Modeling and experimental characterization of a compact Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator on the SOI

The Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator (MZM) plays a crucial role in photonics integration technology during signal transmission. We propose the design and fabrication of a silicon-based electro-optic modulator based on the M-Z structure and design a modulator using silicon as the waveguide core layer on a silicon dioxide substrate. The detailed design involves a 1 x 2 splitter, branch waveguides, modulating arm waveguides, and a 2 x 1 combiner. The MZM fabrication and characterization results reveal that the half-wave voltage of the silicon-based MZM is 2 V, with an optical loss of -2.464 dB and a device core size of 450 mu m x 2800 mu m. The experimental results indicate that the MZM with a low half-wave voltage, a low loss, and high integration has significant value. The proposed MZM exhibits considerable improvements, featuring a low half-wave voltage and a low loss, and this device may serve as a fundamental component in wearable large-scale photonic integrated circuits for weak ECG real-time detection. (c) 2024 Optica Publishing Group. All rights, including for text and data mining (TDM), Artificial Intelligence (AI) training, and similar technologies, are reserved.