Generic photonic integration as driver for new subsystem developments

Photonic Integration has a great potential for manufacturing complex subsystems in a compact and cost-effective way. Entry costs for developing an integrated chip are high, however, which has restricted the application of Photonic ICs. Recent developments towards a generic foundry model in photonic integration lead to a dramatic cost reduction by using standardized high-performance integration processes in combination with a component library with a broad range of building blocks. It lead also to a reduction of the R&D time. The strongly reduced entry costs will bring Photonic ICs within reach for many SMEs in telecom and other applications. Presenter Bio (100 Word Limit): Meint K. Smit graduated in Electrical Engineering in 1974 and received his Ph.D. in 1991, both with honours. He started research in Integrated Optics in 1981. He invented the Arrayed Waveguide Grating, for which he received a LEOS Technical Achievement award in 1997 and he was closely involved in the development of the MMI-coupler. Since 2000 he is the leader of the Photonic Integration group at the COBRA Research Institute of TU Eindhoven. His current research interests are in InP-based Photonic Integration, including integration of InP circuitry on Silicon. Meint Smit is a LEOS Fellow.