The impact of integrated photonics as a key enabling technology

Integrated Photonics, the technology of building complex photonic circuits on a single chip of semiconductor or dielectric material, is a breakthrough technology, capable of revolutionizing numerous different application fields. Amongst the many advantages of fabricating components and subsystems in an integrated, rather than discrete form, compactness, robustness, stability and reliability are notable, as well as economy in assembly and packaging. Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) are accordingly providing the basis for many important developments in communications and other fields, with large-scale manufacturing already established for certain key markets. Owing to high entry costs, however, as well as the complexity of the manufacturing processes involved, the range of uses has remained limited and the number of companies presently able to take advantage of this technology is relatively small. Through the development of generic integration platforms, supported by advanced design tools and design methodologies, we perceive an opportunity to broaden the accessibility of these technologies and thereby open up new markets in a wide variety of fields, including industrial systems, medical applications and consumer goods. This talk will review the current state of the art in integrated photonics and introduce current activities aimed at opening up the market through the generic platform approach, which could make application-specific PICs as widely used as application-specific electronic ICs. Recent successes will be noted and promising future developments outlined.