Integrated Optics

Abstract

In the semiconductor industry, an electronic integrated circuit is one that is manufactured entirely on a wafer or chip of silicon or some other semiconductor. An optical device that is manufactured on a flat substrate and performs functions similar to electronic circuits is called by analogy an optical integrated circuit. Devices such as Fourier-transform optical processors can also be manufactured on flat substrates. To distinguish such devices from optical integrated circuits, we shall call them planar optical devices. Both planar optical devices and optical integrated circuits fall into the general classification of integrated optics.