A 3.584 Tbps coherent receiver chip on InP-LiNbO3 wafer-level integration platform

The rapid advancement of the thin-film lithium niobate (LiNbO<sub>3</sub>) platform has established it as a premier choice for high-performance photonics integrated circuits. However, the scalability and cost-efficiency of this platform are hindered by the reliance on chip-level fabrication and integration for passive and active components, necessitating a robust wafer-level LiNbO<sub>3</sub> heterogeneous integration platform. Despite its critical role in enabling ultrahigh-speed optical interconnects, as well as optical mmWave/THz sensing and communication, the realization of ultrahigh-speed photodiodes and optical coherent receivers on the LiNbO₃ platform remains an unresolved challenge. This is primarily due to the challenges associated with the large-scale integration of direct-bandgap materials. To address these challenges, we have developed a scalable, high-speed InP-LiNbO₃ wafer-level heterogeneous integration platform. This platform facilitates the fabrication of ultrahigh-speed photodiodes with a bandwidth of 140 GHz, capable of receiving high-quality 100-Gbaud pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) signals. Moreover, we demonstrate a seven-channel, single-polarization I-Q coherent receiver chip with an aggregate receiving capacity of 3.584 Tbit s<sup>-1</sup>. This coherent receiver exhibits a balanced detection bandwidth of 60 GHz and a common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) exceeding 20 dB. It achieves receiving capacities of 600 Gbit s<sup>-1</sup> λ<sup>-1</sup> with a 100-Gbaud 64-QAM signal and 512 Gbit s<sup>-1</sup> λ<sup>-1</sup> with a 128-Gbaud 16-QAM signal. Furthermore, energy consumption as low as 9.6 fJ bit<sup>-1</sup> and 13.5 fJ bit<sup>-1</sup> is achieved for 200 Gbit s<sup>-1</sup> and 400 Gbit s<sup>-1</sup> capacities, respectively. Our work provides a viable pathway toward enabling Pbps hyperscale data center interconnects, as well as optical mmWave/THz sensing and communication.

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Publication Details

Journal
Light Science & Applications
Published
2025-04-25
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-025-01821-1
Citations
12
Primary Topic
Photonic and Optical Devices
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
8.77

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article

A 3.584 Tbps coherent receiver chip on InP-LiNbO3 wafer-level integration platform

Yake Chen, Chenghao Wang, Xihua Zou, Jihui Sun et al.
12 citations
Light Science & Applications
Photonic and Optical Devices
8.77
article

A 3.584 Tbps coherent receiver chip on InP-LiNbO3 wafer-level integration platform

Yake Chen, Chenghao Wang, Xihua Zou, Jihui Sun, Xiaojun Xie, Xingchen He, Chao Wei, Lianshan Yan, Wei Pan, Lin Jiang, Jia Ye
article en
12 citations

Abstract

The rapid advancement of the thin-film lithium niobate (LiNbO<sub>3</sub>) platform has established it as a premier choice for high-performance photonics integrated circuits. However, the scalability and cost-efficiency of this platform are hindered by the reliance on chip-level fabrication and integration for passive and active components, necessitating a robust wafer-level LiNbO<sub>3</sub> heterogeneous integration platform. Despite its critical role in enabling ultrahigh-speed optical interconnects, as well as optical mmWave/THz sensing and communication, the realization of ultrahigh-speed photodiodes and optical coherent receivers on the LiNbO₃ platform remains an unresolved challenge. This is primarily due to the challenges associated with the large-scale integration of direct-bandgap materials. To address these challenges, we have developed a scalable, high-speed InP-LiNbO₃ wafer-level heterogeneous integration platform. This platform facilitates the fabrication of ultrahigh-speed photodiodes with a bandwidth of 140 GHz, capable of receiving high-quality 100-Gbaud pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) signals. Moreover, we demonstrate a seven-channel, single-polarization I-Q coherent receiver chip with an aggregate receiving capacity of 3.584 Tbit s<sup>-1</sup>. This coherent receiver exhibits a balanced detection bandwidth of 60 GHz and a common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) exceeding 20 dB. It achieves receiving capacities of 600 Gbit s<sup>-1</sup> λ<sup>-1</sup> with a 100-Gbaud 64-QAM signal and 512 Gbit s<sup>-1</sup> λ<sup>-1</sup> with a 128-Gbaud 16-QAM signal. Furthermore, energy consumption as low as 9.6 fJ bit<sup>-1</sup> and 13.5 fJ bit<sup>-1</sup> is achieved for 200 Gbit s<sup>-1</sup> and 400 Gbit s<sup>-1</sup> capacities, respectively. Our work provides a viable pathway toward enabling Pbps hyperscale data center interconnects, as well as optical mmWave/THz sensing and communication.

Light Science & ApplicationsVol. 14(1)
Southwest Jiaotong University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, University of Science and Technology of China, National Key Research and Development Program of China
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
Photonic and Optical Devices
8.77
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