Silicon photonic modulator hits 200 Gb/s PAM4 with reduced DSP load

Researchers from Institute of Science Tokyo, Yokohama National University, AIST and PETRA published a paper on a slow-light silicon photonic crystal modulator with a built-in electro-optic equalizer. The device reaches 200 Gb/s per wavelength in PAM4 at low voltage with reduced DSP demands, targeting optical interconnects for AI data centers.

• Slow-light photonic crystal waveguide modulator overcomes bandwidth-efficiency trade-off
• Reaches 200 Gb/s per wavelength in PAM4 format
• Built-in electro-optic equalizer cuts DSP requirements
• Paper published in Nature Communications (2026)