Harnessing diverse hybrid integration for bridging trans-scale multi-dimensional fiber-chip data transmission and processing

Optical communications have emerged as a promising solution for high-speed modern communication systems and built an important infrastructure for the global information superhighway. Although recent efforts to enhance optical communications have penetrated from long-distance fiber-optic to ultra-short-reach chip-scale data transmission, “Trans-Scale” high-capacity data transmission remains great challenges. In addition to data transmission, data processing is also of great importance for flexible data management in optical communication systems. However, a “Digital Divide” (capacity gap) exists between high-capacity data transmission in fiber links and low-speed data processing at network nodes, hindering the flourishing development of optical communications. Here, we implement “Trans-Scale” high-capacity bridging between few-mode fiber and silicon multimode waveguide using a diverse hybrid integrated coupler, which includes a 3D silica fs-laser direct writing photonic chip and a 2D silicon photonic integrated circuit. On this basis, we leverage a large-scale silicon reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) with over 2000 elements to construct a multi-dimensional fiber-chip system, enabling 192-channel (3 modes, 2 polarizations, 32 wavelengths) and 20-Tbit/s trans-scale multi-dimensional data transmission and processing. This demonstration provides a superior trans-scale architecture for multi-dimensional data transmission and processing in next-generation optical communications.