From Electrons to Photons – The Next Leap in Data Transmission


For over half a century, the semiconductor industry has harnessed the motion of electrons through silicon to drive computation and communication. As transistor density has followed Moore’s Law, data transmission between chips, across boards, and through data centers has continued to rely on electrical interconnects — copper wires and electronic circuits. However, electrons are beginning to hit physical limitations. As frequencies rise, resistive heating, signal loss, and latency increase dramatically. Even with advanced materials and 3D packaging, purely electronic systems cannot scale indefinitely.


Enter light. Photons, unlike electrons, can travel vast distances at the speed of light without suffering the same resistive losses. They can carry data in parallel streams through different wavelengths, promising terabit-per-second bandwidths within compact chips. This paradigm — integrated photonics — is now emerging as the successor to traditional interconnects.

AI and the Growing Bandwidth Bottleneck

To sustain AI’s expansion, the world’s leading semiconductor, telecom, aerospace, and computing firms are pivoting toward photon-based information systems. Photonic chips, optical interposers, and high-speed modulators will form the infrastructure for next-generation computing.


What is a Waveguide?

A waveguide is a structure that directs and confines light — much like a wire channels electricity. In integrated photonics, waveguides are tiny optical ‘roads’ etched into materials that steer light signals between components on a chip. A waveguide’s performance depends on its ability to confine light efficiently (high refractive index contrast), minimize scattering and propagation losses, and maintain stable phase and polarization characteristics. This makes material choice critical — and one material is now emerging as the industry favorite: lithium niobate (LiNbO₃).

Why Lithium Niobate?

Enabling Next Generation

LNOI PHOTONICS

An LNOI platform, built on lithium niobate on insulator, enables high performance photonic integrated circuits by combining strong electro optic and nonlinear properties with low loss waveguides on a compact chip scale. These platforms serve applications from telecommunications and LiDAR to sensing and quantum technologies. Intlvac’s Lithium Niobate Foundry acts as a complete research lab in a box, enabling rapid development, prototyping, and a faster transition to scalable production. Read below to explore the applications.

  • Second order nonlinearity and PPLN waveguides: support a wide range of wavelength conversion and generation schemes, enabling functionality comparable to optical analogs of bipolar transistors.
  • Wide transparency window: allows efficient optical signal manipulation across a broad spectral range, which is particularly valuable for photonic engines, especially those operating at shorter wavelengths where greater compactness is achievable.
  • Ultra fast and low power electro optic modulators: enable rapid optical signal modulation, filtering, and interleaving with high efficiency.
  • High quality passive and active resonators and low loss waveguides: make possible diverse delay line architectures with flexible tuning, essential for advanced optical processing and agile delay line systems.
  • Neuromorphic computing with large scale on chip integration: can leverage low loss, low power building blocks and the intrinsic nonlinear characteristics of the LNOI platform.
  • Programmable photonic engines: support reconfigurable Mach Zehnder interferometer mesh arrays, wavelength conversion, and related adaptive functionalities.
  • CMOS level operating active components: while enabling fast tunable lasers, significantly simplify the integration of PIC electronics, which is critical for practical optical computing implementations.

LNOI PIC platforms offer a wide range of benefits for sensor technology applications:

  • Multi wavelength operation, enabled by the broad transparency window from the visible to the near infrared, supports applications such as biomonitoring in the 500 to 1000 nm range, Raman spectroscopy around 785 nm, and extension into the mid infrared for gas and environmental sensing, including CO2 detection at 2, 2.7, and 4.8 µm and methane at 3.3 µm, as well as food and water quality monitoring.
  • Novel light generation across these wavelength ranges through nonlinear optical processes allows InP based lasers operating near 1550 nm to be frequency converted to additional spectral regions.
  • Fast and efficient electrical control of on chip light, using modulation approaches ranging from thermal to electro optic techniques, enables fully integrated lab on chip sensing systems.
  • The ability to implement suspended waveguide structures, combined with strong piezoelectric effects and low loss propagation, makes LNOI PICs well suited for opto mechanical sensing, pressure sensors, and gyroscopes, all achievable with cost effective and user friendly operation.
  • Low loss waveguides available in multiple thicknesses support evanescent field sensing configurations.
  • On chip optical frequency comb spectroscopy, including applications such as astrocombs for exoplanet detection.

