Photonic-chip based ultralow-noise microwaves

Objective

Microwave oscillators are essential for a variety of technologies, including mobile communications, radar, navigation, and data networks. However, current compact solutions, such as voltage-controlled oscillators, face fundamental noise limits. Although laboratory-scale optical approaches can achieve significantly improved performance, they often require bulky, power-hungry, and costly systems. pureWAVE aims to address this issue by implementing low-noise photonic oscillators on a scalable chip platform. If successful, pureWAVE will deliver chip-scale oscillators with phase noise two to three orders of magnitude lower than current solutions, enabling disruptive advances in mobility, communications, and data infrastructure.