Semiconductor Photonic Integrated Circuits

Semiconductor photonic integrated circuits (PIC’s) refer to that subset of optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEIC’s) which focus primarily on the monolithic integration of optically interconnected guided-wave optoelectronic devices. The principal motivation for PIC research is the expected cost reduction and packaging robustness associated with replacing individually aligned, single-mode optical connections between discrete optoelectronic devices with lithographically produced integrated waveguides. This field has recently seen significant advances resulting from improved III-V epitaxial crystal growth and related processing techniques. This paper will discuss design and fabrication issues, illustrated by a number of recently demonstrated InP-based PIC’s.