Drift correction of polymer based Mach-Zehnder modulators

The maturing of electrooptic polymer based Mach-Zehnder intensity modulators qualifies them as serious contenders for telecom applications. Their manufacturing is now at the quality control level and several outstanding demonstrations of their capacities have been reported (high modulation up to 110GHz [1], quenching voltages lower than 2V [2], polarization insensitivity [3] and long term stability [4]). Nevertheless, a slow drift of their characteristics has been observed. In order to solve this problem, we report an electronic system that is able to follow the evolutions of the modulator characteristics so as to correct the slow variations of the operating point. This approach will further enhance the reliability of this type of devices.