Advancements in Silicon Integrated Photonics: Design, Fabrication, and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Silicon-integrated photonics has emerged as a key technology for enabling compact, energy-efficient, and high-bandwidth optical systems. Through its CMOS-compatible fabrication and large-scale integration, silicon photonics supports the realization of densely integrated optical components with excellent scalability and cost-effectiveness. As demands for data throughput, miniaturization, and on-chip optical processing continue to grow, silicon photonics offers transformative potential across communication, sensing, computing, and quantum technologies.

This Special Issue highlights recent advances in silicon-integrated photonics, including device innovation, fabrication techniques, heterogeneous integration, advanced packaging, and full system implementation. Emphasis is placed on high-speed modulators, broadband photodetectors, waveguide-based components, and co-integration strategies for chip-scale and co-packaged photonic–electronic systems.

We invite contributions that address a diverse array of applications for silicon-integrated photonics, such as optical interconnects for high-performance computing and data centers, neuromorphic and quantum photonic processors, and silicon-based biosensing platforms. Submissions may focus on device physics, scalable fabrication flows, novel circuit architectures such as programmable photonics, and emerging tools for modeling, simulation, and photonic design automation.

By bringing together state-of-the-art research from academia and industry, this Special Issue aims to offer a comprehensive and forward-looking view of the challenges and opportunities shaping the future of silicon-integrated photonics.

Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to,

• Innovation in the design of silicon photonic devices;
• Advanced fabrication techniques for silicon photonic components;
• High-speed silicon-based modulators and photodetectors;
• Programmable and reconfigurable photonic circuits;
• Photonic–electronic integration strategies;
• Heterogeneous and hybrid integration approaches;
• Photonic packaging, coupling, and thermal management;
• Optical interconnects and co-packaged photonic systems;
• Quantum photonic circuits on silicon platforms;
• Neuromorphic computing using silicon photonics;
• Photonic biosensors and lab-on-chip applications;
• Photonic design automation (PDA) and simulation tools;
• Process design kits (PDKs) and compact modeling techniques;
• Designs for manufacturability and variability mitigation in silicon photonics;
• Emerging materials and integration schemes in silicon photonic platforms.

Dr. Hamed Arianfard
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• silicon photonics
• photonic device design
• advanced fabrication
• photonic–electronic integration
• reconfigurable photonic circuits
• heterogeneous integration
• quantum photonics
• neuromorphic photonics
• photonic design automation
• emerging photonic materials