Title: Silicon Micro-ring Modulators for Large-scale Optical Interconnections

　　Speaker:Dr. Qianfan Xu (Rice University, USA)

　　Time: 15:00, Aug. 30, 2010

　　Venue: Academic Salon, Institute of Semiconductors, CAS

　　Abstract: Recent progresses in the field of silicon photonics have enabled large-scale and monolithic optoelectronic integration on chip. One major application of this technology is optical interconnections, which will have profound impact as the performance of computers is increasingly limited by the bandwidth and power consumption of the interconnection systems. A compact, low-power, high-speed and CMOS-compatible electrooptic modulator is the key component for an optical interconnection system. In this talk, I will show a micron-size electrooptic modulator based on the free-carrier dispersion effect in silicon micro-ring resonator with a modulation speed over 10 Gbit/s. I will present a new modulator design based on coupled-ring resonators. I will also present a coupler design that can efficiently couple light between a sub-micron-wide silicon waveguide on chip and a multi-micron-wide polymer waveguide on board.

　　About speaker：

　　Dr. Qianfan Xu is an assistant professor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University. His research interest is in the area of silicon nanophotonics and optoelectronics. Before joining Rice in 2008, he was a research associate at Hewlett-Packard Labs. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University in 2007 and his B. Eng. and M. Eng. degrees in Electronic Engineering from Tsinghua University in 1999 and 2002. Dr. Xu has published over 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals, which includes Nature, Nature Physics, Nature Photonics, and Phys. Rev. Lett. His papers have total citations of over 1800.