Hybrid Photonic Integrated Circuits for Wireless Transceivers

Recently developed photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for wireless communications are reviewed. These PICs leverage hybrid integration technology, which combines InP active elements, silicon nitride (Si3N4) low-loss waveguides, high-efficient ther-mal-optical tunable polymer with micro-optical functions to achieve fully integrated systems. This approach incorporates photonic building blocks, such as tunable lasers, on-chip optical isolators, optical phased arrays (OPAs), modulators, semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), PIN-photodiodes, and waveguide-based photoconductive antennas. Among the key innovations are the generation of phase-locked optical sig-nals for wireless carrier at 45 GHz through on-chip frequency comb generation and injection locking, as well as the photonic-enabled beam steering across 20° at 300 GHz by integrating polymer-based optical phased arrays with InP PIN-photodiode-based antenna arrays. These advancements result in compact form factors, reduced power consumption, and enhanced scalability, positioning PICs as an enabling technology for future high-speed wireless networks.