Startup HyperLight debuts thin-film Lithium Niobate platform at ECOC 2021

Sept. 13, 2021

The company, led by CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Mian Zhang, has developed an electro-optic photonic integrated circuit (PIC) platform based on the thin-film Lithium Niobate (LiNbO3) technology.

HyperLight, a startup founded out of Harvard in 2018, will make its debut this week at ECOC 2021 in Bordeaux, France. The company, led by CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Mian Zhang, has developed an electro-optic photonic integrated circuit (PIC) platform based on the thin-film Lithium Niobate (LiNbO₃) technology.

Zhang says that HyperLight has been able to apply silicon photonics processes to LiNbO₃, thus enabling a significant reduction in size versus traditional modulators based on the technology. As a result, products such as optical transceivers and transponders, among others, can enjoy the power and performance benefits of LiNbO₃ without sacrificing the small package sizes silicon photonics and other photonic integration approaches make possible.

Zhang expects HyperLight’s technology will enable thin-film LiNbO₃ modulators that require sub-volt driving voltages while supporting greater than 100-GHz bandwidth. Working with Nokia Bell Labs, an “early version” of the platform demonstrated a 700.5-Gbps line rate and 538.8 Gbps net rate with intensity-modulated and direct detect (IM-DD) signals over 10.2 km of single-mode fiber. However, Zhang says the company and Nokia Bell Labs have since demonstrated the ability to accommodate coherent transmissions up to 1.58 Tbps at 200 GBaud. Both results required only a single thin-film LiNbO₃ modulator.

The company is working with partners towards productization and has begun shipping prototype chips in this context. However, a generally available product using the thin-film LiNbO3 technology is still “a couple of years away,” in Zhang’s estimation.

Zhang will discuss the company’s work via a presentation as part of ECOC’s Market Focus on September 15, at 12:40 pm, CET.

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