Ultra-compact lithium niobate modulation

Demands for increased speed and energy efficiency call for solutions beyond the materials that enable today’s photonic interconnects.
If miniaturized and efficiently fabricated, lithium niobate’s material properties can enable faster, more efficient data transfers and, in the longer term, quantum communications.
LiNPhA aims to provide an upgrade path for the photonic industry by miniaturizing lithium niobate modulators into their most compact form, designed for hybrid integration with existing silicon workflows.
Using lithium niobate to deliver:
TFLN state-of-the-art efficiency and speed, in a 10x smaller footprint, to meet frontier demands in datacenter interconnectivity, display, and free space optic applications
Indirect active feedback for unmatched signal-to-noise, without altering the state of light for quantum applications
Technology empowered by:
CMOS-compatible, sub-µm precision process technology unlocking fabrication of nonlinear applications at scale
Leveraging MEMS technology to source coupons directly from bulk materials, enabling more efficient sourcing as well as modulation at higher power than TFLN
Fergestad, H. et al. (2025). Counterpropagating non-degenerate frequency up-conversion in X-cut periodically poled LiNbO₃ nanophotonic wires. CLEO/Europe-EQEC 2025. https://doi.org/10.1109/CLEO/Europe-EQEC65582.2025.11110166
Fergestad, H. et al. (2025). High-resolution electron-beam poling of X-cut lithium niobate thin films. Advanced Optical Materials. https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.202501126
Fergestad, H. et al. (2024). Second harmonic generation and χ(2) cascading in periodically poled MgO:LiNbO₃ photonic wires. European Conference on Integrated Optics (ECIO 2024), 145–148. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-63378-2_24
Fergestad, H. et al. (2023). Engineered dispersion measurements in LiNbO₃ nanophotonic wires. CLEO/Europe-EQEC 2023. https://doi.org/10.1109/CLEO/EUROPE-EQEC57999.2023.10232711
Prencipe, A. et al. (2023). Wavelength meter on thin film lithium niobate based on superconducting single photon detectors. CLEO/Europe-EQEC 2023. https://doi.org/10.1109/CLEO/EUROPE-EQEC57999.2023.10232497
Prencipe, A. et al. (2023). Wavelength-sensitive superconducting single-photon detectors on thin film lithium niobate waveguides. Nano Letters, 23(21), 9748–9752. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c02324
Prencipe, A. et al. (2023). Electro- and thermo-optics response of X-cut thin film LiNbO₃ waveguides. IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, 59(3), Article 0600108. https://doi.org/10.1109/JQE.2023.3234986
Prencipe, A. et al. (2021). Tunable ultranarrowband grating filters in thin-film lithium niobate. ACS Photonics, 8(10), 2923–2930. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsphotonics.1c00383
If you are interested in our high-speed electro-optic modulators, in thin-film lithium niobate photonic integrated circuits, or want to know more about LiNPhA, do not hesitate to reach out!