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We demonstrate a clear eye-diagram at 36 Gb/s of a BiCMOS driver directly wire-bonded to an InP electro-absorption modulator (EAM) both fabricated through foundry platforms. The driver is fabricated in a 0.25 μm SiGe:C BiCMOS technology and delivers a maximum of 2 Vp-p amplitude when single-ended. The driver is DC-coupled to the modulator, simplifying the electronic-photonic assembly. The EAM operates in the L-band at 1590 nm, with a DC bias set at –1.6 V for on-off keying non-return to zero modulation. We measure the operation from 10 to 40 Gb/s, recording the dynamic extinction ratio from 5 to 3 dB, respectively. The use of foundry platforms does not require any fabrication process change and offers a wide spectrum of high-performance photonic-electronic integrated circuits.

We report high speed electro-absorption modulators (EAMs), designed, fabricated and characterized within an open access generic foundry process. The EAM as a new building block (BB) is optimized in the existing platform, in which other BBs are established. By optimizing the EAM design layout, we show a static extinction ratio (static ER) of 18 dB, a low DC bias voltage below 1 V at increased temperature, as well as operation in a semi-cooled environment, tested in the range of 20−60∘C . Furthermore, we improve the intrinsic S-parameter response with a co-design circuit. The intrinsic 3-dB bandwidth of a 100 μm-long EAM is 17 GHz. When measured with the EAM submount design, it is increased to 24 GHz. Simultaneously, the return loss bandwidth is improved by a factor of 2.5 staying below -10 dB up to 20 GHz. Through the realization of the EAM submount design we achieve a three time speed increase of the existing platform, from previously offered 9 GHz (using an electro-optical modulator) to 24 GHz shown in this work.