Silicon-based optical-microwave integrated circuits. (Technical Feature: Lightwave Series)

Introduction

The optical-microwave theme present in previous lightwave articles is extended here into the area of silicon MMICs combined with ultrafast silicon optical components. Currently, the III-V semiconductors are the leaders in MMIC technology, while silicon has been neglected, mainly because of assumed physical limitations. Now the time has come to re-examine silicon for microwave ICs because new strategies and techniques have become available to move silicon-based devices into the 10 to 50 GHz frequency range. Recent progress on silicon-based devices[1] sug