High Performance Photonic Integrated Circuits on Silicon

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A new invited review paper on heterogeneous integration of III-V semiconductor photonics combined with silicon foundry technology has just been published in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

"Heterogeneous integration of III-V semiconductor photonics combined with silicon foundry technology enables low-cost, high-performance photonic integrated circuits. Highly reliable lasers using epitaxial deposition of quantum dot lasers, with <2 mA threshold and lifetime >>100 years at 35 C have been demonstrated at UCSB and can be manufactured at wafer scale. Reduction in the linewidth enhancement factor allows isolator-free operation. This technology enables cost-effective photonic integrated circuits for applications such as microwave photonics and data communications. Optical frequency synthesis with ~1.5 Hz accuracy is demonstrated using heterogeneous integration. Silicon photonics applications that will benefit from future heterogeneous integration are also demonstrated, including high dynamic range microwave photonic links and optical switching technology that scales to hyperscale datacenters with hundreds of thousands of servers."

 

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(a) A two-level folded Clos data center utilizing electronic spine and ToR switches of a radix of , with an added layer of , - wavelength, optical WDM circuit switches. paths. (b) A realization of the WDM switch employing two interconnected WDM crossbar switches.