Development of Data Center based computing technology require energy efficient high-speed transmission links. This leads to optical amplification-free intensity modulation and direct detection (IM/DD) systems with low complexity equalization compliant with IEEE standardized electrical interfaces. Switching from on-off keying to multi-level pulse amplitude modulation would allow to reduce lane count for next generation Ethernet interfaces. We characterize 106.25 Gbaud on-off keying, 4-level and 6-level pulse amplitude modulation links using two integrated transmitters: O-band directly modulated laser and C-band externally modulated laser. Simple feed forward or decision feedback equalizer is used. We demonstrate 106.25 Gbaud on-off keying links operating without forward error correction for both transmitters. We also show 106.25 Gbaud 4-level and 6-level pulse amplitude modulation links with performance below 6.25% overhead hard-decision forward error threshold of 4.5 × 10^-3. Furthermore, for EML-based transmitter we achieve 106.25 Gbaud 4-level pulse amplitude modulation performance below KP-FEC threshold of 2.2 × 10^-4. That shows that we can use optics to support (2x)100 Gbps Ethernet on single lambda at expense of simple forward error correction.

We experimentally demonstrate and compare EML- and DML-based optical interconnects with 106.25 Gbaud NRZ-OOK and PAM4 for computing applications. The results show that both transmitters can be used to enable optical -amplification-free transmissions with low-complexity DSP.

The booming internet traffic sets highly challenging requirements for high-speed computing where low latency is required. This leads to a choice of intensity modulation and direct detection system with the highest baudrate possible. Furthermore, record baudrate supporting modulators will be the key technology for future optical interconnect applications. Therefore, we demonstrated silicon photonics and indium phosphide modulators at highest possible sysmbolrate.

We demonstrate a record 310/256 Gbaud 00K, 197/145 Gbaud PAM4, and 160/116 Gbaud PAM6 EML/DML-based IM/DD links without any optical amplification with performance below the 6.25% overhead HD-FEC threshold after 100 -m/6 -km SMF, respectively.

We demonstrate a record 310/256 Gbaud OOK, 197/145 Gbaud PAM4, and 160/116 Gbaud PAM6 EML/DML-based IM/DD links without any optical amplification with performance below the 6.25% overhead HD-FEC threshold after 100-m/6-km SMF, respectively.

The enormous traffic growth sets a stringent requirement to upgrade short-reach optical links to 1.6 TbE capacity in an economically viable way. The power consumption and latency in these links should be as low as possible, especially for high-speed computing. This is possible to achieve using high baudrate on-off keying links thanks to a better noise tolerance and a relaxed requirement on linearity for electronics and photonics. In this regard, we demonstrate a 200 Gbaud on-off keying link without any optical amplification using an externally modulated laser with 3.3 dBm of modulated output power operating at 1541.25 nm wavelength. We achieve transmission over 200 meters of single-mode fiber with performance below 6.25% overhead hard-decision forward error correction threshold for each baudrate and all selection of modulation formats. We also show 108 Gbaud on-off keying link with superior performance without decision feedback equalizer up to 400 meters of single-mode fiber. In addition, we benchmark the short-reach optical link with 112 Gbaud four-level pulse amplitude modulation and 100 Gbaud six-level pulse amplitude modulation. For 108 Gbaud on-off keying and 112 Gbaud four-level pulse amplitude modulation, we can achieve an even lower bit error rate. 

We demonstrate an error-free 108 Gbps OOK link using a C-band externally modulated laser with 3.3 dBm of modulated output power and an O-band directly modulated laser with 7.3 dBm of modulated output power. This paves the way forward for high-speed optical interconnects without FEC.

We demonstrate a 200 Gbps IM/DD link without any optical amplification using C-band externally modulated laser with 3.3 dBm of modulated output power and O-band directly modulated laser with 7.3 dBm of modulated output power.

Client-side optics are facing an ever-increasing upgrading pace, driven by upcoming 5G related services and datacenter applications. The demand for a single lane data rate is soon approaching 200 Gbps. To meet such high-speed requirement, all segments of traditional intensity modulation direct detection (IM & x002F;DD) technologies are being challenged. The characteristics of electrical and optoelectronic components and the performance of modulation, coding, and digital signal processing (DSP) techniques are being stretched to their limits. In this context, we witnessed technological breakthroughs in several aspects, including development of broadband devices, novel modulation formats and coding, and high-performance DSP algorithms for the past few years. A great momentum has been accumulated to overcome the aforementioned challenges. In this article, we focus on IM & x002F;DD transmissions, and provide an overview of recent research and development efforts on key enabling technologies for 200 Gbps per lane and beyond. Our recent demonstrations of 200 Gbps short-reach transmissions with 4-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) and discrete multitone signals are also presented as examples to show the system requirements in terms of device characteristics and DSP performance. Apart from digital coherent technologies and advanced direct detection systems, such as Stokes-vector and Kramers-Kronig schemes, we expect high-speed IM & x002F;DD systems will remain advantageous in terms of system cost, power consumption, and footprint for short reach applications in the short- to mid- term perspective.