Silicon technology is evolving rapidly, particularly in board-to-board or chip-to chip applications. Increasingly, the electronic parts of silicon technology will carry out the data processing, while the photonic parts take care of the data communication. For the first time, this book describes the merging of photonics and electronics in silicon and other group IV elements. It presents the challenges, the limitations, and the upcoming possibilities of these developments.The book describes the evolution of CMOS integrated electronics, status and development, and the fundamentals of silicon photonics, including the reasons for its rapid expansion, its possibilities and limitations. It discusses the applications of these technologies for such applications as memory, digital logic operations, light sources, including drive electronics, optical modulators, detectors, and post detector circuitry. It will appeal to engineers in the fields of both electronics and photonics who need to learn more about the basics of the other field and the prospects for the integration of the two.

Introduction: Scope and purpose of the book