LOLIPOP

The EU-funded LOLIPOP project builds on TriPleX, a proprietary waveguide technology for photonic integrated circuits developed by Netherlands-based company LioniX International which satisfies the growing need for bandwidth and capacity in telecommunication and sensing applications. LOLIPOP will focus on equipping TriPleX with new functionalities by exploring materials like: lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI), an excellent material for high-speed light modulation; germanium, known for its high-speed and ultra-wide bandwidth detection capabilities; and gallium arsenide, a well-established material for gain chips. To combine LNOI and TriPleX, various hybrid integration methods, such as flip-chipping and micro-transfer printing, will be explored. For the germanium photodiodes, heterogeneous integration will be developed to achieve high detection efficiency in a broad wavelength range (400–1 600 nm).

Despite the huge progress by photonics, extended spectral bands at wavelengths below 1100 nm remain heavily underserved in terms of integration solutions. At the same time, the silicon nitride is booming and the lithium niobate is making an impressive comeback in the form of lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI), with both materials being transparent both in the visible and the NIR. With all these viewed as a unique opportunity, LOLIPOP steps in to develop a disruptive platform that will offer the highest integration, modulation and second order nonlinear performance in the entire spectrum from 400 up to 1600 nm, based on the combination of the LNOI and the silicon-nitride (TriPleX) technology. To this end, LOLIPOP will develop die-bonding and micro-transfer-printing methods for low-loss (<0.5 dB) integration of LNOI films on TriPleX without compromise in the functionality of the two platforms. It will also develop a process for growth of Ge photodiodes (PDs) inside pockets and a process for flip-chip bonding of active elements inside recesses on TriPleX. Given the possibility of the Ge-PDs to operate in the entire 400-1600 nm spectrum, and the flexibility of the bonding process to adapt to different actives and wavelengths, the picture of this ultra-wideband technology is complete. LOLIPOP will demonstrate its potential via the development of: 1) The first ever integrated laser Doppler vibrometer at 532 nm with ultra-narrow linewidth (<5 kHz) and ultra-high modulation (6 GHz), 2) The first ever integrated FMCW-LIDAR at 905 nm with ultra-high linear chirp (10 GHz) and optical phased array-based 2D beam scanning, 3) Photonic convolutional neural networks with record scale, computation speed (24 TOPS) and power consumption reduction compared to electronic solutions, and 4) The first ever integrated squeezed-state source with 6 dB squeezing level for quantum applications at 1550 nm. A roadmap for the offering of LOLIPOP technology as commercial service will be prepared.