Advances in silicon photonics

Silicon photonics based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) has recently attracted a great deal of attention since it offers an opportunity for low cost solutions for various applications ranging from telecommunications to chip-to-chip interconnects. As single crystal silicon exhibits no linear electro-optic effect, design and fabrication of a high-speed silicon optical modulator with bandwidth exceeding 1 GHz are very challenging. In this presentation we will review the recent demonstration of a fast (GHz) silicon optical modulator based on a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitor. We will present the device design, fabrication, and characterization. We will also discuss the modulation bandwidth and phase efficiency scaling for higher speed applications. Finally, we will give an overview of recent development in other silicon photonics related topics and challenges.