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An integrated circuit is chip containing electronic components that form a functional circuit, such as those embedded inside your smart phone, computer, and other electronic devices; a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) is a chip that contains photonic components, which are components that work with light (photons).
In an electronic chip, electron flux passes through electrical components such as resistors, inductors, transistors, and capacitors; in a photonic chip, photons pass through optical components such as waveguides (equivalent to a resistor or electrical wire), lasers (equivalent to transistors), polarizers, and phase shifters.
PICs use a laser source to inject light that drives the components, similar to turning on a switch to inject electricity that drives electronic components. In essence, PICs use photons rather than electrons to process and distribute information. In a photonic chip, photons pass through optical components such as waveguides, lasers, polarizers, and phase shifters.
Using light instead of electricity, integrated photonic technology provides a solution to the limitations of electronics like integration and heat generation, taking devices to the next level, the so-called “more than Moore” concept to increase capacity and speed of data transmission. PICs offer advantages such as miniaturization, higher speed, low thermal effects, large integration capacity, and compatibility with existing processing flows that allow for high yield, volume manufacturing, and lower prices. Applications for integrated photonics are broad – from data communications and sensing to the automotive industry and the field of astronomy.
One of the key application fields for PICs is data communications, followed by sensing (for agriculture and autonomous driving, for example), and biomedical applications such as lab-on-a-chip devices, as well as applications in the defense and aerospace industries and the field of astronomy. Other applications include power-saving LEDs, solid-state lasers in medical to industrial applications, and compact light sensors found in devices such as cell phone cameras, scanners, and automotive sensors.
Improvements and additional applications for PICs continue to emerge as designers take on additional technological challenges for which integrated photonics may be useful and for which feasibility studies can determine whether it holds the promise of a solution. Services for such studies are provided by PIC consortia, design houses, and even some universities around the world.
With the emergence of photonic computing, traditional electronic-based printed circuit boards and ICs with optoelectronic circuits may be supplemented or eventually replaced.
With electronic integrated circuits arriving at the end of their integration capacity, PICs have the potential to be the preferred technology for data communications (inter- and intra-datacenter communications), LiDAR solutions for autonomous driving, sensing for aerospace and aeronautics, and untold future applications in a new technological era.
A proper design and PIC process flow can be complex. Specific steps will vary depending on the application and foundry, but the basic steps are:
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The following steps describe the workflow used by a customer to design a PIC for an optical transceiver.
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