The Evolution of Photonic Integrated Circuits and Silicon Photonics

By Xiaoxi He, IDTechEx
EETimes Europe (September 26, 2024)

The rise of AI and the growing demands of data centers have significantly attracted attention toward PICs and silicon photonics.

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are optical microchip systems with optical components utilizing light (or photons) for data transmission instead of electrons, which are the basis of traditional integrated circuits (ICs), also known as electronic integrated circuits (EICs).

This fundamental shift from electronic to photonic signals enables data to be transferred at the speed of light, resulting in significantly higher speeds and greater bandwidth compared with EICs, which are limited by the slower movement of electrons. Massless photons can transmit without the same resistive losses as EICs, leading to less power consumption and heat generation. PICs are also immune to electromagnetic interference due to the utilization of light. These features enable scaling and improvement of data transmission with high reliability.