Development trends in silicon photonics

Abstract

Silicon photonics has become one of the major technologies in this very information age. It has been intensively pursued by researchers and entrepreneurs all over the world in recent years. Achieving the large scale silicon photonic integration, particularly monolithic integration, is the final goal so that high density data communication will become much cheaper, more reliable, and less energy consuming. Comparing with the developed countries, China may need to invest more to develop top down nanoscale integration capability (more on processing technology) to sustain the development in silicon photonics and to elevate its own industry structure.