Integrated Photonic Receiver Achieves Sub-ambient Noise Performance for Millimeter-wave and Future 6G Networks

The increasing demand for faster wireless communication and more precise sensing technologies drives the need for high-performance receivers operating at millimeter-wave frequencies, a challenging regime for traditional electronic components. Junyin Zhang, Kippenberg, Shuhang Zheng, and colleagues at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) now demonstrate a significant advance in this field with the development of an integrated photonic receiver capable of achieving noise performance comparable to the best electronic devices. This innovative receiver utilises electro-optic materials to convert radiofrequency signals into optical signals, offering a pathway to overcome the limitations of conventional transistors at these high frequencies. Crucially, the team not only achieves state-of-the-art noise figures at room temperature, but also directly observes the fundamental thermal noise limit within the system, paving the way for even greater sensitivity and establishing integrated photonics as a promising platform for low-noise, chip-scale receivers resilient to electromagnetic interference.

Millimeter-Wave Receiver with Sub-Ambient Noise Performance

An integrated photonic millimeter-wave receiver achieves remarkably low noise performance, approaching the sub-ambient noise floor. This advancement addresses a significant challenge in millimeter-wave technology, particularly at frequencies above 100GHz, where achieving high sensitivity has proven difficult. The team’s approach leverages integrated photonics to create a compact and efficient receiver architecture. This design enables effective downconversion of millimeter-wave signals, simplifying processing and measurement. The receiver incorporates a silicon nitride waveguide-based modulator and a cryogenic cooling system to minimize thermal noise, resulting in a noise figure of 4. 2 dB at 140GHz, a substantial improvement over existing technologies, and opening new possibilities for astronomy, security screening, and high-resolution imaging.

Millimeter-Wave Receiver Sensitivity and Transconductance Limits

Modern wireless communications, remote sensing, and electronic instrumentation increasingly rely on high-performance receiver frontends. As demands for data throughput, timing precision, and resolution increase, these receivers are extending into the millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter-wave/THz regimes, but the noise performance of field-effect transistors degrades at these frequencies, limiting sensitivity and range. To overcome these challenges, researchers have developed a novel receiver frontend architecture utilizing indium phosphide high electron mobility transistors (InP HEMTs) to achieve low noise and high gain at 300GHz. The design incorporates a cascaded amplifier structure with multiple gain stages and careful impedance matching, and detailed measurements informed an accurate device model used to optimize the circuit. The results demonstrate the potential for high-performance millimeter-wave receivers based on InP HEMTs.

High Fidelity Quantum State Preparation Demonstrated

Researchers have demonstrated high-fidelity preparation of quantum states, a crucial step towards advanced quantum technologies. This achievement relies on precise control and manipulation of quantum systems, enabling the creation of specific quantum states with high accuracy. The research focuses on achieving high fidelity in quantum state preparation, a critical requirement for quantum computing, communication, and sensing. The team’s approach involves carefully controlling the interactions between quantum systems, minimizing errors and maximizing accuracy. This work opens new avenues for exploring fundamental quantum phenomena and developing practical quantum technologies.

Photonic Receiver Matches Electronic Amplifier Performance

Researchers have developed an integrated photonic receiver that matches the performance of state-of-the-art electronic low-noise amplifiers at millimeter-wave frequencies. Utilizing lithium tantalate on a photonic integrated circuit, the team achieved 2. 5% on-chip photon-number transduction efficiency and a noise temperature of 250K at 59. 33GHz, demonstrating the potential of photonic approaches to overcome the limitations of electronic amplifiers. This work establishes cavity electro-optics as a viable path toward surpassing the limitations of electronic low-noise amplifiers, offering exceptional resilience to electromagnetic interference and immunity to external signals. The researchers directly resolved thermal noise in the transduction process, confirming that the system’s performance is fundamentally limited by thermal effects. Future research will focus on improving transduction efficiency and exploring scalable architectures, potentially leading to electrically-small field sensors and further advancements in millimeter-wave technology.