Quantum-on-a-PIC

The PolyBoard platform  enables the the hybrid integration of active and passive optical functionalities into complex photonic integrated circuits. Building blocks include tunable lasers at VIS and NIR wavelengths, thin film filters for polarization and wavelength handling, and isolators/circulators. Integration of nonlinear materials enables quantum applications like photon pair generation and SPDC.

A portable PIC evaluation setup for fast and convenient prototype development

PIConnect , Fraunhofer HHI’s plug and play 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.

Terahertz systems for sensing and wireless communications

We present the newest generation of fiber-coupled terahertz modules  for application in spectroscopy and non-destructive testing as well as 6G communications.

Our newly developed semiconductor layers make it possible to raise the terahertz output power to 970 µW and thus increase the dynamic range. This can lead, for example, to a significant improvement in the reliability of thickness determination of very thin layers.

With 6G wireless communications another new and rapidly growing field of application emerges. Using optoelectronic conversion, our terahertz modules allow complex optical modulation formats (e.g. quadrature amplitude modulation) to be transferred to wireless communication channels at carrier frequencies from 100 GHz to >500 GHz. This was used to demonstrate a data rate of up to 160 Gbit/s in the 300 GHz band.

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.

Applications: Lidar sensing, beam steering & combining

We present a 2-dimensional optical phased array (OPA) realized with a 3-dimensional PolyBoard chip. Beam steering was demonstrated with an initial 2x4 array. Without any front lens, the maximum steering angle is about 10°. This technology can scale up to 32x256 arrays. The OPA module is coupled to a standard single-mode fiber and a ribbon cable for beam control.

A versatile measurement device for digitizing events in time domain with a resolution down to 0.1 nanoseconds.

Fraunhofer HHI’s Timetagger is a versatile measurement device with multiple input channels allowing digitizing the time of events with a resolution of 100 ps. Switching threshold and hysteresis could be set for any input channel. The digitized events could be read by a network interface.

3D shape sensing using ultra-thin glass for e.g. flexible X-ray detectors

Based on optically integrated structures, a sensor in ultra-thin glass is presented which reports the 3D shape reliably and reproducibly. When mounting the sensor on a surface, no extra calibration is necessary.