Fabrication of polarization diversity heterodyne receiver PICs on InP: status, challenges and perspectives

The results and experiences from the first fabrication of polarization diversity heterodyne receiver photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are reviewed and further improvements towards a possible commercial production in future are outlined. The fabrication process is based on a generic integration concept, which allows the parallel fabrication of not only heterodyne receiver PICs but also different other PIC architectures on the same wafer.