Perspective on the future of silicon photonics and electronics
Abstract
Silicon photonics is advancing rapidly in performance and capability with multiple fabrication facilities and foundries having advanced passive and active devices, including modulators, photodetectors, and lasers. Integration of photonics with electronics has been key to increasing the speed and aggregate bandwidth of silicon photonics based assemblies, with multiple approaches to achieving transceivers with capacities of 1.6 Tbps and higher. Progress in electronics has been rapid as well, with state-of-the-art chips including switches having many tens of billions of transistors. However, the electronic system performance is often limited by the input/output (I/O) and the power required to drive connections at a speed of tens of Gbps. Fortunately, the convergence of progress in silicon photonics and electronics means that co-packaged silicon photonics and electronics enable the continued progress of both fields and propel further innovation in both.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 31, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1063/5.0050117
Entities
People
- Alexis Bjorlin
- Chao Xiang
- John E. Bowers
- N.M. Margalit
- Robert Blum
- Steven M. Bowers
Organizations
- Broadcom
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Intel Corporation
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- University of Virginia