Synergistic Antenna-Modulator Integration for Monolithic Photonic RF Receiver

Abstract: Integrated radio-frequency (RF) photonics plays a pivotal role in wireless communications, sensing, and radar due to its large intrinsic bandwidth, remote distribution capability, and compact footprint. However, despite significant advances in photonic integrated circuits (PICs), the practical deployment of these systems remains constrained by the bulky nature of essential RF components (e.g., bulky antennas, amplifiers, and cables), especially in covert, conformal, and space-constrained applications. To overcome these limitations, monolithic electronic-photonic integrated circuits (EPICs), enabling miniaturized and synergistic integration of both RF and photonic components, are gaining notable attention. As a groundbreaking advancement, we demonstrate a novel photonic RF receiver that monolithically integrates a bow-tie antenna and a microring modulator on a thin-film lithium niobate platform. The chip innovatively leverages dual-resonance enhancement mechanism, RF resonance from the antenna and optical resonance from the microring, to significantly boost the RF-to-optical conversion efficiency. A record-high figure of merit (FOM) of 3.88 W-1/2 is achieved within a compact footprint of 2*1.7 mm2. As the first demonstrations, the integrated receiver is deployed in an integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system, achieving centimeter-level radar ranging accuracy and 3.2 Gbps wireless communication capacity, as well as real-time video transmission function in moving scenarios. This seminal work paves a new way for covert, conformal, and miniaturized frontends in wireless communication and sensing applications, including body area networks, unmanned aerial vehicles, high-speed vacuum maglevs, and electronic warfare systems.