The Advances and Future Directions in Integrated Photonic Applications

Directions in Integrated Photonic Applications

Abstract

Integrated photonics has emerged as a transformative platform for a broad spectrum of applications, including cloud-scale optical accelerators, AI-driven interconnects, and IoT-edge sensing networks. Its ability to integrate laser sources, waveguides, modulators, and detectors on a single chip offers orders of magnitude improvements in bandwidth, latency, and energy efficiency over conventional electronic systems. Recent breakthroughs in large-scale photonic accelerators, silicon-compatible quantum-dot laser integration, and photonic circuits for Fog-Cloud networks exemplify its rapid progression toward practical deployment. This article reviews these advancements, evaluating challenges in fabrication and packaging, and outlines near-term prospects for commercialization.