Abstract

Integration of optical functions onto a compact chip is rapidly gaining importance in many products, for reasons of compactness, reliability and cost. Among several options in terms of technology platforms for this purpose, silicon photonics is emerging as an industrially and economically viable option. Silicon photonics uses the knowhow and the infrastructure of the CMOS-world to implement complex chips that combine a variety of photonics functions: passive optical functions, optical modulators and switches, detectors and even light sources. The industrial supply chain for this field is maturing and products are entering the market place. In this keynote I will discuss the basics of this field, the key technological challenges, the key European stakeholders and the wide variety of applications, including telecom/datacom, sensing and medical devices.