A 3D-integrated BiCMOS-silicon photonics high-speed receiver realized using micro-transfer printing
Abstract
Meeting the escalating demands of data transmission and computing, driven by artificial intelligence (AI), requires not only faster optical transceivers but also advanced integration technologies that can seamlessly combine photonic and electronic components. Traditional approaches struggle to overcome the parasitic limitations arising from fabricating those components using different processes. Here, we report a novel 3D heterogeneously integrated optical receiver based on micro-transfer printing ({\mu}TP), enabling the co-integration of a compact bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS) electronic chiplet (0.06 mm2) directly onto a silicon photonic integrated circuit (SiPIC). While previous {\mu}TP demonstrations have focused primarily on photonic integration, our work pioneers the direct integration of electronics and photonics, significantly enhancing performance and scalability. The resulting optical receiver achieves 224 Gb/s four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) operation, delivering -5.2 dBm optical modulation amplitude(OMA) sensitivity at a bit-error rate (BER) of 2.4 x 10-4, a record-small footprint, and an excellent power efficiency of 0.51 pJ/b. This demonstration not only showcases the potential of {\mu}TP for high-density, cost-efficient integration but also represents a critical step toward next-generation optical interconnects in the AI era.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2511.23196,
title = {A 3D-integrated BiCMOS-silicon photonics high-speed receiver realized using micro-transfer printing},
author = {Ye Gu and He Li and Tinus Pannier and Shengpu Niu and Patrick Heise and Christian Mai and Prasanna Ramaswamy and Alex Farrel and Alin Fecioru and Antonio Jose Trindade and Ruggero Loi and Nishant Singh and Senbiao Qin and Biwei Pan and Jing Zhang and Johanna Rimbock and Kristof Dhaenens and Toon De Baere and Geert Van Steenberge and Dieter Bode and Dimitrios Velenis and Guy Lepage and Neha Singh and Joris Van Campenhout and Xin Yin and Gunther Roelkens and Peter Ossieur},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.23196},
year = {2025}
}