Organizer
Kristinn Gylfason, Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan, Sweden
In this topical review we look at the various aspects of integrating micro- and nanomechanical functionality into photonic integrated circuits, for actuation, sensing and optomechanical functions. Photonic integrated circuits have proven their worth in telecommunications and are finding use in emerging applications, such as in the biotechnology and automotive industries. Open-access photonic foundries have democratized the deployment of photonic circuits, but the modest integration level achieved to date is far from its full potential. Current circuits use only tens to hundreds of active components while scaling to thousands and beyond is needed for versatile large-scale circuits. Also, accurate control of power and phase is needed in all parts of the circuits. A major bottleneck for scaling is the static power consumption of the active components needed for continuous phase and power control. Current circuits rely mostly on integrated thermo-optic phase shifters and couplers that consume milliwatts to tens of milliwatts each. Thermal crosstalk between such components puts a hard limit on the achievable integration density. In contrast, micro- and nano-electro-mechanical counterparts use less than a microwatt of power for their electrostatic actuators and thus enable continued scaling of photonic integrated circuits. Recent demonstrations of such tuners integrated in commercial photonic foundry platforms has set the scene for a rapid expansion of work in this field.
Invited Speakers
Karen Grutter, The Laboratory for Physical Sciences, USA
NEMS for Cavity Optomechnical Devices
Sangyoon Han, DGIST, Republic of Korea
Ultra-low Power and Scalable Programmable Silicon Photonic MEMS
Umar Khan, Ghent University, INTEC, Belgium
Enabling Large Scale Programmable Photonic Integrated Circuits Using MEMS
Wouter Westerveld, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Opto-mechanical Ultrasound Sensors in Silicon Photonics
Ming Wu, University of California Berkeley, USA
Title to be Announced