HyperLight Enables Multiple Record-breaking Demonstrations with its Ultrahigh Bandwidth Thin-film Lithium Niobate Photonic Integrated Circuits

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HyperLight, a leader in the commercialization of thin-film lithium niobate photonic integrated circuits for datacom, telecom, analog, and quantum applications, announced today that it has successfully demonstrated, together with its partners, a new record-breaking high-speed data transmission using its ultrahigh bandwidth, linear, and low noise thin-film lithium niobate Mach Zehnder (MZM) modulator.

The details of these demonstrations were presented at the ECOC 2021 post-deadline sessions concluded last week. The research paper contributions were meticulously peer selected by experts in the field of optical communications to present the latest breakthrough results from labs around the world.

• Faster-Than-Nyquist Signaling up to 300-GBd PAM-4 and 570-GBd OOK Suitable for Co-Packaged Optics
  
  Pluggable optical modules with standard optical and electrical interfaces remain the most widely deployed data center optics because of their remarkable plug and play functionality, demonstrated interoperability, and established supply chain. As demand for bandwidth continues to increase, both ethernet switches and optical modules need to keep pace in terms of bandwidth density, power consumption, and cost efficiency. This gives rise to the development of co-packaged optics which moves the optics closer to the switching ASIC to remove the long electrical path and achieve silicon co-integration. In many cases, a simple binary encoding is desired. To transfer the binary data at high speed without using complex DSP for the transmitter, a high-speed, linear, and low noise modulator is needed.
  
  In this post-deadline paper, using a HyperLight photonic chip, Nokia Bell Labs demonstrated a low complexity faster than Nyquist scheme without transmitter pre-processing achieving a record symbol rate of 300 GBd for PAM-4 and 570 GBd for OOK using a 100-GHz digital-band interleaved digital-to-analog converter together with HyperLight’s low voltage, linear, and low noise, 100-GHz thin-film LiNbO3 Mach Zehnder modulator (MZM). The pre-processing-free faster than Nyquist technique could be crucial for future co-packaged optics to drive the optics directly by the SerDes output without the power-hungry digital signal regeneration.
  
  The authors of the paper include Di Che and Xi Chen from Nokia Bell Labs.

• 320 GHz Analog-to-Digital Converter Exploiting Kerr Soliton Combs and Photonic-Electronic Spectral Stitching
  
  A key component in facilitating the conversion of the analog electrical waveform to an optical signal is a high-speed, low power modulator. HyperLight, together with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), demonstrated the first ultra-broadband Analog-to-Digital converter with a record-high acquisition bandwidth of 320 GHz. This is a significant milestone achieved using HyperLight's high bandwidth thin-film lithium niobate modulator which allowed the imprinting of radio frequency signal on an optical carrier and enabled the direct modulation of data at a record high carrier frequency of 300 GHz.
  
  The paper authors include HyperLight CEO and Co-founder, Dr. Mian Zhang, Head of Devices, Dr. Prashanta Kharel, D. Fang, D. Drayss, G. Lihachev, P. Marin-Palomo, H. Peng, C. Füllner, A. Kuzmin, J. Liu, R. Wang, V. Snigirev, A. Lukashchuk, J. Witzens, C. Scheytt, W. Freude, S. Randel, T. J. Kippenberg, and C. Koos.

Making smaller, faster, and power efficient components has been the focus of recent technical research and group studies and product development. HyperLight’s mission is to enable unprecedented system level performance for its customers through pushing the performance boundaries and cost-effectiveness of integrated photonics using its thin-film lithium niobate platform..

To learn more about HyperLight’s technology, visit www.hyperlightcorp.com, or email us at [e-mail]

About HyperLight

HyperLight designs and produces photonic integrated circuits (PICs) with ultrahigh electro-optic performance to provide solutions for next generation optical communication and signal processing applications. The company’s ultrahigh speed, low power, and integrated thin-film lithium niobate electro-optic solutions enable customers to achieve unprecedented system level performances in their applications.

For more information, visit www.hyperlightcorp.com.