Silicon Microphotonics: The Next Killer Technology

Abstract

Silicon has become the most studied material in the history of civilization. As one of the most abundant elements on the earth’s crust, and as the basis of a $250B semiconductor industry, silicon has become more pervasive than steel in its affect on quality of life. Silicon integrated circuits have provided the computation capacity that created the Information Age. The technology underlying these circuits has progressed with the help of a Roadmap[1] that coordinates materials, processing and design for successive generations. The Roadmap has defined the technological limits to progress as process yield and as feature size shrink for the past two decades, respectively. For the next decade interconnection is likely to be the major challenge. Silicon microphotonics is a potential solution to the resistance and capacitance limitations of metal conductor interconnection. This paper discusses the advantages and barriers to implementation of an integrated optical interconnection technology from the chip to the network levels of the communications interconnection hierarchy.