Fundamental Building Blocks for Scalable Photonic Programmable Processors

[EN] Photonics technology is emerging as a key enabler, complementing electronics in next-generation applications by offering greater bandwidth, lower latency and improved energy efficiency. Silicon photonic programmable processors bring these advantages to a solid-state platform, providing compact...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Gómez-Hidalgo, Cristina, Fernandez-Vicente, Juan, Balbastre-Benavent, Natalia, Manglano-Bermejo, Maria, Papadovasilakis, Marios, Elsharabasy, Ahmed, Banos-Lopez, Rocio, Benitez-Gonzalez, Jesus, Gutierrez-Campo, Ana, Hoekstra, Tsjerk, Perez-Lopez, Daniel, Torrijos-Moran, Luis
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)
Repositorio:RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:riunet______::3d647b64817637a629f0b258df18950c
Acceso en línea:https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/235319
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Large-scale silicon photonics
Optical networking
Optical switches
Programmable photonic processors
Descripción
Sumario:[EN] Photonics technology is emerging as a key enabler, complementing electronics in next-generation applications by offering greater bandwidth, lower latency and improved energy efficiency. Silicon photonic programmable processors bring these advantages to a solid-state platform, providing compact form factors and low power consumption, although the scalability of densely integrated circuits is still under active investigation. In this article, we present a comprehensive study of the essential photonic components required for large-scale integration of silicon photonic processors, covering both design and experimental demonstration. We analyse and optimise the fundamental building blocks-including splitters, phase shifters, and crossings-and experimentally validate their scalability through wafer-scale characterisation. To finish, we illustrate the impact at the circuit level in a optical switch loaded with high-speed transmission and discuss the remaining challenges for large-scale integration.