Compared with conventional purely electronic technologies, photonic devices and systems based on miniaturised photonic integrated circuits (PICs), are more compact, lighter, more reliable, cheaper and provide better performance.
These advantages have brought photonics to all areas of everyday life and industry with devices such as lasers, sensors and LEDs used for applications including consumer devices, telecommunications, medicine, agriculture, construction, manufacturing, aviation, and the military.
Over the next 30 years, photonics will play an indispensable role in meeting the world’s technological needs for, e.g., a rapid increase in secure broadband connectivity, ultra-fast data transmission beyond 400G, advanced imaging, laser and sensing technology to improve medical diagnosis and manufacturing processes, and LiDAR systems for autonomous driving.
For these reasons, governments of all advanced industrial counties are investing heavily in photonics in recognition of it being a key enabling technology and strategically important for their completeness and industrial future.