Silicon Photonics

Silicon photonics uses chip-making techniques to fabricate photonic circuits. The emerging technology is coming to market at a time of momentous change. The need of the Internet content providers to keep scaling their data centers is becoming increasing challenging, the chip industry is facing a future without Moore's law, while telcos must contend with a looming capacity crunch due to continual traffic growth.Each of these developments is significant in its own right. Collectively, they require new thinking in the design of chips, optical components, and systems. Such change also signals new business opportunities and disruption.Notwithstanding challenges, silicon photonics' emergence is timely because it is the future of several industries. For the optical industry, the technology will allow designs to be tackled in new ways. For the chip industry, silicon photonics will become the way of scaling post-Moore's law. New system architectures enabled by silicon photonics will improve large-scale computing and optical communications.Silicon Photonics: Fueling the Next Information Revolution outlines the history and status of silicon photonics. The book discusses the trends driving the datacom and telecom industries, the main but not the only markets for silicon photonics. In particular, developments in optical transport and the data center are discussed as are the challenges. The book details the many roles silicon photonics will play, from wide area networks down to the chip level. Silicon photonics is set to change the optical components and chip industries; this book explains how.
- Captures the latest research assessing silicon photonics development and prospects- Demonstrates how silicon photonics addresses the challenges of managing bandwidth over distance and within systems- Explores potential applications of SiP, including servers, datacenters, and Internet of Things

Daryl Inniss is Director, New Business Development at OFS. He was formerly Components Practice Leader at market research firm Ovum and RHK. Daryl has been in the telecom industry for over 25 years. He was Technical Manager at JDSU and Lucent Technologies, Bell Laboratories. Daryl started his career as a Member of the Technical Staff, AT&T Bell Labs. Daryl holds a PhD in Chemistry from UCLA and an AB from Princeton University.Roy Rubenstein is editor of the online magazine, Gazettabyte, focused on optical communications. He is also a contributor to Fibre Systems, Optical Connections and New Electronics, and is a consultant at the market research firm, LightCounting. Previously, he was a senior analyst at RHK (now Ovum), covering optical components and communications semiconductors. Roy has written for several respected titles including IEEE Spectrum. He holds a PhD, MSc and a BSc in Electronic Engineering from The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST).

1. Silicon Photonics: Disruptive and Ready for Prime Time2. Layers and the Evolution of Communications Networks3. The Long March to a Silicon-Photonics Union4. The Route to Market for Silicon Photonics5. Metro and Long-Haul Network Growth Demands Exponential Progress6. The Data Center: A Central Cog in the Digital Economy7. Data Center Architectures and Opportunities for Silicon Photonics8. The Likely Course of Silicon Photonics