We report an optical link on silicon using micrometer-scale ring-resonator enhanced silicon modulators and waveguide-integrated germanium photodetectors. We show 3 Gbps operation of the link with 0.5 V modulator voltage swing and 1.0 V detector bias. The total energy consumption for such a link is estimated to be ~120 fJ/bit. Such compact and low power monolithic link is an essential step towards large-scale on-chip optical interconnects for future microprocessors.
@article{arxiv.0907.0022,
title = {Integrated GHz silicon photonic interconnect with micrometer-scale modulators and detectors},
author = {Long Chen and Kyle Preston and Sasikanth Manipatruni and Michal Lipson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0907.0022},
year = {2015}
}