Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Commentary
  • Published:

Myths and rumours of silicon photonics

Nature Photonics volume 6, pages 206–208 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Low-cost manufacturing, high yields and seamless on-chip integration with electronics are often touted as the guaranteed benefits of silicon photonics, but is this really the case? Michael Hochberg and colleagues explain that the situation is much more complex in reality.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Reed, G. T., Mashanovich, G., Gardes, F. Y. & Thomson, D. J. Nature Photon. 4, 518–526 (2010).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. DeRose, C. T. et al. Opt. Express 19, 24897–24904 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Tien, M.-C., Bauters, J. F., Heck, M. J. R., Blumenthal, D. J. & Bowers, J. E. Opt. Express 18, 23562–23568 (2010).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Kazior, T. E. et al. Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Symp. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/csics.2010.5619670 (2010).

  5. Chan, M., Hui, K. Y., Hu, C. & Ko, P. K. IEEE Trans. Electron. Devices 45, 834–841 (1998).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Ding, R. et al. IEEE Photon. Conf. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/pho.2011.6110876 (2011).

  7. Cressler, J. D. Silicon Heterostructure Devices Ch. 1 (CRC, 2008).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Orcutt, J. S. et al. Opt. Express 19, 2335–2346 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Motoyoshi, M. Proc. IEEE 97, 43–48 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Mekis, A. et al. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quant. Electron. 99, 1–12 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Sun, X. C., Liu, J. F., Kimerling, L. C. & Michel, J. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quant. Electron. 16, 124–131 (2010).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Fish, G., Nicholes, S., Kaman, V. & Fang, A. IEEE Photonics Conf. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/pho.2011.6110438 (2011).

  13. Narasimha, A. et al. Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition and the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference paper OMK7 (OSA, 2008).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Miller, D. A. B. Proc. IEEE 97, 1166–1185 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Baehr-Jones, T. et al. Preprint at http://arxiv.org/abs/1203.0767 (2012).

  16. Shang, J. et al. Langmuir 28, 3338–3344 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Doylend, J. K. et al. Opt. Express 19, 21595–21604 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Capmany, J. & Novak, D. Nature Photon. 1, 319–330 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Schmidt, B., Almeida, V., Manolatou, C., Preble, S. & Lipson, M. Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 4854–4856 (2004).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Yoo, S. J. B. et al. in IEEE Trans. Terahertz Sci. Tech. 2, 167–176 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Kasprzak, J., Patton, B., Savona, V. & Langbein, W. Nature Photon. 5, 57–63 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Sanders, S. J., Strandjord, L. K. & Mead, D. Optical Fiber Sensors Conference Technical Digest 5–8 (2002).

  23. Hochberg, M. & Baehr-Jones, T. Nature Photon. 4, 492–494 (2010).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tom Baehr-Jones is at the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-2500, USA,

    Tom Baehr-Jones

  2. Michael Hochberg and Dennis Prather are in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Delaware, 140 Evans Hall, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA,

    Dennis Prather & Michael Hochberg

  3. Steven Danziger is at BAE Systems North America, 9300 Wellington Rd, Manassas, Virginia 22209, USA,

    Steven Danziger

  4. Thierry Pinguet is at Luxtera, Carlsbad, California 92011, USA,

    Thierry Pinguet

  5. Patrick Lo Guo-Qiang is at the Institute of Microelectronics, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore,

    Patrick Lo Guo-Qiang

Authors
  1. Tom Baehr-Jones
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Thierry Pinguet
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Patrick Lo Guo-Qiang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Steven Danziger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Dennis Prather
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Michael Hochberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Hochberg.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Baehr-Jones, T., Pinguet, T., Lo Guo-Qiang, P. et al. Myths and rumours of silicon photonics. Nature Photon 6, 206–208 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2012.66

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2012.66

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing