Silicon integrated photonics begins to revolutionize

The advances in Si technology and the rapid growth of broadband communication via optical fiber allow silicon integrated photonics to begin revolutionizing the electronic devices, circuits, and systems. The pace of technological development has been recently speeded up. Using microfabrication technology we are now able to make waveguide structures and optical components from Si-based materials, such as silicon oxynitride or doped silica. Visible light can be obtained from Si-based materials such as Si quantum wire/dots and Si nanoclusters embedded in insulators. The remaining issues are to develop processes and device structures to make Si photonics economically viable with system and device performance comparable to their existing counterparts. Recent efforts have demonstrated that the light-emitting efficiency can be enhanced greatly and that the lasing effect is also possible with the nanostructures. The impact of these moves will be revolutionary. The successful development of Si integrated photonics will enable on-chip optical interconnects for future microprocessor and giga-scale circuits, chip-to-chip fiber interconnection and will greatly decrease the cost for fiber-to-home connection. This will be one of the major moves for the next technology revolution. The present article discusses some recent developments on these aspects. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.