Photonic Integrated Circuits

Catalog description

This course focuses on photonic integrated circuits (PICs) - an emerging technology where photonic chips (consisting of waveguides, lasers, detectors, modulators and more) are manufactured using integrated circuit technology and closely integrated with microelectronics. The circuits are finding applications in high performance communication, computing and sensing systems. The technology is rapidly growing in complexity and demand, and as the advantages of using photons are realized and the manufacturing hurdles are overcome, photonic circuits will become ubiquitous in future microsystems. Course topics include, fundamental concepts (waveguides, interference, light-matter interaction), PIC component modeling, schematic and layout driven design, PIC fabrication techniques, and PIC testing to round out the students understanding of integrated photonics.