Photonic integration based on silicon, silica, or indium phosphide technologies has reached a level of maturity where it has now become an integral part of telecom and datacom networks. However, although impressive levels of integration and bandwidth have been achieved, the performance of these technologies is relatively low, compared to fiber-optics and discrete bulk optics counterparts. This limits their application in more demanding fields like microwave photonics, e.g., for 4G/5G wireless communications, more advanced complex modulation formats for telecommunications, and highly energy-efficient interconnects. The invention of the ultra-low loss waveguide (ULLW) platform, by me and my co-workers at UC Santa Barbara, heralds a new range of applications for photonic integrated circuits. Fiber-like loss performance, with waveguide propagation losses < 0.1 dB/m, has been realized in waveguides with silicon nitride cores. This performance level represents an order of magnitude lower loss than silica-based waveguides, and 2 – 3 orders of magnitude lower than the silicon-on-insulator and indium phosphide PIC platforms. A combination of the silicon, ULLW, and/or indium phosphide platforms can be made using hybrid or heterogeneous integration techniques. Using “the best of both worlds” approach, improved performance can be achieved. I will discuss the opportunities that these technologies offer for various high-performance applications, such as low-noise lasers and oscillators, high-resolution radars and gyroscopes, and high-bandwidth photonic analog-to-digital converters.

Date Published: 27 February 2015
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 9365, Integrated Optics: Devices, Materials, and Technologies XIX, 936503 (27 February 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2079890

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9365:
Integrated Optics: Devices, Materials, and Technologies XIX
Jean-Emmanuel Broquin; Gualtiero Nunzi Conti, Editor(s)