Rump Session

Silicon Photonics: Disruptive Technology or Research Curiosity?

Moderators: Dan Kuchta IBM Research, USA, and Michael Hochberg, Director OpSiS, USA

Why does almost every researcher who reports a very low energy per bit for a Silicon Photonics device neglect to include the laser power needed to generate that bit?Si photonics has been one of the hottest fields at OFC over the last few years.  There have been many invited, contributed, and post-deadline papers that show devices and subsytems with promising attributes such as low power consumption, compact size, WDM capability, and monolithic integration.  The dream is that Si Photonics can unlock a future of optical chips that integrate high-speed logic/memory with fast and ultra-low power photonic I/O on the same substrate.  Yet there also seems to be a perception among some that the hype has outpaced the technology and the field suffers from a lack of complete scientific reporting in its publications with significant issues overlooked.

• Will lasers ever become efficient enough to meet the low energy expectations?
• How will we ever realize optical networks on a chip if the temperature stable devices are very large and the nanoscale devices are too temperature sensitive?
• Is the  assumption that because it is silicon it will be reliable apply, and where are the reliability publications?
• Is there a path to reducing coupling losses on and off silicon to enable lower power operation with realistic link budgets?
• Optical Packaging is critical to the success of any optical component and it typically takes longer to develop packaging and packaging methodologies than to invent new devices.  When will we start to see manufacturable packaging concepts supporting many channels and WDM?
• Why is the polarization sensitivity neglected so often? 

These are just some of the critical aspects of Silicon Photonics that are not receiving enough attention. This rump session is an opportunity to air out some overlooked issues and discuss the potential impact of Si Photonics on optical networks from a pragmatic standpoint to re-align expectations with reality to move this potentially important technology forward.

The rump session will be a spontaneous discussion among the audience members. Other than a brief introduction to the issue, there will be no scheduled speakers. You can participate by attending and raising your hand to inform the moderator that you wish to speak or respond. A slide or two can be used to illustrate a point, but each speaker will be limited to a total of two minutes at the microphone. Conversation will flow most freely if your slide is on a plastic transparency, but we will accommodate digital slides on USB sticks and possibly slides transmitted over the wireless network. We will provide pens and transparencies for spontaneously written hand-drawn slides, which, after all, reflect the true spirit of a "rump" session. A laptop and projector will be available for digital slides. Also, Rump Session participants are invited to have their slides published on the OFC/NFOEC website after the session. If you are interested, then please contact Dan McDonold at dmcdonold@osa.org for more details.