silicon photonics
noun1
The technology discipline related to production of optical switching electronic devices using integrated circuit manufacturing technology
- Here's a better way: replace the copper with optical fiber and the electrons with photons. That's the promise of silicon photonics: affordable optical communications for everything. It will let manufacturers build optical components using the same semiconductor equipment and methods they use now for ordinary integrated circuits, thereby dramatically lowering the cost of photonics.2005 October 23, Mario Paniccia, Sean Koehl, “The Silicon Solution”, in IEEE Spectrum, archived from the original on 19 Feb 2006: