Lithium niobate has been the backbone of high-speed fiber optics for decades. Building on deep heritage in APE (Annealed Proton Exchange) and Ti-Indiffusion waveguide processes, we fabricate our own LNOI wafers from raw crystal and process them into photonic integrated circuits—with lower loss, stronger confinement, and wafer-scale manufacturability across 500 nm to 2000 nm wavelengths.
A single material platform combining electro-optic, nonlinear, acousto-optic, and piezoelectric functionality—unmatched by silicon or InP.
The strongest linear electro-optic coefficient (r33 ~ 31 pm/V) of any commercial photonic material. Enables modulators exceeding 100 GHz bandwidth with sub-volt drive and zero carrier depletion.
LNOI waveguides routinely achieve propagation losses below 5 dB/m, with state-of-the-art processes approaching 1 dB/m. Orders of magnitude lower than silicon or InP photonics for long on-chip paths.
Large second-order nonlinear susceptibility (χ(2)) enables efficient frequency conversion, optical parametric oscillation, and spontaneous parametric downconversion for entangled photon generation.
Lithium niobate’s piezoelectric properties enable on-chip acousto-optic modulators, tunable filters, and phononic-photonic circuits—functionality unavailable on silicon or III-V platforms.
Our end-to-end TLFN fabrication process in six steps.
We create our own LNOI wafers in-house: ion slicing of bulk lithium niobate crystal, direct bonding of the thin film to silicon dioxide on silicon or quartz carriers, and post-bond annealing and CMP to achieve sub-nanometer surface roughness. Full control from raw crystal to finished substrate.
Electron-beam or deep-UV lithography defining waveguide geometries with sub-100 nm resolution. Rib and strip waveguide profiles optimized for single-mode operation across C- and O-band.
Argon-based physical etching and optimized RIE recipes for smooth, vertical sidewalls. Etch depth control to ±5 nm uniformity across 6-inch wafers, minimizing scattering loss.
Electric-field poling with patterned electrodes to create quasi-phase-matched domains. Poling periods from 3 to 30 μm for second-harmonic generation, SPDC, and difference-frequency generation.
SiO2 cladding deposition for waveguide protection and index tuning. Wafer bonding for heterogeneous integration. Gold traveling-wave electrode fabrication with velocity-matched CPW geometries for broadband EO modulation.
Wafer-level optical and RF testing across 500–2000 nm, precision dicing, fiber pigtailing with edge or grating coupling, and hermetic packaging. Full characterization of insertion loss, bandwidth, and Vπ. Space qualification to MIL-STD-1540 for LEO/GEO deployment.
From single-photon sources to large-scale optical processors, TLFN provides the speed, loss, and nonlinearity that quantum photonics demands.
Programmable linear-optical networks with fast electro-optic switches for feedforward in measurement-based quantum computing. Squeezed-state generation via on-chip PPLN for continuous-variable processors. Low loss preserves quantum coherence across hundreds of optical modes.
Efficient frequency conversion between 780 nm (Rb memory) and 1550 nm (telecom fiber) using integrated PPLN waveguides. Entanglement distribution and Bell-state measurement modules. Quantum repeater front-ends bridging matter qubits and photonic channels.
Electro-optic modulators with >100 GHz bandwidth and sub-1 V half-wave voltage for quantum state encoding at GHz rates. Phase, amplitude, and IQ modulation on a single chip for time-bin, polarization, and continuous-variable QKD protocols.
Ultra-sensitive electro-optic field sensors leveraging lithium niobate’s Pockels effect for sub-mV/m electric field detection. Integrated optical gyroscopes and squeezed-light-enhanced interferometers for navigation and precision measurement beyond the shot-noise limit.
Whether you have a proven design or an early-stage concept, our process engineers will work with you to bring it to volume on TLFN.