title: PAM-4 Signaling over VCSELs with 0.13microm CMOS Chip Technology.
abstract: We present results for VCSEL based links operating PAM-4 signaling using a commercial 0.13microm CMOS technology. We perform a complete link analysis of the Bit Error Rate, Q factor, random and deterministic jitter by measuring waterfall curves versus margins in time and amplitude. We demonstrate that VCSEL based PAM-4 can match or even improve performance over binary signaling under conditions of a bandwidth limited, 100meter multi-mode optical link at 5Gbps. We present the first sensitivity measurements for optical PAM-4 and compare it with binary signaling. Measured benefits are reconciled with information theory predictions.
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Cunningham
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Beckman
authors.forename: Xuezhe
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Dawei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sze
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Krishnamoorthy