ABSTRACT
Wired optical access technologies of future will have to take full advantages of evolutions in the field of optics and photonics to support the exponential growth in demand for bandwidth. This chapter reviews the state-of-the-art technologies and performance on the basis of the two material platforms and development roadmaps for applications in next-generation optical access networks. Silicon Photonics (SiPh) benefits from the complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology platform that has dominated the microelectronics industry more than 40 years. Partnered with Oclaro, Fraunhofer HHI, SMART Photonics, and LioniX, the joint European platform for InP-based PIC – JePPIX offers open-access InP PIC foundry services. By leveraging the monolithic integration capability of InP photonics, the fabrication of PIC light sources such as distributed feedback (DFB) and distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) lasers becomes a very mature process. Photonics integration on an InP platform is a mature technology today and the workhorse of performance focused market segments such as long-haul and coherent communications.
