Le développement permanent des applications informatiques telles que le stockage de masse, le calcul intensif et les communications large bande, encourage l’émergence de nouvelles technologies de communication. D’une part, les communications à travers des interconnexions métalliques approchent de leurs limites intrinsèques en termes d’énergie, surface et coût par bit. D’autre part, la photonique hybride conventionnelle, basée sur des assemblages 2D/3D de composants photoniques en technologies III-V, ne peut pas être complètement intégrée. Le développement de nouvelle architecture photonique sur silicium est une bonne alternative afin de proposer des systèmes intégrés de communication haut débit. La conception d’un modulateur électro-optique à très haut débit sur silicium fait l’objet de cette thèse. Dans un premier temps, un état de l’art des différents systèmes optiques est dressé, afin d’identifier les principaux verrous technologiques limitant leurs performances. Suite à l’analyse des différents types de modulateur optique implémentés sur silicium, une proposition d’architecture a été faite pour un modulateur Mach Zehnder 100 Gbits/s. Ce premier circuit a été développé avec la technologie PIC25G du fondeur STMicroelectronics. Le driver de ce modulateur a, quant à lui, été conçu avec la technologie 55 nm SiGe BiCMOS de ce même fondeur. Le démonstrateur proposé dans ces travaux offre un débit de 100 Gbits/s avec une modulation NRZ sur une unique voie optique. Pour cette configuration, ce prototype offre un débit binaire au-delà de l’état de l’art (pour une unique voie de transmission optique) avec une énergie par bit de 80 pJ/bit. / The sustained development of software applications including mass storage, intensive computing and broadband communication, motivates the emergence of novel communication technologies. On one hand, communications through metallic interconnections approach their inherent limitations in term of energy, area and cost per bit. On the other hand, conventional hybrid photonics, based on discrete 2D/3D photonic assemblies of III-V photonic devices, cannot be integrated. The rising silicon photonic technology, thanks to its high level of integration, overcomes the shortcomings of the two previous approaches and promises a low cost solution allowing close proximity integration of photonics with electronics.The design of a very high data rate electro-optic modulator on silicon is reported in this thesis manuscript. In a first section, the state of the art of optic systems is presented with a focus on the main technological challenges limiting performances. Then, a silicon based topology is introduced to achieve a 100 Gbs Mach Zehnder modulator. It was implemented with the STMicroelectronics PIC25G technology. The driver of this modulator was designed with the 55 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology of the same founder. The demonstrator introduced in this work offer a 100 Gbs data rate with an NRZ modulation on a single optical channel. For this configuration, this prototype provides a data rate beyond the state of the art (for a single optical transmission path) with an energy per bit of 80 pJ/bit.

Optimizing a modulator driver for linear and high-speed operation, while simultaneously achieving a high output voltage swing is very challenging. This paper investigates the design of a highlylinear, high-bandwidth yet power-efficient Mach-Zehnder modulator driver based on the breakdown voltage doubler concept, which overcomes the transistors' physical limitations and enables output voltage swings twice as high as conventional differential pair amplifiers can provide. The low-power design was enabled by the use of an open-collector topology for the output stage as well as by employing resistors instead of current mirrors in order to provide the bias currents for the emitter-follower (EF) stages. We show that by means of this EF implementation approach, the power consumption can be reduced by 19% without sacrificing the circuit's bandwidth and linearity. The driver achieves peak-to-peak differential output voltage swings above 6.5 Vpp,d and consumes 670mWof DC power, being one of the most power-efficient drivers in the literature. The 3-dB bandwidth is 61.2 GHz and the total harmonic distortion is 1%, measured at 1 GHz and for the output swing of 6.5 Vpp,d. To the best of the authors' knowledge, these are the highest linearity and output voltage swing reported in the literature for modulator drivers with bandwidths above 40 GHz.