Active and Passive Devices Based on Silicon-on-Insulator Waveguides

Silicon on Insulator (SOI) waveguides are attracting considerable attention in recent years, and the devices based on these optical waveguides are important to realize many modern optical signal processing systems. The main driving forces behind these devices are the technological improvements in exploiting the non-linear optical phenomenon and their compatibility with CMOS devices. Although all optical signal processing devices have been investigated intensively, the chip-scale solution provided by the silicon photonics is the most promising. Silicon photonic devices are finding their applications in telecommunication transmission systems and biomedical instruments and in the new generation of high performance computing systems. Recent progress in patents all over the globe, along with important technological developments in this field are reviewed.