Scalability of Large-Scale Photonic Integrated Circuits

To keep up with the growing bandwidth demands, photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have been widely employed in various application scenarios where high capacity and high-bandwidth-density interconnects are required. However, it is challenging to scale the PICs toward future petabit per second capacity requirements. We study the scalability bottlenecks of PICs in terms of guiding materials, dense integration approaches, wide-band optical sources, and high-efficiency tunable and modulation devices. We also look for possible solutions to address these challenges. In the end, we provide a perspective on future PIC development. Moore’s law for integrated photonics may last for a much shorter time than that in the microelectronics industry, requiring significant innovations and technological breakthroughs in PIC research.