or intensity modulated depending on the set phase offset, whereby coherent or intensity modulation may be performed which can later be de-coded by a receiver. Ring resonator type modulators (RRM) are compact; however, their phase response is nonlinear, normally limiting their application in coherent phase modulation. However, a combined MZI RRM overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art by providing a novel structure and driving scheme for use with semiconductor photonics that takes advantage of the compactness of ring modulators and the linearity of MZI by setting the ring resonators to resonate at the input laser light wavelength.

Abstract: In Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) based modulators (MZM) input laser light comes in from one side, gets split into two MZI arms, then recombined at an opposite side. Each MZI arm may be phase or intensity modulated depending on the set phase offset, whereby coherent or intensity modulation may be performed which can later be de-coded by a receiver. Ring resonator type modulators (RRM) are compact; however, their phase response is nonlinear, normally limiting their application in coherent phase modulation. However, a combined MZI RRM overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art by providing a novel structure and driving scheme for use with semiconductor photonics that takes advantage of the compactness of ring modulators and the linearity of MZI by setting the ring resonators to resonate at the input laser light wavelength.