1.12 Tb/s superchannel coherent PM-QPSK InP transmitter photonic integrated circuit (PIC)

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Optical Communications
• Integrated Photonics
• Semiconductor Devices

Background:

• Increasing demand for data transmission capacity requires advanced optical communication technologies.
• Monolithically integrated photonic integrated circuits (PICs) offer a path towards higher bandwidth and smaller form factors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a high-capacity, polarization-multiplexed, coherent QPSK transmitter PIC.
• To assess the feasibility of achieving multi-terabit-per-second data rates on a single chip.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a 10-wavelength, polarization-multiplexed transmitter using indium phosphide (InP) technology.
• Coherent Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulation for efficient data encoding.
• Testing the device at 112 Gb/sec per wavelength.

Main Results:

• Successful operation of the InP coherent QPSK transmitter PIC.
• Achieved 112 Gb/sec per wavelength, totaling 1.12 Tb/s superchannel bandwidth.
• Demonstrated the scalability of the technology for future high-capacity applications.

Conclusions:

• The demonstrated PIC represents a significant step towards multi-terabit-per-second optical communication systems.
• Indium phosphide (InP) monolithic integration is a viable platform for next-generation high-capacity transmitters.
• Future work can focus on further increasing wavelength count and data rates per wavelength.