FMCW LiDAR:

  • Fast, sub nanosecond tunable laser enabled by an electro optic Vernier filter
  • Narrow linewidth supporting ultra high resolution, achieved using low loss LNOI waveguides integrated into external cavity hybrid lasers
  • Multi wavelength generation suitable for advanced PIC applications

Optical Phased Array OPA

  • Non mechanical, high speed beam steering
  • Fast, compact, and low loss electro optic phase shifters
  • Lower voltage and reduced power consumption compared to thermal tuning approaches
  • Elimination of thermal parasitic crosstalk

Photonic engines for quantum control in atomic based systems such as ion trapping, optical lattices, atomic clocks, and color centers including NV at 578 nm and SV- at 737 nm.

  • Atomic transitions such as Ca+ at 729 nm and Rb at 795 nm operate in the visible and near infrared, regions not easily supported by many other PIC platforms.
  • On demand ultra fast pulse generation.
  • Pure phase modulation without unintended amplitude modulation.

Quantum communication and QKD:

  • Entangled photon pair generation via spontaneous parametric down conversion.
  • Ultra fast modulation and polarization control.
  • Electro optic gating and interferometers. Photonic quantum computing, including continuous variable schemes, Boson sampling, and cluster states:
  • Entangled photon pair generation via spontaneous parametric down conversion.
  • Programmable Mach Zehnder interferometer meshes using the electro optic effect.
  • Low loss and pure phase modulation.

LNOI is well positioned for telecommunications applications:

  • Ultra high speed transmitters exceeding 400 Gbit/s enabled by fast electro optic modulators.
  • Multi wavelength operation, including on chip wavelength generation, supporting coherent dense wavelength division multiplexing.
  • Access to additional wavelength bands through nonlinear conversion from the C band to the L and S bands using PPLN waveguides.
  • CMOS compatible operation simplifying transceiver design and PIC and IC co integration.
  • Low weight, high optical power handling, reduced power consumption, and seamless electronic integration, supporting deployment in everyday devices and IoT infrastructure.
  • High quality tunable filters and MUX and DMUX components for flexible DWDM systems.
  • Integrated electro optic polarization controllers enabling advanced on chip link engineering and potential bandwidth doubling.

The inherent second and third order nonlinear properties of LNOI create a powerful platform for nonlinear photonics and precision metrology:

  • Periodically poled lithium niobate waveguides enable integrated wavelength conversion processes such as second harmonic generation, sum and difference frequency generation, and spontaneous parametric down conversion.
  • Generation of squeezed states, entangled photon pairs, and measurements beyond the standard quantum limit can leverage these strong nonlinear interactions.
  • Frequency conversion into new visible and near infrared bands using second harmonic and sum frequency generation supports applications including optical coherence tomography, holography, RGB light engines, and Raman spectroscopy.
  • Mid infrared sources produced through difference frequency generation are valuable for gas detection, security screening, and environmental monitoring.
  • Ultra wide and stable optical frequency combs, based on Kerr or electro optic mechanisms, can be realized on chip.
  • Self referencing and stabilization of frequency combs, mode locked lasers, and supercontinuum sources can be achieved using f to 2f techniques.
  • Laser stabilization through locking to atomic clock references, enabled by harmonic generation processes, supports highly precise metrology systems.

LNOI PICs offer significant advantages for space communication systems:

  • Low power, lightweight photonic integrated circuits with broad spectral operation can expand communication capacity while reducing operational cost and supporting flexible deployment.
  • Well suited for intra payload links, satellite to satellite communication, and satellite to ground networks.
  • Lithium niobate is a dielectric material inherently tolerant to harsh environments, including elevated temperatures, radiation exposure, and electromagnetic interference.
  • High optical power handling makes the platform attractive for free space communication systems.
  • LIDAR systems built on LNOI benefit from rapid multispectral operation enabled by fast electro optic modulators and a wide transparency range.
  • Seamless integration with electronic control systems is critical in space platforms, and CMOS compatible modulators simplify co integration, system control, and deployment.

