Photonic-electronic arbitrary-waveform generation using quadrature multiplexing and active optical-phase stabilization

Christoph Füllner (), Alban Sherifaj, Thomas Henauer, Dengyang Fang, Daniel Drayss, Lennart Schmitz, Tobias Harter, Tilahun Z. Gutema, Thomas Zwick, Wolfgang Freude, Sebastian Randel and Christian Koos ()
Additional contact information
Christoph Füllner: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Alban Sherifaj: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Thomas Henauer: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Dengyang Fang: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Daniel Drayss: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Lennart Schmitz: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Tobias Harter: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Tilahun Z. Gutema: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Thomas Zwick: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Wolfgang Freude: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Sebastian Randel: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Christian Koos: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract Generation of electrical waveforms with bandwidths of 100 GHz or more is key to many applications in science and industry, comprising high-speed communications, radar, or test and measurement equipment. However, while conventional digital-to-analog converters based on electronic circuits still represent the technological mainstay for broadband waveform generation, further bandwidth scaling comes with a series of challenges related to circuit design and implementation, packaging, and system integration. In this paper, we show that photonic-electronic signal-processing techniques may overcome these limitations. We demonstrate a photonic-electronic waveform generator that exploits quadrature multiplexing in the optical domain in combination with phase-stabilized coherent down-conversion to the electrical domain. In a proof-of-concept experiment, we generate electrical multi-level data signals at symbol rates up to 200 GBd at quality levels that can already compete with best-in-class electronic systems. We believe that our concept opens an attractive path to waveforms generation at bandwidths beyond the limitations of current microelectronics, leveraging advanced photonic integration technologies that are currently being developed.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61564-w Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-61564-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61564-w

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().