PolyBoard – InP Integration for THz communication

Fraunhofer HHI’s hybrid integration technology PolyBoard  combines polymer based PICs with InP and enables complex photonic integrated circuits such as an all-waveguide integrated THz receiver PIC for wireless communication and a self-calibrated laser source for Telecom/Datacom, sensing and spectroscopy. The THz receiver PIC includes tunable lasers, a modulator, and an isolator to achieve on-chip injection locking and feeds the THz signal into the waveguide integrated photoconductive antenna. The self-calibrated laser source utilizes the PolyBoard  micro-optical bench  which allows the precise wavelength read out through thin film filters, etalons and photodiodes. Both complex PICs are funded  through EU projects TERAWAY and TERAmeasure accordingly.

A portable PIC evaluation setup for fast and convenient prototype development

PIConnect , Fraunhofer HHI’s new PIC evaluation setup, integrates 4 laser drivers, 1 TEC, and 8 current and 8 voltage sources. The PIC is mounted and connected on the integrated PIConnect submount .The system enables parallel operation of multiple building blocks and replaces 21 discrete controllers. Scaling by combining multiple PIConnects is possible.

High-data rate wireless links at (sub-)THz carrier frequencies

Based on its mature InP technology, Fraunhofer HHI develops photonic components and systems for high-data rate wireless terahertz communications . These components allow for seamless integration into state-of-the-art fiber-based communication systems. Thus, complex modulation formats, such as 32QAM, 64QAM and QPSK, can be used. In a recent publication, we showed up to 160 Gbit/s at 300 GHz carrier frequency using 32QAM (Nellen et al., JLT 40(13), 2022).

Broadband spectral coverage from 100 GHz to 4.5 THz

The photonic terahertz components and systems  developed by Fraunhofer HHI are well suited for test and measurement applications for 6G and beyond. In contrast to electronic mixer circuits, with a single system the photonic approach allows for broadband access to frequencies between 100 GHz and 4.5 THz. Since the specific frequency bands of future wireless communication channels are still a topic of debate, our approach helps to reduce this uncertainty by providing access to a broad spectral range.

Components for 1Tb/s Transmission and Microwave Photonics

Fraunhofer HHI provides single and balanced photodetector modules  with a bandwidth up to 145 GHz operating from the O- to the L-band. The intended application for the modules is test and measurement. For microwave photonics dedicated high-power photodetector modules are available.

C- & O-Band High-Speed Modulator

InP Mach-Zehnder modulator  with high bandwidth for C- & O-band applications. The intended applications for the modules are test and measurement for 100 GBaud communication and microwave photonics.

Machine Learning as a Service for Optical Network Automation

We demonstrate the benefits of a Federated Learning framework for collaborative training of ML-assisted solutions for multi-domain multi-vendor ecosystems. The demonstration showcases the recent addition of the framework, Secure Aggregation based on Secure Multi Party Computation, which protect the privacy of the parties contributing to the global ML model. The live demonstration will be carried out on a Kubernetes cluster using Fraunhofer HHI’s Distributed Learning Framework (DLFi ) software solution.

Optical Network Health Monitoring

The Visual Analytics Dashboard  provides a unique set of network data visualizations to help vendors and operators collect insights about the network operation. It targets several use-cases of relevance to network automation; including network health monitoring, visualized light path provisioning, dataset quality evaluation, and ML model error interpretation.

Coherent optical transport at highest speeds and widest bandwidths

To cope with the continuously growing demand for bandwidth in telecom and datacom, Fraunhofer HHI researchers developed a Coherent Receiver Frontend  (CRF), offering 100 GHz optical bandwidth detection with polarization- and phase-diversity over C+L-band. Its unique features are customizable optical extender heads with robust 1mm RF ruggedized connectors for high signal integrity, robust testing & measurement performance and convenient handling & operation for our customers.