%0 Journal Article
%T Reconfigurable Integrated Optoelectronics
%A Richard Soref
%J Advances in OptoElectronics
%D 2011
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2011/627802
%X Integrated optics today is based upon chips of Si and InP. The future of this chip industry is probably contained in the thrust towards optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEICs) and photonic integrated circuits (PICs) manufactured in a high-volume foundry. We believe that reconfigurable OEICs and PICs, known as ROEICs and RPICs, constitute the ultimate embodiment of integrated photonics. This paper shows that any ROEIC-on-a-chip can be decomposed into photonic modules, some of them fixed and some of them changeable in function. Reconfiguration is provided by electrical control signals to the electro-optical building blocks. We illustrate these modules in detail and discuss 3D ROEIC chips for the highest-performance signal processing. We present examples of our module theory for RPIC optical lattice filters already constructed, and we propose new ROEICs for directed optical logic, large-scale matrix switching, and 2D beamsteering of a phased-array microwave antenna. In general, large-scale-integrated ROEICs will enable significant applications in computing, quantum computing, communications, learning, imaging, telepresence, sensing, RF/microwave photonics, information storage, cryptography, and data mining. 1. Introduction This paper focuses on reconfigurable chips and boards that can interface with free-space light beams and optical fibers. The stacked, layered 3D chip is an important new trend discussed here. One goal of this paper is to present a building-block theory of reconfigurables in which a system is formed by interconnecting fixed and changeable modules, each of which has a distinct function. Those functions are identified, and several examples of theory are given. Some examples pertain to chips already built; others are proposals for future chips. Over the next five years, the main optoelectronics research challenge is the large-scale integration (LSI) of low-energy reconfigurable photonics in a cost-effective manner. Our theory provides a framework for innovative R&D in LSI but does not answer basic questions about the function and architecture of new LSI chips. Readers of this paper are called upon to answer those questions. The semiconductor chip or substrate assumed in this paper is typically silicon or indium phosphide, but we will be agnostic about which materials system should be used. The wavelength of operation would be in the visible-through-mid-infrared [3], typically in the 1550 nm telecom/datacom wavelength band. Opto-electronics (OE) refers to a marriage of optics with electronics, whereas electro-optics (EO) signifies an
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aoe/2011/627802/