integrated optics (original) (raw)

Definition: the technology dealing with the construction of photonic integrated circuits

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DOI: 10.61835/rzg Cite the article: BibTex plain text HTML Link to this page! LinkedIn

Integrated optics is a technology which aims at constructing so-called integrated optical devices or photonic integrated circuits or planar lightwave circuits, containing several or many optical components which are combined to fulfill some complex functions. Such components can e.g. be optical filters, modulators, amplifiers, lasers and photodetectors. They can, e.g., be fabricated on the surface of some crystalline material (such as silicon, silica, or LiNbO3) and connected with waveguides.

The original inspiration of integrated optics came from the technology of electronic integrated circuits, which has shown rapid development over several decades and has led to amazing achievements, such as complex and powerful microprocessors containing many millions of transistors, specialized signal processors and computer memory chips with huge data storage capacity. Unfortunately, integrated optics has not been able to match the progress of microelectronics in terms of the complexity of possible devices. This results from a number of technical limitations:

While electronic circuits can contain extremely small wires, optical components need to be connected via waveguides, the dimensions of which usually cannot be much smaller than the wavelength, and which often cannot tolerate very sharp bends. (This limitation might be eliminated by using waveguides with very high index contrast, e.g. nanofibers or photonic bandgap waveguides.)
Optical connections, e.g. between waveguides, and couplers are significantly more critical than electrical connections.
Waveguides, device connections and passive optical components exhibit optical losses, which often need to be compensated with optical amplifiers. These are larger and more complex than electronic amplifiers based on transistors.
Some types of optical components can hardly be miniaturized.
There are different material platforms, which differ substantially in terms of capabilities and limitations, and it is not always easy to find a platform which can meet all requirements of an application. In contrast to that, the CMOS platform for microelectronics can cover most requirements of that area.

For these reasons, integrated optical circuits have not reached by far the complexity of electronic integrated circuits. However, devices of moderate complexity can still be useful for example for optical fiber communications, where they can host multiple data transmitters and/or receivers, consisting of distributed feedback lasers, optical modulators, photodiodes, and optical filters (e.g. in the form of arrayed waveguide gratings). Recently, new hope for a powerful and cost-effective integrated optical technology has arisen from developments in silicon photonics.

Suppliers

The RP Photonics Buyer's Guide contains 18 suppliers for photonic integrated circuits. Among them:

PhiX

PHIX has developed several packaging solutions that allow for convenient, quick and affordable prototyping of your first photonic integrated circuits (PICs). They provide a housing with electrical connections, optical interfaces, and thermal management. Hybrid assembly of auxiliary chips is also supported. Each of our standard housings have characteristics that favor certain chip dimensions and system configurations. However, if you have special requirements, we are happy to design a customized prototype package for you.

Teem Photonics

Teem Photonics offers Photonics Integrated Circuit (PIC) solutions based on its reliable, versatile and cost effective ioNext platform. Time from design-end to chip delivery is an industry best with as short as 4 weeks turn-around time.

The specific ion-exchange process enables waveguide confinement to be varied on chip. These lead to innovative WAFT series solutions for interfacing fiber arrays with silicon photonics. The ioNext technology also allows functions such as splitters, couplers, taps, mux/demux, polarizers and custom devices which can be pigtailed to SM or PM fibers.

Bibliography

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[3]	G. I. Stegeman et al., “Third order nonlinear integrated optics”, IEEE J. Lightwave Technol. 6 (6), 953 (1988); https://doi.org/10.1109/50.4087
[4]	L. Thylen, “Integrated optics in LiNbO3: recent developments in devices for telecommunications”, IEEE J. Lightwave Technol. 6 (6), 847 (1988); https://doi.org/10.1016/0040-6090(89)90827-4
[5]	I. Baumann et al., “Er-doped integrated optical devices in LiNbO3”, J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 2 (2), 355 (1996); https://doi.org/10.1109/2944.577395
[6]	B. Jalali et al., “Advances in silicon-on-insulator optoelectronics”, J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 4 (6), 938 (1998); https://doi.org/10.1109/2944.736081
[7]	K Okamoto, “Recent progress of integrated optics planar lightwave circuits”, Opt. Quantum Electron. 31 (2), 107 (1999); https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006975415469
[8]	L. Chang, S. Liu and J. E. Bowers, “Integrated optical frequency comb technologies”, Nature Photonics 16, 95 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-021-00945-1

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