Mixed domain coherent link with electrically reconfigurable IMDD and coherent modes for O-band data center applications

Opt Express. 2024 Oct 21;32(22):38550-38559. doi: 10.1364/OE.532184.

Abstract

We report the first O-band link with electrically reconfigurable intensity-modulation direct-detection (IMDD) and coherent operation using custom silicon photonic chips packaged with commercial electronic chips. Transmission below the KP4-FEC threshold is shown using commercial 53 Gbaud PAM4 digital signal processing (DSP) for 16QAM (200 Gbps/λ) and PAM4 (100 Gbps/λ). Efficient operation of the packaged full link at 12 and 11.2 pJ/bit is achieved for the PAM4 and 16QAM modes, respectively.