Ultrabroadband on-chip photonics for full-spectrum wireless communications

作者：Zihan Tao, Haoyu Wang, Hanke Feng, Yijun Guo, Bitao Shen, Dan Sun, Yuansheng Tao, Changhao Han, Yandong He, John E. Bowers, Haowen Shu, Cheng Wang, Xingjun Wang · 发表于：Nature · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1038/s41586-025-09451-8 · 被引用次数：51 · 研究领域：Advanced Photonic Communication Systems、Photonic and Optical Devices、Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit Design

Abstract The forthcoming sixth-generation and beyond wireless networks are poised to operate across an expansive frequency range—from microwave, millimetre wave to terahertz bands—to support ubiquitous connectivity in diverse application scenarios 1–3 . This necessitates a one-size-fits-all hardware solution that can be adaptively reconfigured within this wide spectrum to support full-band coverage and dynamic spectrum management 4 . However, existing electrical or photonic-assisted solutions face a lot of challenges in meeting this demand because of the limited bandwidths of the devices and the intrinsically rigid nature of system architectures 5 . Here we demonstrate adaptive wireless communications over an unprecedented frequency range spanning over 100 GHz, driven by a thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonic wireless system. Leveraging the Pockels effect and scalability of the TFLN platform, we achieve monolithic integration of essential functional elements, including baseband modulation, broadband wireless–photonic conversion and reconfigurable carrier and local signal generation. Powered by broadband tunable optoelectronic oscillators, our signal sources operate across a record-wide frequency range from 0.5 GHz to 115 GHz with high-frequency stability and consistent coherence. Based on the broadband and reconfigurable integrated photonic solution, we realize full-link wireless communication across nine consecutive bands, achieving record lane speeds of up to 100 Gbps....