Moller de Freitas Marco, Zhu Xiaofeng, Ullah Md Saheed, Shi Shouyuan, Yao Peng, Schneider Garrett, Prather Dennis W
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Delaware, 140 Evans Hall, Newark, DE, USA.
Phase Sensitive Innovations, Inc., 116 Sandy Drive, Newark, DE, USA.
Commun Eng. 2025 Mar 22;4(1):55. doi: 10.1038/s44172-025-00393-7.
As the demand for data capacity in wireless networks and mobile communications continues to grow, they are moving toward higher carrier frequencies and wider modulation bandwidths. Unfortunately, electronic device performance degrades in association with increased frequency and modulation bandwidths, which inhibits the application of conventional microwave architectures, particularly in the millimeter wave and terahertz regimes. Alternatively, microwave photonic systems address these challenges by offering device and system performance with exceptionally higher operational bandwidths. The challenge, however, is the ability to monolithically integrate both electronic and photonic devices into functional components that provide ultra-wideband performance up into the millimeter wave and terahertz regions. In particular, such integration remains a major technical challenge due to the high dielectric permittivity of commonly used material platforms for photonic integrated circuits, such as silicon, indium phosphide, and lithium niobate. In this paper, we present a photonic receiver consisting of a broadband antenna and a low-drive-voltage modulator monolithically integrated on thin-film lithium niobate with a quartz handle. A free-space data link is demonstrated, achieving data rates up to 2.7 Gbps using quadrature amplitude modulation, with error vector magnitude as low as 3%. This work demonstrates the potential of thin-film lithium niobate for high-frequency, monolithically integrated radiofrequency and photonic devices to enable ultra-wideband millimeter wave-to-terahertz communication systems.
随着无线网络和移动通信中对数据容量的需求持续增长，它们正朝着更高的载波频率和更宽的调制带宽发展。不幸的是，电子设备的性能会随着频率和调制带宽的增加而下降，这限制了传统微波架构的应用，尤其是在毫米波和太赫兹频段。相比之下，微波光子系统通过提供具有极高工作带宽的设备和系统性能来应对这些挑战。然而，挑战在于能否将电子和光子器件单片集成到能够在毫米波和太赫兹频段提供超宽带性能的功能组件中。特别是，由于光子集成电路常用材料平台（如硅、磷化铟和铌酸锂）的高介电常数，这种集成仍然是一项重大技术挑战。在本文中，我们展示了一种光子接收器，它由一个宽带天线和一个低驱动电压调制器单片集成在带有石英衬底的薄膜铌酸锂上。演示了一个自由空间数据链路，使用正交幅度调制实现了高达2.7 Gbps的数据速率，误差矢量幅度低至3%。这项工作展示了薄膜铌酸锂在高频、单片集成射频和光子器件以实现超宽带毫米波到太赫兹通信系统方面的潜力。
