Silicon photonics' second wave

• “I believe the field of silicon photonics is at a pivotal point of change and acceleration.” 

• Professor Roel Baets, the winner of the 2020 John Tyndall Award, talks about what motivates his research and his interests.

Two concentric circles drawn in chalk are shown on-screen. So Professor Roel Baets open his plenary talk at the European Conference on Integrated Optics (ECIO) 2020, asking the online audience what is being shown.

Professor Roel Baets

Suggestions come flooding in: the cross-section of an optical fibre, a silicon wafer, a ring resonator optical component and - the correct answer - a doughnut.

The image is from the front cover of Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth, a UK professor of economics.

The author discusses how continual economic growth is out of kilter with the planet’s well-being and details alternative approaches. The “doughnut” represents a sweet-spot region ensuring sustainable growth.

Baets applied the book’s thinking to his plenary talk on the topic of silicon photonics research.

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X-Celeprint brings printing technology to silicon photonics

X-Celeprint's micro transfer printing technology. Source: X-Celeprint

• X-Celeprint has a printing process that places individual 'chiplets' of III-V material onto silicon 
• The micro transfer printing technique can be used to make silicon photonics circuits
• X-Celeprint will work with silicon photonics companies interested in licensing its technology

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