Given the expanding landscape of data-intensive applications, such as cloud computing, metaverse, and generative artificial intelligence, the demand for higher-speed data transmission and computation continues to escalate. Silicon (Si) photonics has thus emerged as a promising technology for next-generation optical interconnects and accelerators because of its ultra-high speed, low-latency, CMOS compatibility, and economies of scale. In this talk, I will share a Si-first photonic integrated platform, where modulators, photodetectors, linear multipliers, and optical memories can all be implemented exclusively using Si. This pure-Si scheme minimizes the efforts for regrowth or wafer bonding of additional materials, offering substantial advantages in terms of reducing threshold, time, cost, and simultaneously enhancing fabrication yield and reliability for Si photonics foundries. It paves the way for large-scale integrated photonic circuits, providing easily accessible hardware with ultra-fast speeds and enhanced features for a wide range of optical systems, including interconnects, neural networks and sensing.
Yuan Yuan is currently a Senior Research Scientist at Hewlett Packard Labs, Hewlett Packard Enterprise. He received the Ph.D degree from University of Virginia in 2019 under the supervision of Prof. Joe Campbell, and the B.S. degree from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2016. His research interests include optoelectronic devices, silicon photonics, and large-scale photonic integrated circuits. He has authored and coauthored over 80 journal and conference papers, and has granted 4 US/international patents with another dozen pending. His work has been recognized by the Best Paper Award in Industry Innovation at ACP 2021 and OECC 2023. He serves on the Technical Program Committee of several international conferences and is a member of IEEE Photonics Society Publications Council. He is a member of IEEE and Optica.