Silicon Photonics: Bigger is Better

Abstract

Over the past 30 years silicon photonics has evolved into a volume technology supporting mainstream commercial applications. Though we have seen a proliferation of new approaches, the attributes required for commercial success remain the same as they were three decades ago: volume manufacturability, optical power efficiency, and high-signalling bandwidth. Comparing to the evolution of the silicon microelectronics industry several decades earlier however, in the history of silicon photonics we see one key difference: for electronic Integrated circuit design, reductions in process node geometry have generally always contributed to advancing the goals of the product, leading to a conclusion that smaller is better. In contrast, for silicon photonics, reducing process geometries have introduced complexities that can inversely impact manufacturability, optical power efficiency and fiber-optic packaging. As microelectronics races to progressively smaller nodes the industry faces a question: what makes for a leading photonics platform? Perhaps bigger is better!