Photonic Integrated Circuits in Next-Generation Optical Communication Systems: A Comprehensive Review of Design, Fabrication, and Emerging Applications

Abstract

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are transforming the next-generation optical communications systems due to their ability to provide ultra-high data rates, compact systems, and extremely low power consumption. PICs can solve this problem because they will support the ever-increasing amount of data traffic caused by cloud computing, 5G/6G networks, and AI workloads in a simple, clean, and energy-efficient way. In this review, the author provides an in-depth review of the PIC landscape in terms of main design methodologies, mature and advanced fabrication processes as well as diverse integration strategies on the main material platforms, silicon photonics, III-V semiconductors, and lithium niobate among others. We discuss critical state-of-the-art components such as the modulators, photodetectors, multiplexers and the coherent transceivers, their applications in data center interconnects, long-haul transmission and reconfigurable optical networks. The next wave in quantum technologiesThe emergence of quantum technologies, quantum LiDAR, quantum biomedical diagnostics, quantum neural networks and their applications are also discussed. Other important aspects of key design and manufacturing issues, including the relationship of thermal stability, coupling losses, yield scalability and heterogeneous integration, are also said in details. The paper ends with future analysis of research on the fields of reconfigurable architecture, AI-assisted photonic design, and monolithic photonic-electronic co-integration, in which PICs play a pivotal role as a foundation piece of technology to the high-performance, broadband communication and beyond.