Electronic Photonic Integrated Circuits (EPICs): Fundamentals and Applications

The exponential growth in data center traffic driven by Cloud computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) has created an urgent need for innovative solutions to achieve energy-efficient computing and communication. Silicon photonics (SiP), a promising technology for next-generation integrated circuits, has already demonstrated its potential in enabling high-capacity optical interconnects. Beyond data centers, SiP offers transformative possibilities in domains such as optical signal processing and high-speed parallel computation for AI workloads. This tutorial review aims to provide electronic IC designers with an introduction to silicon photonic devices, circuits, and CMOS-photonic integration. This tutorial covers the fundamentals of SiP devices, their compact modeling, and interface with CMOS circuits. Additionally, an overview of emerging use cases of EPICs beyond optical interconnects is included.