320 GHz photonic-electronic analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) exploiting Kerr soliton microcombs

Dengyang Fang; Daniel Drayss; Huanfa Peng; Grigory Lihachev; Christoph Füllner; Artem Kuzmin; Pablo Marin-Palomo; Patrick Matalla; Prashanta Kharel; Rui Ning Wang; Johann Riemensberger; Mian Zhang; Jeremy Witzens; J. Christoph Scheytt; Wolfgang Freude; Sebastian Randel; Tobias J. Kippenberg; Christian Koos

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-01778-1

Your Location：

Home >

Browse articles >

320 GHz photonic-electronic analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) exploiting Kerr soliton microcombs

Original Articles

- 320 GHz photonic-electronic analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) exploiting Kerr soliton microcombs
- 320 GHz photonic-electronic analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) exploiting Kerr soliton microcombs
- LSA 2025年14卷第9期页码：2530-2539
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Institute of Photonics and Quantum Electronics (IPQ), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
  2.Teragear GmbH, 76227 Karlsruhe, Germany
  3.Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
  4.Deeplight GmbH, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany | Deeplight SA, 1025 St. Sulpice VD, Switzerland
  5.Institute of Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), 1025 Saint-Sulpice, Switzerland
  6.Hyperlight Corporation, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
  7.Institute of Integrated Photonics (IPH), RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany
  8.Heinz Nixdorf Institute (HNI), University of Paderborn, 33102 Paderborn, Germany
- Author bio：
  
  Dengyang Fang (dengyang.fang@kit.edu)
  Christian Koos (christian.koos@kit.edu)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-01778-1
  中图分类号：
- 收稿日期：2024-08-05，
  
  修回日期：2025-01-22，
  
  录用日期：2025-02-08，
  
  网络出版日期：2025-07-08，
  
  纸质出版日期：2025-09-30
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
320 GHz photonic-electronic analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) exploiting Kerr soliton microcombs[J]. LSA, 2025,14(9):2530-2539.

Fang, D. Y. et al. 320 GHz photonic-electronic analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) exploiting Kerr soliton microcombs. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 2530-2539 (2025).
320 GHz photonic-electronic analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) exploiting Kerr soliton microcombs[J]. LSA, 2025,14(9):2530-2539. DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-01778-1.

Fang, D. Y. et al. 320 GHz photonic-electronic analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) exploiting Kerr soliton microcombs. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 2530-2539 (2025). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-01778-1.

摘要

Abstract

Kerr soliton microcombs have the potential to disrupt a variety of applications such as ultra-high-speed optical communications

ultra-fast distance measurements

massively parallel light detection and ranging (LiDAR) or high-resolution optical spectroscopy. Similarly

ultra-broadband photonic-electronic signal processing could also benefit from chip-scale frequency comb sources that offer wideband optical emission along with ultra-low phase noise and timing jitter. However

while photonic analogue-to-digital converters (ADC) based on femtosecond lasers have been shown to overcome the jitter-related limitations of electronic oscillators

the potential of Kerr combs in photonic-electronic signal processing remains to be explored. In this work

we demonstrate a microcomb-based photonic-electronic ADC that combines a high-speed electro-optic modulator with a Kerr comb for spectrally sliced coherent detection of the generated optical waveform. The system offers a record-high acquisition bandwidth of 320 GHz

corresponding to an effective sampling rate of at least 640 GSa/s. In a proof-of-concept experiment

we demonstrate the viability of the concept by acquiring a broadband analogue data signal comprising different channels with centre frequencies between 24 GHz and 264 GHz

offering bit error ratios (BER) below widely used forward-error-correction (FEC) thresholds. To the best of our knowledge

this is the first demonstration of a microcomb-based ADC

leading to the largest acquisition bandwidth demonstrated for any ADC so far.

关键词

Keywords

references

Agrell, E. et al. Roadmap of optical communications. J. Opt. 18 , 063002 (2016)..

Ghelfi, P. et al. A fully photonics-based coherent radar system. Nature 507 , 341–345 (2014)..

Solli, D. R. et al. Optical rogue waves. Nature 450 , 1054–1057 (2007)..

Nguyen, R. L. et al. 18.4 A 200GS/s 8b 20fJ/c-s receiver with ＄＄60GHz AFE bandwidth for 800Gb/s optical coherent communications in 5nm FinFET. In: Proceedings of 2024 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference . (IEEE, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2024) pp 344–346.

Keysight Technologies. Infiniium UXR-series oscilloscopes. https://www.keysight.com/us/en/assets/7018-06242/data-sheets/5992-3132.pdf https://www.keysight.com/us/en/assets/7018-06242/data-sheets/5992-3132.pdf (2024).

Deakin, C. & Liu, Z. X. Frequency interleaving dual comb photonic ADC with 7 bits ENOB up to 40 GHz. In: Proceedings of 2022 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics . (IEEE, San Jose, CA, USA, 2022) paper STh5M. 1.

Zazzi, A. et al. Fundamental limitations of spectrally-sliced optically enabled data converters arising from MLL timing jitter. Opt. Express 28 , 18790–18813 (2020)..

Khilo, A. et al. Photonic ADC: overcoming the bottleneck of electronic jitter. Opt. Express 20 , 4454–4469 (2012)..

Valley, G. C. Photonic analog-to-digital converters. Opt. Express 15 , 1955–1982 (2007)..

Bres, C. S. et al. Multicast parametric synchronous sampling. IEEE Photonics Technol. Lett. 20 , 1222–1224 (2008)..

