Abstract

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are that subset of optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEICs) which focus primarily on the integration of multiple interconnected guided wave optical devices onto a single semiconductor substrate.^1-8 The driving force for PICs is the potential for reduced packaging costs and the higher performance resulting from stable, low loss optical coupling between devices. These factors may emerge as crucial for the successful widespread deployment of the more complex optical circuits expected in next generation WDM and multichannel coherent systems. While many of the fundamental concepts for PICs can be drawn from the integrated optics work of the previous two decades, a detailed implementation in the InGaAsP/InP system of primary interest to optical fiber communications has awaited the development of high quality automated beam and vapor growth techniques. The freedom in device design and fabrication engineering facilitated by quantum well growth capabilities, large area uniformity, and complex vertical layer structures has only begun to be explored.

© 1990 Optical Society of America