A JakajimaTV talk hosted by Pieter Hermans with Ivana Sersic Vollenbroek, Project Manager at Demcon Advanced Mechatronics.
Ivana talks about her experience in product development with Photonic Integrated Circuits, which has certain implications like the need for custom made electronics and others.
What is a Photonic integrated circuit (source Wikipedia)
A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) or integrated optical circuit is a device that integrates multiple (at least two) photonic functions and as such is similar to an electronic integrated circuit. The major difference between the two is that a photonic integrated circuit provides functions for information signals imposed on optical wavelengths typically in the visible spectrum or near infrared 850 nm-1650 nm.
The most commercially utilized material platform for photonic integrated circuits is indium phosphide (InP), which allows for the integration of various optically active and passive functions on the same chip. Initial examples of photonic integrated circuits were simple 2-section distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) lasers, consisting of two independently controlled device sections – a gain section and a DBR mirror section. Consequently, all modern monolithic tunable lasers, widely tunable lasers, externally modulated lasers and transmitters, integrated receivers, etc. are examples of photonic integrated circuits. As of 2012, devices integrate hundreds of functions onto a single chip.[1] Pioneering work in this arena was performed at Bell Laboratories. Most notable academic centers of excellence of photonic integrated circuits in InP are the University of California at Santa Barbara, USA, and the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands.
A 2005 development showed that silicon can, even though it is an indirect bandgap material, still be used to generate laser light via the Raman nonlinearity. Such lasers are not electrically driven but optically driven and therefore still necessitate a further optical pump laser source.
Ivana will speak at the Photonic Integration Conference, October 2020, where she will share her experience in two productdevelopment projects with PICs.
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