Ji, H. et al. Optical waveform sampling of a 320 Gbit/s serial data signal using a hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguide. In: Proceedings of the 37th European Conference and Exhibition on Optical Communication . (IEEE, Geneva, Switzerland, 2011) pp 1–3.

Ummethala, S. et al. THz-to-optical conversion in wireless communications using an ultra-broadband plasmonic modulator. Nat. Photonics 13 , 519–524 (2019)..

Wang, C. et al. Integrated lithium niobate electro-optic modulators operating at CMOS-compatible voltages. Nature 562 , 101–104 (2018)..

Zwickel, H. et al. Verified equivalent-circuit model for slot-waveguide modulators. Opt. Express 28 , 12951–12976 (2020)..

Maier, P. et al. Sub-kHz-linewidth external-cavity laser (ECL) with Si 3 N 4 resonator used as a tunable pump for a Kerr frequency comb. J. Lightwave Technol. 41 , 3479–3490 (2023)..

Lihachev, G. et al. Low-noise frequency-agile photonic integrated lasers for coherent ranging. Nat. Commun. 13 , 3522 (2022)..

Xu, Y. L. et al. Hybrid external-cavity lasers (ECL) using photonic wire bonds as coupling elements. Sci. Rep. 11 , 16426 (2021)..

Borghesani, A. et al. High saturation power (16.5 dBm) and low noise figure (6 dB) semiconductor optical amplifier for C-band operation. In Proceedings of the 2003 Optical Fiber Communications Conference 534–536 (IEEE, Atlanta, GA, USA, 2003).

Liu, Y. et al. A photonic integrated circuit-based erbium-doped amplifier. Science 376 , 1309–1313 (2022)..

Herr, T. et al. Temporal solitons in optical microresonators. Nat. Photonics 8 , 145–152 (2014)..

Fontaine, N. K. et al. Real-time full-field arbitrary optical waveform measurement. Nat. Photonics 4 , 248–254 (2010)..

Fang, D. Y. et al. Optical arbitrary waveform measurement (OAWM) using silicon photonic slicing filters. J. Lightwave Technol. 40 , 1705–1717 (2022)..

Liu, J. Q. et al. High-yield, wafer-scale fabrication of ultralow-loss, dispersion-engineered silicon nitride photonic circuits. Nat. Commun. 12 , 2236 (2021)..

Mercante, A. J. et al. Thin film lithium niobate electro-optic modulator with terahertz operating bandwidth. Opt. Express 26 , 14810–14816 (2018)..

Zhang, Y. W. et al. Systematic investigation of millimeter-wave optic modulation performance in thin-film lithium niobate. Photonics Res. 10 , 2380–2387 (2022)..

IEEE Standard for Terminology and Test Methods for Analog-to-Digital Converters. IEEE Std 1241-2023 (2023).

Drayss, D. et al. Non-sliced optical arbitrary waveform measurement (OAWM) using soliton microcombs. Optica 10 , 888–896 (2023)..

Burla, M. et al. 500 GHz plasmonic Mach-Zehnder modulator enabling sub-THz microwave photonics. APL Photonics 4 , 056106 (2019)..

Ummethala, S. et al. Hybrid electro-optic modulator combining silicon photonic slot waveguides with high-k radio-frequency slotlines. Optica 8 , 511–519 (2021)..

Helgason, Ó. B. et al. Surpassing the nonlinear conversion efficiency of soliton microcombs. Nat. Photonics 17 , 992–999 (2023)..

Rizzo, A. et al. Massively scalable Kerr comb-driven silicon photonic link. Nat. Photonics 17 , 781–790 (2023)..

Gasmi, E. et al. Bandwidth and conversion-efficiency analysis of Kerr soliton combs in dual-pumped resonators with anomalous dispersion. Phys. Rev. A 108 , 023505 (2023)..

Zang, J. et al. Laser power consumption of soliton formation in a bidirectional Kerr resonator. Nat. Photon. (2025).

Drayss, D. et al. Non-sliced optical arbitrary waveform measurement (OAWM) using a silicon photonic receiver chip. J. Lightwave Technol. 14 , 4733–4750 (2024)..

Pavan, S., Schreier, R.&Temes, G. C. Understanding Delta-Sigma Data Converters. 2nd edn. (Hoboken: John Wiley&Sons, 2017).

Fan, S. H. et al. Toward 1.6T low-power coherent DSP: challenges, and lessons learned from preceding generations. In: Proceedings of 2024 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition . (IEEE, San Diego, CA, USA, 2024) paper M2H. 1.

Füllner, C. et al. Photonic-electronic arbitrary waveform generation up to 100 GHz using active phase stabilization. In: Proceedings of 2022 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics . (IEEE, San Jose, CA, USA, 2022) paper STh5M. 3.

Liu, J. Q. et al. Photonic microwave generation in the X-and K-band using integrated soliton microcombs. Nat. Photonics 14 , 486–491 (2020)..

Marin-Palomo, P. et al. Microresonator-based solitons for massively parallel coherent optical communications. Nature 546 , 274–279 (2017)..

Jørgensen, A. A. et al. Petabit-per-second data transmission using a chip-scale microcomb ring resonator source. Nat. Photonics 16 , 798–802 (2022)..

Trocha, P. et al. Ultrafast optical ranging using microresonator soliton frequency combs. Science 359 , 887–891 (2018)..

Riemensberger, J. et al. Massively parallel coherent laser ranging using a soliton microcomb. Nature 581 , 164–170 (2020)..

Suh, M. G. et al. Microresonator soliton dual-comb spectroscopy. Science 354 , 600–603 (2016)..

浏览量

Downloads

CSCD

文章被引用时，请邮件提醒。

Submit

工具集

关联资源

暂无数据