Silicon photonic transceivers for application in data centers

Global data traffic is growing rapidly, and the demand for optoelectronic transceivers applied in data centers (DCs) is also increasing correspondingly. In this review, we first briefly introduce the development of optoelectronics transceivers in DCs, as well as the advantages of silicon photonic chips fabricated by complementary metal oxide semiconductor process. We also summarize the research on the main components in silicon photonic transceivers. In particular, quantum dot lasers have shown great potential as light sources for silicon photonic integration—whether to adopt bonding method or monolithic integration—thanks to their unique advantages over the conventional quantum-well counterparts. Some of the solutions for high-speed optical interconnection in DCs are then discussed. Among them, wavelength division multiplexing and four-level pulse-amplitude modulation have been widely studied and applied. At present, the application of coherent optical communication technology has moved from the backbone network, to the metro network, and then to DCs.