Integrated Silicon Photonic Multichannel Optical Hybrid for Broadband Parallel Coherent Reception

Abstract

We design and demonstrate a monolithically integrated silicon photonic multichannel optical hybrid for versatile broadband coherent reception, addressing the critical limitations of current wavelength multiplexed systems in scalability and power efficiency. The device combines a phase-compensated 90-degree optical hybrid with four robust three-stage Mach-Zehnder interferometer lattice filters, enabling 34-port functionality (two inputs and 32 outputs) for simultaneous analog and digital signal processing. Leveraging multimode interferometer designs,the chip achieves a broadband response with sub-dB passband uniformity across eight 200 GHz-spaced wavelength channels, while maintaining phase errors below 4 degrees over a 13.5 nm (1539-1552.5 nm) bandwidth with only 2.5 mW thermal tuning power.Experimentally, we validate its parallel-processing capability through RF channelizer reception (showing an average spurious-free dynamic range of 80.8 dB*Hz2/3 and image rejection ratio of 33.26 dB) and coherent optical communication (achieving 1.024 Tb/s data rate for 32-QAM signals with bit error rates far below the 20% SD-FEC threshold). The scheme enhances system performance with fully passive wavelength multiplexing integration, supporting high-fidelity uniformity and projecting scalability to 1.468 Tb/s. This work promises advancements in high-performance optoelectronic devices for next-generation AI-driven data centers and 5G-XG networks.