Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Recent advancements in hybrid photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for wireless communications are reviewed, with a focus on innovations developed at Fraunhofer HHI. This work leverages hybrid integration technology, which combines indium phosphide (InP) active elements, silicon nitride (Si3N4) low-loss waveguides, and high-efficient thermal-optical tunable polymers with micro-optical functions to achieve fully integrated wireless transceivers. Key contributions include (1) On-chip optical injection locking for generating phase-locked optical beat notes at 45 GHz, enabled by cascaded InP phase modulators and hybrid InP/polymer tunable lasers with a 3.8 GHz locking range. (2) Waveguide-integrated THz emitters and receivers, featuring photoconductive antennas (PCAs) with a 22× improved photoresponse compared to top-illuminated designs, alongside scalable 1 × 4 PIN-PD and PCA arrays for enhanced power and directivity. (3) Beam steering at 300 GHz using a polymer-based optical phased array (OPA) integrated with an InP antenna array, achieving continuous steering across 20° and a 10.6 dB increase in output power. (4) Demonstration of fully integrated hybrid wireless transceiver PICs combining InP, Si3N4, and polymer material platforms, validated through key component characterization, on-chip optical frequency comb generation, and coherent beat note generation at 45 GHz. These advancements result in compact form factors, reduced power consumption, and enhanced scalability, positioning PICs as an enabling technology for future high-speed wireless networks.
Source: Photonics
Authors: Tianwen Qian, Ben Schuler, Y Durvasa Gupta, Milan Deumer, Efstathios Andrianopoulos, Nikolaos K Lyras, Martin Kresse, Madeleine Weigel, Jakob Reck, Klara Mihov, Philipp Winklhofer, Csongor Keuer, Laurids von Emden, Marcel Amberg, Crispin Zawadzki, Moritz Kleinert, Simon Nellen, Davide de Felipe, Hercules Avramopoulos, Robert B. Kohlhaas, Norbert Keil, Martin Schell
Language: English
Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,896
Awards: TERAhertz integrated systems enabling 6G Terabit-per-second ultra-massive MIMO wireless networks, G2031929786, Low-coSt and energy-efficient hybrid Photonic integrated circuits for fibeR-optic, free-space optIcal and mmWave commuNication systems supporting Time critical networking in industrial EnviRonments, G434337789, Terahertz technology for ultra-broadband and ultra-wideband operation of backhaul and fronthaul links in systems with SDN management of network and radio resources
OpenAlex ID: W4409410303