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Silicon (Si) photonics research and development started more than 30 years ago and has intensified in the last 15 years as levels of device functionality, photonic integration, and commercialization have all increased 1. The key drivers for using Si in photonics arise from the quality of wafers and the superior processing capabilities developed and funded by the microelectronics industry. It has the promise to revolutionize the photonics industry in the same way that CMOS design and processing revolutionized the microelectronics industry, by driving down photonic chip cost while enabling higher levels of photonic integration and functionality. Commercialization, so far, has focused on optical communication (Telecom 2 and data center 3) and biosensing 4, with a wealth of future application areas, including high-performance computing 5, automotive (lidar) 6, optical switches 7, and artificial intelligence 8.
Jones et al. (Tue,) studied this question.