Abstract

Photonic integrated circuits (PIC's) can be composed of many active waveguide elements such as lasers, detectors, optical modulators and switches, optical amplifiers etc. These elements can be optically coupled via a complex branching network of low loss passive waveguides all on the same semiconductor chip. Some of the more obvious advantages of this technology are the compact, stable and efficient couplings that can be obtained between the various optical elements of the PIC, and also the potential extensive use of optical amplifiers inside the PIC to compensate for undesirable optical losses that may occur inside the optical circuit or at the outside world. It is possible to use optical amplifiers as switching elements in combination with optical power combiners or splitters in a complex waveguide optical switching circuits. This opens the possibility of creating switching PIC's with switching speeds higher than 1 GHz and with inherent optical gain available in the actual switches.

© 1989 Optical Society of America