Hybrid THz Communication and MMW Sensing System Using a Packaged Silicon Photonics Module

Joint communication and radar (JCR) is highly anticipated in industrial and domestic applications. Photonics-assisted techniques provide a promising approach for integration of communication and sensing in the future MMW and THz eras. Currently, most of the reported photonics-assisted MMW and THz JCR systems used discrete optoelectronic devices. Here we proposed a photonics-assisted hybrid THz communication and MMW sensing system using a self-developed silicon photonics module (SPM), which mainly integrates the optical coupling, optical attenuation, wide-band electro-optic modulation, and MMW optoelectronic conversion functions. The well-packaged SPM showed a 3-dB bandwidth greater than 25 GHz. In the proof-of-concept experiment, THz communication and MMW sensing functions powered by the packaged SPM were demonstrated at 300-GHz band and 28-GHz band, respectively. For the MMW sensing, the ranging resolution of 49.4 mm and detection accuracy of less than 12.3 mm were experimentally verified. Besides, we experimentally compared the communication performance between the TDM- and FDM-based hybrid 300-GHz communication/28-GHz sensing systems. Both the TDM and FDM modes achieved data rates of up to 20 Gbit/s over a 2-m wireless link at 300-GHz frequency band, while the former exhibited better performance in terms of the optical power margin, baud rate, and THz carrier frequency.