Abstract
Increasing demand for every faster information throughput is driving the emergence of integrated photonic technology. The traditional silicon platform used for integrated electronics cannot provide all of the functionality required for fully integrated photonic circuits, and thus, the last decade has seen a strong increase in research and development of hybrid and heterogeneous photonic integrated circuits. These approaches have enabled record breaking experimental demonstrations, harnessing the most favorable properties of multiple material platforms, while the robustness and reliability of these technologies are suggesting entirely new approaches for precise mass manufacture of integrated circuits with unprecedented variety and flexibility. This Tutorial provides an overview of the motivation behind the integration of different photonic and material platforms. It reviews common hybrid and heterogeneous integration methods and discusses the advantages and shortcomings. This Tutorial also provides an overview of common photonic elements that are integrated in photonic circuits. Finally, an outlook is provided about the future directions of the hybrid/heterogeneous photonic integrated circuits and their applications.
Highlights
Integrated circuit technology has underpinned the information revolution, enabling our computers, our smart phones, and the information superhighway that connects us
The traditional silicon platform used for integrated electronics cannot provide all of the functionality required for fully integrated photonic circuits, and the last decade has seen a strong increase in research and development of hybrid and heterogeneous photonic integrated circuits
The need to overcome this electronic bottleneck has led to the advent of integrated photonics with the aim of providing a direct interface to the vast bandwidth that is currently available with fiber optics
Summary
Integrated circuit technology has underpinned the information revolution, enabling our computers, our smart phones, and the information superhighway that connects us. Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are attractive as they can shrink down these rack scale photonic modules to a chip the size of a thumb nail—similar to the integrated electronics that they interface The integration of such systems on a chip comes with additional benefits, such as energy efficiency, robustness, weight reduction, and ultra-fast feedback control. In the laboratory, these properties have enabled unprecedented scientific demonstrations, such as chip-scale optical frequency synthesizers,[1] battery operated optical frequency comb sources,[2] and high-speed optical communication experiments.[3] Industrially, companies, such as Cisco, Juniper, Infinera Corporation, and Huawei,[4] are already offering commercial products using PICs for broadband interfacing of electronics; many are exploring the potential of PICs for more sophisticated information processing functionalities as well.
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