High-speed data transmission system using silicon-based optical phased array

Optical wireless data transmission is an emerging complementary technology compared to the RF transmission in 5G and 6G communications. The optical phased array (OPA) would be a promising component for such high-speed wireless transmission requiring beam-steering function. We achieved 25Gbps data transmission using silicon-based OPA and commercialized photodetector (PD). OPA was designed as 64 channels having output beam divergence angle less than 1 for both horizontal and vertical direction. The diverging beam is received by high-speed PD with active diameter less than 30μm. The demonstration of 20Gbps data transmission was practiced with OPA’s output beam power as 0dBm and a freespace range of 1.5m. Received signal from photodetector has an eye-diagram with an extinction ratio of 5dB. Depending on our link power budget, higher output beam power and smaller beam divergence angle concludes to longer free-space range and larger bandwidth. Improvements on beam concentration by lens system could also increase range and bandwidth.