Photonics Spectra, June 2022
New demand for PICs promises to erupt across multiple end markets over the next few years, forcing fabricators to contemplate options for streamlining the optical alignment of these components.
The early 2000s saw the rapidly growing global appetite for data collide with the limitations of copper-based wire networks. The performance of these conventional data transmission systems declined dramatically at data bandwidths beyond 10 Gbit/s, imposing a major speed limit on the growth of the internet.
Fortunately, an alternative technology, in which silicon-based photonic devices are coupled to fiber optic cables, was already proving its mettle as a potential replacement. At the time, the technology largely found use along the network backbone.
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