Past, present, and future of InP-based photonic integration

Abstract

The application market for Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) is rapidly growing. Photonic integration is the dominant technology in high bandwidth communications and is set to become dominant in many fields of photonics, just like microelectronics in the field of electronics. PICs offer compelling performance advances in terms of precision, bandwidth, and energy efficiency. To enable uptake in new sectors, the availability of highly standardized (generic) photonic integration platform technologies is of key importance as this separates design from technology, reducing barriers for new entrants. The major platform technologies today are Indium Phosphide (InP)-based monolithic integration and Silicon Photonics. In this perspective paper, we will describe the current status and future developments of InP-based generic integration platforms.