Post-Moore or beyond-Moore semiconductor innovation necessitates integration of new devices with conventional CMOS technology. Silicon-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and their hybrid integration with electronic ICs opens new avenues for innovation in ICs. There are several classical and emerging applications where the complementary strengths of integrated photonics and electronics can solve long-standing challenges either in standalone electronic or photonic systems. Photonics allows ultrawideband signal processing capability, low-loss high-throughput communication, and tunability over a very wide frequency spectrum. This talk will present opportunities and challenges with the realization of large-scale PICs (LSPICs), which comprise of 100-1000 optical components, necessary for complex system integration. Specific examples will include widely-tunable RF photonic radio receivers, optical interconnects, optical neural network accelerators, and programmable optical processors. Recent examples of LSPICs fabricated through the AIM Photonics foundry will be presented. Using these examples, the presenter will highlight pathways for mitigation of challenges associated with scaling of PICs, associated electronics, and their packaging.
Dr. Vishal Saxena is an Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Delaware where he directs the Analog Mixed-Signal and Photonic Integrated Circuits (AMPIC) lab. He obtained his B. Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 2002 and Ph.D. from Boise State University, ID in 2010. Dr. Saxena is a recipient of 2015 NSF CAREER, 2016 AFOSR Young Investigator Program (YIP), and 2019 DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) awards. Dr. Saxena’s research interests include CMOS photonic interconnects, RF and millimeter-wave ICs, High-speed Data converters, Neuromorphic computing, and low-power circuits for Edge-AI. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, an Associate Editor of the IEEE TCAS-II journal, and serves on the organizing committees of IEEE CASS conferences.