What is InP Photonic Integrated Circuits(PICs)?
“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.” (from Wikipedia) Our InP PICs is based on InP materials system and it indicates it can integrated active component, such as laser, while this is very difficult for Si PICs technology.
Our InP PIC technology can monolithically integrate active building blocks(e.g. laser, SOA, modulator, photodetector) and passive building block(e.g. waveguide, coupler, MMI, AWG, etc) into a single InP chip via semiconductor process.
Compared to other integration technology in microphotonics, which is usually developed and optimized for specific application, our photonic integration technology is implemented on a generic process. In such a process, a broad range of functionalities can be easily realized by a set of different building blocks(BBs), like wave-guide, coupler, filter, reflector, modulator, photon detector, amplifier, laser, etc. You do not have to develop or optimize your process for specific application any more!
What kind of Building Blocks(BBs) can InP PICs integrate?
InP PICs can integrate a wide range of actiave and passive BBs: wave-guide, coupler, filter, laser, optical amplifier, MMI, AWG, Bragg reflector, modulator, grating, photon detector, etc.
What function can InP PICs realize?
A wide applications can be made. Some examples are MMI-couplers and filters, Lidar, AWG-demux, polarisation independent differential delay lines, Optical Coherence Tomography, Fabry-Perot lasers, tunable DBR lasers, multiwavelength lasers, picosecond pulse laser, ring lasers, WDM cross connect, WDM add-drop, ultrafast switch, etc.
What advantages does InP PICs technology have?
- Compared to conventional devices, PICs chips are much smaller, light weight, higher energy efficiency, better stability, suitable for high volume manufacturing, enabling designers more flexibility and innovation.
- Compared to other materials based PICs, InP PICs chips can truly realize monolithic integration of active and passive BBs for a wide range of applications.