Ultra Low-Power Broadband Voltage-mode VCSEL Transmit System - VOLTA

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Friedel Gerfers
• Subject Area: Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 521607727

This research proposal addresses the field of Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting LASER (VCSEL) based optical transmitter systems. VCSEL diodes reach optimum performance per cost metrics because they offer adequate signal bandwidth at low bias current conditions (low power consumption) at very low unit prices. VCSEL driver development, however, has been stagnant with the state-of-the-art speed not improving since 2014 and high data rate (above 50 Gbit/s) transmitter systems not reaching competitive power efficiencies of below 1 pJ/bit error free (i. e. BER<1e-12). This project aims to increase the overall system energy-efficiency by 2-4x compared to the state-of-the-art by re-architecting the transmitter architecture to match the VCSEL conditions such as impedance for leading-edge power efficiency enhancing at the same time the electro-optical system bandwidth while keeping the bit-error rate below BER<1e-12. This is achieved by introducing the first true voltage-mode transmitter topology used in conjunction with a passive equalisation scheme (eliminating the commonly used current-source topology).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants