Microengineering for low cost assembly of optoelectronic systems

The applicability of silicon to integrated optical circuits is discussed, in particular in terms of the optical and electro optical elements we at Bookham Technology have realised on silicon on insulator, and the impact of microengineering on the assembly of these systems. Low loss single mode waveguiding on silicon allows the production of integrated optical devices, such as 2×2 switches, optical transceivers, and various sensors. Active devices such as switches rely on free carrier dispersion phase modulators