Silicon Photonics will revolutionize optical communication

Traditionally transceivers are built with optical subassemblies containing multiple components made of materials that are often expensive to purchase and challenging to process. Also these components need to be individually packaged and then repackaged into an hermetically sealed optical assembly.

In Silicon Photonics this optical subassembly is replaced by an optical chip. On this chip all components of a traditional subassembly are replaced by structures in silicon. This chip can then be fabricated just like an electronic chip enabling low cost high volume manufacturing.

The precision of the manufacturing process of optical chips in Silicon Photonics allows for huge miniaturization making it possible to develop transceivers that enable higher port density in optical networking equipment and consume less power than traditional transceivers.