Exploring the Potential of Integrated Optical Sensing and Communication (IOSAC) Systems with Si Waveguides for Future Networks

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates integrated silicon nitride photonic devices capable of simultaneous high-sensitivity sensing and high-speed optical communication, advancing real-time IoT and 6G network applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel IOSAC system on the SiN platform that combines sensing and communication in a single integrated device, with experimental validation.

Findings

Refractive index sensing with sensitivity of 172 nm/RIU and FOM of 1220.

Successful transmission of 1.25 Gbps OOK signals alongside sensing.

Detection limit of 8.2×10⁻⁶ RIU.

Abstract

Advanced silicon photonic technologies enable integrated optical sensing and communication (IOSAC) in real time for the emerging application requirements of simultaneous sensing and communication for next-generation networks. Here, we propose and demonstrate the IOSAC system on the silicon nitride (SiN) photonics platform. The IOSAC devices based on microring resonators are capable of monitoring the variation of analytes, transmitting the information to the terminal along with the modulated optical signal in real-time, and replacing bulk optics in high-precision and high-speed applications. By directly integrating SiN ring resonators with optical communication networks, simultaneous sensing and optical communication are demonstrated by an optical signal transmission experimental system using especially filtering amplified spontaneous emission spectra. The refractive index (RI) sensing ring with a sensitivity of 172 nm/RIU, a figure of merit (FOM) of 1220, and a detection limit (DL) of 8.2*10-6 RIU is demonstrated. Simultaneously, the 1.25 Gbps optical on-off-keying (OOK) signal is transmitted at the concentration of different NaCl solutions, which indicates the bit-error-ratio (BER) decreases with the increase in concentration. The novel IOSAC technology shows the potential to realize high-performance simultaneous biosensing and communication in real time and further accelerate the development of IoT and 6G networks.