A chip-integrated comb-based microwave oscillator

Wei Sun; Zhiyang Chen; Linze Li; Chen Shen; Kunpeng Yu; Shichang Li; Jinbao Long; Huamin Zheng; Luyu Wang; Tianyu Long; Qiushi Chen; Zhouze Zhang; Baoqi Shi; Lan Gao; Yi-Han Luo; Baile Chen; Junqiu Liu

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-01795-0

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A chip-integrated comb-based microwave oscillator

Original Articles

- A chip-integrated comb-based microwave oscillator
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 14, Issue 7, Pages: 1870-1881(2025)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.International Quantum Academy, Shenzhen 518048, China
  2.School of Information Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China
  3.Qaleido Photonics, Shenzhen 518048, China
  4.Hefei National Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230088, China
- Author bio：
  
  Baile Chen (chenbl@shanghaitech.edu.cn)
  Junqiu Liu (liujq@iqasz.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-01795-0
  CLC：
- Received：17 September 2024，
  
  Revised：07 February 2025，
  
  Accepted：18 February 2025，
  
  Published Online：30 April 2025，
  
  Published：31 July 2025
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
Sun, W. et al. A chip-integrated comb-based microwave oscillator. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 1870-1881 (2025).
DOI：

Sun, W. et al. A chip-integrated comb-based microwave oscillator. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 1870-1881 (2025). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-01795-0.

摘要

Abstract

Low-noise microwave oscillators are cornerstones for wireless communication

radar and clocks. The employment and optimization of optical frequency combs have enabled photonic microwave synthesizers with unrivalled noise performance and bandwidth breaking the bottleneck of those electronic counterparts. Emerging interest is to use chip-based Kerr frequency combs

namely microcombs. Today microcombs built on photonic integrated circuits feature small size

weight and power consumption

and can be manufactured to oscillate at any frequency ranging from microwave to millimeter-wave band. A monolithic microcomb-based microwave oscillator requires integration of lasers

photodetectors and nonlinear microresonators on a common substrate

which however has still remained elusive. Here

we demonstrate the first

fully hybrid-integrated

microcomb-based microwave oscillator at 10.7 GHz. The chip device

leverages hybrid integration of a high-power DFB laser

a silicon nitride microresonator of a quality factor exceeding 25 × 10

and a high-speed photodetector chip of 110 GHz bandwidth (3 dB) and 0.3 A/W responsivity. Each component represents the state of the art of its own class

yet also allows large-volume manufacturing with low cost using established CMOS and Ⅲ-Ⅴ foundries. The hybrid chip outputs an ultralow-noise laser of 6.9 Hz intrinsic linewidth

a coherent microcomb of 10.7 GHz repetition rate

and a 10.7 GHz microwave carrier of 6.3 mHz linewidth – all the three functions in one entity occupying a footprint of only 76 mm

. Furthermore

harnessing the nonlinear laser-microresonator interaction

we observe and maneuver a unique noise-quenching dynamics within discrete microcomb states

which offers immunity to laser current noise

suppression of microwave phase noise by more than 20 dB

and improvement of microwave power by up to 10 dB. The ultimate microwave phase noise reaches −75/−105/−130 dBc/Hz at 1/10/100 kHz Fourier offset frequency. Our results can reinvigorate our information society for communication

sensing

imaging

timing and precision measurement.

关键词

Keywords

references

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