Imagine the internet pipes that connect cities and neighborhoods are getting clogged because everyone streams, games, and works from the cloud at once. Right now, the electronic gadgets handling this traffic are expensive and power-hungry. PICaboo built tiny optical chips — think of them as miniature light-processing engines — that do the heavy lifting using light instead of electricity. The result: networks that move data at 50 to 100 gigabits per second while using up to 65% less power and costing about 20% less than today's solutions.
Telecom operators and data center providers face surging bandwidth demands from cloud, 5G, and IoT traffic, but current electronic-based network equipment is expensive and power-hungry. Metro networks and passive optical networks need to scale to 50/100 Gb/s without proportionally increasing power bills and hardware costs. Standard coherent transceivers for short-range data center interconnects remain too costly for widespread deployment in the 20-80km range.
The project built working transmitter and receiver photonic integrated circuit demonstrators on InP platforms, both evaluated under realistic network conditions. It also produced compact building block models compiled into PDK-compatible libraries for the broader PIC design community.
If you are a telecom operator struggling with rising power bills and capacity limits on your metro network — this project developed photonic integrated circuit transmitters and receivers that scale PON line rates to 50/100 Gb/s while cutting power consumption by 50-65% and overall costs by about 20% compared to current 50G EML solutions.
If you are a data center operator needing cost-effective short-range interconnects in the 20-80km range — this project built a dual-polarization coherent receiver PIC that delivers 3.6x cost reduction compared to standard coherent transceivers by replacing complex digital signal processing with optical-domain processing and enabling the use of low-cost tunable lasers.
If you are a photonic component company looking to speed up chip design cycles — this project created compact building block libraries compiled into PDK-compatible formats on the InP platform, allowing designers to explore new applications without starting from scratch each time. VLC Photonics is already set to distribute these libraries to end-users.
The project reports approximately 20% overall cost reduction for EAM-based transmitter PICs compared to current 50G EML solutions. For the coherent receiver side, the cost benefit is even larger — 3.6x compared to standard coherent transceivers, achieved by simplifying the digital signal processing requirements.
The project produced demonstrators that were evaluated under realistic network conditions, as documented in their deliverables. Both transmitter and receiver PIC demonstrators were tested for performance in scenarios matching actual metro and access network environments. NOKIA and ADVA are named as exploitation partners for scaling these to products.
The project was built on the generic foundry model using InP PIC platforms from TU Eindhoven and III-V Lab. PDK-compatible building block libraries were developed for broader use. VLC Photonics is designated to distribute these libraries to end-users, suggesting a licensing or foundry-access model is already planned.
PICaboo scales passive optical network line rates to 50/100 Gb/s while meeting the 29dB power budget of the optical distribution network. The all-optical equalization on-chip reduces the electronic signal pre-processing normally required, which is what enables both the speed increase and the power savings.
For the EAM-MZM transmitter configuration, power consumption drops by 50% compared to 50G EML solutions. The coherent EAM-IQM transmitter achieves 65% power savings. The coherent receiver PIC delivers more than 30% power reduction compared to standard coherent transceivers.
The project closed in June 2024 with completed performance evaluations of both transmitter and receiver demonstrators under realistic conditions. With NOKIA and ADVA committed to exploitation, the technology is past the lab stage but likely still needs productization and qualification before full commercial deployment.
The coherent receiver technology is specifically designed for the 20-80km data center interconnect range. The transmitter PICs target passive optical network and metro network distances, operating within the expected dispersion limits for those environments.
PICaboo brings together 6 partners across 5 European countries (Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Netherlands), with a strong 50% industry ratio — 3 industrial partners alongside 1 university, 1 research organization, and 1 other entity. The consortium is coordinated by a Greek research institute (EREVNITIKO PANEPISTIMIAKO INSTITOUTO SYSTIMATON EPIKOINONION KAI YPOLOGISTON). Critically, major telecom equipment makers NOKIA and ADVA are named as exploitation partners, which signals genuine commercial intent beyond the lab. VLC Photonics is positioned to distribute the PDK libraries, creating a clear path from research to market through established industry channels.
The coordinator is a Greek research institute (EREVNITIKO PANEPISTIMIAKO INSTITOUTO SYSTIMATON EPIKOINONION KAI YPOLOGISTON). SciTransfer can facilitate a direct introduction to the research team.
Want to explore how PICaboo's low-cost photonic chips could reduce your network costs by up to 20% and power consumption by up to 65%? Contact SciTransfer for a detailed technology brief and introduction to the research team.
