Silicon Photonics: An Overview
Silicon photonics is an emerging technology that integrates optical components and systems onto silicon-based semiconductor platforms. By combining photonic functions such as light generation, modulation, transmission, and detection with conventional electronic circuitry, silicon photonics enables high-speed, energy-efficient data communication and signal processing within compact and scalable devices.
At its core, silicon photonics leverages standard complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) manufacturing processes. This compatibility allows photonic components to be fabricated using existing semiconductor infrastructure, significantly reducing production costs and enabling large-scale adoption. Unlike traditional optical systems that rely on discrete components, silicon photonics integrates multiple optical elements onto a single chip, improving performance, reliability, and integration density.