There is no question that the silicon industry will continue to throw money at trying to integrate photonics into silicon but there are so many barriers. Silicon has reached a point where it’s potential to perform digital electronic functions have been very close to maximized with the finFET design. Very high density and thermal limits need to be carefully controlled. So why sacrifice that ability by going backwards to a planar design in an effort to implant a 111-V for a DBR laser. How many layers of buffer had to be put down to get it to stick? And really do you want an inferior laser generating heat on a silicon chip that has control of heat as one of the main issues even before the laser is built. In other words why drastically degrade something that silicon is good at to achieve something that it will never be good at?
It is worth noting that the POET solution offers much faster and much more efficient electronics with superior integration abilities as well. So my thoughts are silicon had best focus on what it is good at.
For those who have not listened to this lab tour clip it is worth hearing from one of the PHDs at UC0NN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALYDMN0NLEs
