Recently, the research team led by Tan Min from the School of Integrated Circuits at Huazhong University of Science and Technology made a remarkable contribution by publishing a research paper in the "Journal of Lightwave Technology" (JLT), a prestigious journal in the optical communications domain. The paper unveiled an innovative dissimilar time-division multiplexing (DTDM) control architecture and, leveraging the IHP 250nm BiCMOS process, successfully developed China's pioneering fully integrated chip for optoelectronic fusion, capable of cooperative control over polarization and bias voltage.

Addressing the scalability issues that plague large-scale optoelectronic fusion systems, the study introduced a unified error domain mapping mechanism. This mechanism effectively normalizes feedback signals emanating from diverse physical dimensions, such as the bias voltage of the Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) and the power associated with the polarization state. Consequently, it empowers a single electronic controller to efficiently time-share a high-precision sensing front end, extreme value locking logic, and driving circuits.

The chip adeptly toggles between bias voltage control and polarization control tasks within millisecond-level time intervals, marking the first instance of monolithic cooperative control over heterogeneous optical devices. Experimental results revealed that, in comparison to traditional parallel control schemes, the chip boasts a 44.4% reduction in chip area and a 23% decrease in power consumption. The core control circuit area measures a mere 0.255 square millimeters, with an impressively low total power consumption of 2.988 milliwatts.

In terms of control precision, the bias voltage control mode achieves a linear control range of 0.7 radians and a tracking bandwidth of 5 Hz. Meanwhile, the polarization control mode attains a 34 dB extinction ratio, with polarization state tracking resolution surpassing 0.01 radians/second. High-speed transmission tests further demonstrated that, with cooperative control activated, the system supports 100 Gbps NRZ signal single-mode transmission and maintains stable 56 Gbps transmission in complex dual-closed-loop scenarios, exhibiting exceptional eye diagram quality.

This achievement not only signifies the development of China's first fully integrated chip for optoelectronic fusion, capable of cooperative control over polarization and bias voltage, but also offers a versatile architectural solution for low-power design in ultra-large-scale heterogeneous optoelectronic integrated systems.