Silicon photonics

摘要

The amount of internet traffic increases year by year. The bandwidth demands of internet consumers is ever increasing, although the costs at which improved services are offered does not scale at the same rate. The power consumption of components in the internet network is alarming and is an issue that urgently needs addressing as the technology which serves the internet is developed. Network providers are now looking to optical interconnects for shorter and shorter reach links to alleviate bandwidth limitations of the electrical links they would replace and to reduce power consumption. However, the components typically used to realise an optical data link such as that used in the core of the network are prohibitively expensive and therefore another technology is required which can overcome this economic barrier and provide the performance enhancements needed.