Realization of a Compact Optical Interconnect on Silicon by Heterogeneous Integration of III–V

We present a compact optical interconnect on a silicon-on-insulator platform consisting of a directly modulated microdisk laser and detector connected via a silicon waveguide. A single III-V epitaxial structure that contains layers for both the laser and detector ensures that dense integration becomes possible. All fabrication steps for the laser and detector, except for the detector mesa, are carried out simultaneously. The microdisk laser has a threshold current of 0.45 mA and a slope efficiency of 57 μW/mA. The responsivity of the detectors is 0.69 A/W. The full optical link has a static efficiency of 3% and a bandwidth of 7.6 GHz. A large signal modulation is applied and a 10 Gb/s bit pattern could be resolved.