Recent advances in silicon-based passive and active optical interconnects

Silicon photonics has experienced phenomenal transformations over the last decade. In this paper, we present some of the notable advances in silicon-based passive and active optical interconnect components, and highlight some of our key contributions. Light is also cast on few other parallel technologies that are working in tandem with silicon-based structures, and providing unique functions not achievable with any single system acting alone. With an increasing utilization of CMOS foundries for silicon photonics fabrication, a viable path for realizing extremely low-cost integrated optoelectronics has been paved. These advances are expected to benefit several application domains in the years to come, including communication networks, sensing, and nonlinear systems.