Large-Scale InP Photonic Integrated Circuits: Enabling Efficient Scaling of Optical Transport Networks

An overview of commercially available large-scale photonic integrated circuits (PICs) in indium phosphide is provided. Results of 100-Gb/s PICs that are field-deployed in wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) networks is provided, along with development results showing scaling of both channel count and channel bit rate to implement next-generation PICs with an aggregate capacity of 1.6 Tb/s. Use of PIC-enabled WDM systems allows affordable optical-electrical-optical (OEO) conversion and the implementation of "digital" optical networks with enhanced sub-wavelength reconfigurable bandwidth management, digital performance monitoring, and protection features. PICs will enable the continued capacity scaling required for next-generation IP core networks and support of high-bandwith 40-G and 100-GbE service connectivity between core routers