Photonics — Electronics integration on CMOS

Silicon photonics has generated an outstanding interest for optical communications and for inter and intra-chip interconnects in electronic systems. High performance generic building blocks that can be used for a broad range of applications have already been demonstrated such as waveguides, I/O couplers, laser sources by III-V/Si heterogeneous integration, fast silicon modulators and germanium photodetectors. The paper will also review the different scenarios for integrating photonic functions with an electronic circuit, as well as the associated design, test and packaging challenges.