Electronic to Photonic Single Event Transient Propagation in a Segmented Mach Zehnder Modulator in a Si/SiGe Integrated Photonics Platform
The propagation of single event transients from the electrical to the photonic domain in a segmented Mach Zehnder modulator was investigated using pulsed laser measurements and lumerical simulations. Although electrical transients can heavily degrade the input data to the modulator, almost all of the degradation can be suppressed once it is converted into the optical domain. The mitigation of transients is primarily accomplished by increasing <inline formula> <tex math notation="LaTeX"$V_\pi /tex math>/inline formula> of each segment, making electrical transients up to 6 V essentially negligible. A "folding" effect of the optical transient is also explained in relation to <inline formula> <tex math notation="LaTeX"$V_\pi /tex math>/inline formula> Two radiation hardening by design (RHBD) approaches are suggested to mitigate transient effects.
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science