Nov. 24, 2025 –
By Bill Tanner, Intelligent Data Centres
Sam Dale, Senior Technology Analyst, IDTechEx, says opportunities for photonic integrated circuits platforms are expected to grow in the next decade.
Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) use manufacturing processes developed for the semiconductor industry to miniaturize complex optical functionality onto a chip.
PICs offer significant advantages over electronic ICs.
Since light travels around 3X faster than electricity, PICs can transmit data with much higher throughput. Propagation losses are also typically much smaller compared to resistance losses in electronic ICs. These attributes allow photonic waveguides to achieve up to ten times better data transfer efficiency, one hundred times higher bandwidth, and much shorter latency (0.3 times) when compared to their electronic counterparts, whilst typically saving energy too.
Additionally, PICs can be integrated into modern CMOS processes and are relatively easy to combine with existing electronic systems. This enhances their versatility and effectiveness in advancing data communication technology.