Authors: | R. Baets | Title: | Emerging Applications of Silicon Photonics: Potential and Challenges (Keynote) | Format: | International Conference Presentation | Publication date: | 10/2024 | Journal/Conference/Book: | NATO Research Specialists' Meeting SET-331 “Photonic Integrated Circuits”
(invited)
| Location: | Dresden, Germany | Citations: | Look up on Google Scholar
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Abstract
Over the past two decades, silicon photonics has made a transition from a promising research field to a mature industrial sector. Silicon photonics builds on the capabilities of the semiconductor industry – especially the CMOS industry - to enable photonic integrated circuits (PICs) with a high degree of reliability and a low cost. An industrial supply chain has been established, in which prominent CMOS foundries offer a process flow for silicon PICs. Today, millions of high speed transceivers are being manufactured each year on the basis of this technology, to serve the needs of datacenters and telecommunication networks.
The key attributes underpinning the success of silicon photonics in the transceiver market are expected to catalyse penetration into a variety of other markets. There is a large body of R&D on products for a broad range of applications, some of which are already entering the commercial market. In some cases these new products can be manufactured on the basis of the same technology base as used for transceivers. In other cases there is a need for extensions of the technology to add functionalities or improve performance. In particular, some applications demand operation at other wavelength bands than the C- or O-band utilized in fiber optic communication. The pursuit of these technological extensions often entails the integration of novel materials and accompanying methodologies into existing process flows, constituting a formidable endeavour in building an industrial supply chain. This endeavour remains a work in progress, necessitating substantial resource allocation.
Following an overview of the present landscape of the field, this presentation will discuss a selection of emerging applications of silicon photonics and will touch upon the technological challenges and solutions that come with them.
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