How to Establish a Sustainable Ecosystem for Photonic Integrated Circuits? What are Major Hurdles to Overcome?

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs), which have been designed and fabricated on III-V and siliconphotonics platforms including photonic-electronic integration with peripheral electronic circuits and optical input/output interfaces, have enabled the emergence of versatile photonic components of small form factor with high energy efficiency. The photonic components have been distributed extensively in photonic networks for high-capacity communication and high-performance computing, and have brought the evolution to our community. Foundries and enterprises to conduct the manufacturing of PICs have been established, thereby small-form-factor energy-efficient photonic components can be manufactured with precision and reliability in fabrication processes. For further enhancement in the manufacturing of PICs in terms of lead time, cost, and carbon footprint without deteriorating the precision and reliability, there are growing demands toward an ecosystem to integrate supply and service chains of design, fabrication, and characterization of PICs based on the photonic-electronic integration platforms. In this Joint Workshop, current status and challenges on ecosystem development for PICs are reviewed through presentations given by prominent leaders in the forefront of practical applications of PICs from the points of view of ecosystem constructors and users. Intensive discussion is also organized in panel session following the presentations to gain insights into overcoming obstacles against the ecosystem development and envisage our path to a sustainable ecosystem for PICs.