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Energy harvesting optical modulators with sub-attojoule per bit electrical energy consumption

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  • M. de Cea

    (Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • A. H. Atabaki

    (Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • R. J. Ram

    (Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Abstract

The light input to a semiconductor optical modulator can constitute an electrical energy supply through the photovoltaic effect, which is unexploited in conventional modulators. In this work, we leverage this effect to demonstrate a silicon modulator with sub-aJ/bit electrical energy consumption at sub-GHz speeds, relevant for massively parallel input/output systems such as neural interfaces. We use the parasitic photovoltaic current to self-charge the modulator and a single transistor to modulate the stored charge. This way, the electrical driver only needs to charge the nano-scale gate of the transistor, with attojoule-scale energy dissipation. We implement this ‘photovoltaic modulator’ in a monolithic CMOS platform. This work demonstrates how close integration and co-design of electronics and photonics offers a path to optical switching with as few as 500 injected electrons and electrical energy consumption as low as 20 zJ/bit, achieved only by recovering the absorbed optical energy that is wasted in conventional modulation.

Suggested Citation

  • M. de Cea & A. H. Atabaki & R. J. Ram, 2021. "Energy harvesting optical modulators with sub-attojoule per bit electrical energy consumption," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-22460-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22460-1
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