It is estimated that the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector is responsible for 1.8 %-2.8 % of total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A 10 % reduction of energy consumption would therefore have the potential to prevent millions of tons of GHG emissions and slow down global warming. At the same time, the use of video platforms, streaming services and online gaming is increasing the bandwidth of the signals to be processed and thus the energy consumption of current communication systems. It is already foreseeable that new applications such as autonomous driving, 6G and Industry X.0 will continue to ensure increasing data rates.
The THz Photonics Group (TPG) at TU Braunschweig is therefore focusing primarily on increasing the transmission speed of communication systems and expanding the bandwidth of measuring devices and sensors while simultaneously reducing their energy consumption. We achieve this by optical or optically assisted electronic signal processing on various integrated platforms with frequency comb generation, orthogonal sampling, frequency-time coherence, or non-linear optical effects such as stimulated Brillouin scattering.
For simulations and the design of integrated photonic chips, licences of commercial software packages like COMSOL Multiphysics, Optisystem and Lumerical are available. The chips are then manufactured either in commercial fabs or at partner universities in Israel and China.
The laboratories of the TPG are fully equipped to test and characterize the raw chips (without packaging). In addition to standard equipment such as optical and electrical spectrum analyzers, filters, signal generators etc., arbitrary waveform generators and real-time oscilloscopes with analogue bandwidths of 33 GHz are available.
| Name | Phone | |
|---|---|---|
| Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Thomas Schneider | thomas.schneider@tu-braunschweig.de | +49 531 391-2003 |
For the past few decades, stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) has received little attention in long-haul communication because it causes signal degradation. However, in recent years, on-chip SBS has garnered significant interest due to its high gain and sharp phase response, which has shown enhancement in results for many microwave functionalities such as frequency measurements, filters, slow and delay lines, and many more. In the LiSoNIP project, we aim to investigate stimulated Mandelstam-Brillouin scattering (SBS) in new photonics platforms based on polymer, which allows the fabrication of complex integrated structures via 3D printing. Compared to the state-of-the-art, this can provide at least two times higher light-sound interaction gain.
In information technology, data transfer rates are rising steadily as the need for fast wireless data communication is also growing rapidly. In order to reach transmission speeds of 100 gigabits per second and higher, a new approach in communications technology is needed. This topic is the subject of the research group "Metrology for THz Communications". The focus is on communication technology with very high data rates for the still untouched terahertz frequency range (THz) above 300 GHz. Terabit per second could be transmitted in this frequency range in the future. However, it faces today's communication technology with enormous challenges. The research group Meteracom is working on the metrology for the THz communication systems and will, among other things, design measurement methods that help to predict the performance of THz communication in real environments.
Increasing demands for data centers, backbone, access, and wireless networks require inventive concepts to transmit and distribute digital or analog signal waveforms. We present a new, extremely simple transceiver concept, fundamentally different from conventional approaches. It does not rely on high-speed electronics and enables transmission of various time multiplexed analog waveforms or digital data signals with the maximum possible symbol rate in the same rectangular optical spectral band B. In this the aggregate symbol rate of N signal channels corresponds to B or twice the used modulator’s electro-optical bandwidth. By a modification of the system, it can be increased to three times the modulator bandwidth. As, No optical filter, high-speed signal processing, or unconventional photonic devices are needed; thus, it has the potential to be easily integrated into any platform and provides an economical and energy-efficient solution for future communication networks and microwave photonic links.
Devices that are integrated, cost-efficient, support wide bandwidth, having broad dynamic measurement range are required in science and technology (especially in engineering, biology and physics like spectroscopy, sensing, communication etc.) as the increment of signal bandwidth upsurges exponentially.
The study and examination of innovative methods for the time- and frequency-domain measurement of high bandwidth (>300 GHz) signals with integrated silicon photonics devices, the design and implementation of ultra-high bandwidth, real-time sampling oscilloscopes and the planning and demonstration for new integrated spectrum analyzers having optical bandwidth of several hundreds of GHz and below 100 MHz resolution are the aim of this project.