Introduction
A New and Exciting Use of Silicon Technology
While the silicon technology is highly saturated in the electronics arena, optical engineers and scientists have found a new and exciting use of this tool. The optical waveguides on a silicon chip that can be designed to perform many important optical signal processing. These chips, designed for optical multiplexing and demultiplexing, are commonly known as Planar Lightwave Circuit (PLC) or more generally Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC). The most popular application of PICs is the arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) that has revolutionized the optical communication industry. AWGs are used for multiplexing (MUX) and demultiplexing (DMUX) of optical signals in optical communication systems. They also can be used as a building block for more complicated multi-channel systems such as tunable optical attenuator, thermo-optic switch, DWDM channel monitor, gain equalizer, sensor-web integrator, etc. There are several competing technologies, each with its own strength and weaknesses, the search for better performing, cost reducing and more reliable technology is ongoing. Micro to nano-scale photonic waveguides is an emerging technology that enables chip-scale PICs with high density functionalities in a compact foot print and cost effective architecture. A review of DWDM technology can be found here.
© 1999 Anis Rahman