SCALING UP — INTLVAC’S ROLE IN LNOI DEVICE MANUFACTURING

To realize large-scale production of LNOI devices, manufacturers need precision tools for masking, deposition, and etching — exactly where Intlvac’s equipment shines.

The Nanoquest II, Aegis DLC, and Nanochrome® IV PARMS form the backbone of our Lithium Niobate Foundry—available as a fully customizable service, an integrated load-locked cluster tool, or as individual turnkey modules. Together, they deliver a complete foundry solution for the next era of photonic integration, empowering researchers and manufacturers to develop, prototype, and scale the next generation of optical technologies.

Aegis

Diamond-Like Carbon Etch Masking

Nanoquest II

High Aspect Ratio Etching

Nanochrome IV

Oxide and Nitride Thin Films

Nanoquest II

The Nanoquest II employs a broad-beam ion source combined with fully adjustable substrate motion to achieve precise, purely physical material removal through momentum transfer from inert ions such as argon. This process eliminates the chemical dependencies of plasma etching, providing exceptional control over geometry, uniformity, and surface quality.

With its material-agnostic ion beam etching capability, Nanoquest II can process even the most chemically inert materials, including LiNbO₃, SiO₂, and sapphire. Adjustable beam incidence angles and substrate rotation deliver smooth, vertical sidewalls free from redeposition artifacts, while tunable ion energy and in-situ cooling preserve optical integrity by minimizing damage and contamination.

The system’s collimated beam ensures consistent etch rates across wafers up to 200 mm, and compatibility with a wide range of masking materials—including metals and multilayer dielectrics—extends process flexibility. Optional tilt-etch cycles and beam neutralization maintain optical-grade smoothness, making Nanoquest II the cornerstone of advanced photonic fabrication in lithium niobate and other challenging substrates.

Nanochrome™ IV PARMS

The Nanochrome™ IV utilizes Plasma Assisted Reactive Magnetron Sputtering (PARMS) to deposit highly uniform oxide and nitride thin films essential for every stage of LiNbO₃ device fabrication. These precision coatings provide the structural, optical, and protective layers required for high-performance photonic devices.

Through PARMS, materials such as SiO₂, Si₃N₄, and Al₂O₃ are deposited as dense, conformal films ideal for masking, passivation, and optical layer engineering. During high-aspect-ratio etching in the Nanoquest II, these durable coatings act as robust hard masks that preserve pattern fidelity and protect surfaces under demanding plasma and ion beam conditions. Following nanostructuring, the same dielectric films serve as tuning or passivation layers, enhancing optical confinement and device reliability.

Integrated seamlessly into Intlvac’s cluster environment, the PARMS process maintains a continuous, contamination-free workflow from deposition through etch and lift-off. This closed-system integration ensures reproducibility and pristine interfaces, empowering researchers and manufacturers to advance the limits of quantum photonics, high-speed communications, and integrated optical systems.

Aegis DLC

The Aegis DLC system provides a critical enabling layer for precision etching in LNOI (Lithium Niobate on Insulator) waveguide fabrication. Using Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD), it deposits a thin, diamond-like carbon (DLC) film from hydrocarbon precursors to form a hardmask with exceptional hardness, adhesion, and etch selectivity.

Once deposited, the DLC layer undergoes oxygen plasma patterning to define intricate features with high resolution. Subsequent argon Ion Beam Etching (IBE) transfers these patterns into the underlying lithium niobate substrate, achieving nanometer-level accuracy and smooth, vertical sidewalls. Post-etch cleaning removes the DLC mask, revealing finely structured LNOI waveguides with exceptional optical performance.

By combining mechanical robustness with precise process control, the Aegis DLC module ensures repeatable, high-fidelity pattern transfer—an indispensable step in producing reliable and scalable photonic devices for advanced communications and quantum technologies.

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