A Brief Analysis of Prospects for Photonic Integrated Circuits in Next-Generation Space Applications

As the rapid development of space technology, microelectronics can no longer meet the increased requirements in terms of transmission capacity and communication speed. The introduction of optical technology is a trend. As resource constrained platforms, space-based systems pay more attention to the three key performance indicators: size, weight and power (SWaP). The conventional bulk optical devices have been seen to possess restrictions for its SWaP. Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) technology provides an ideal solution to solve the bottleneck problem with the advantages of small size, wide bandwidth, tunability and low power consumption. In this paper, we proposed a brief analysis of prospects for PICs in next-generation space applications, which focused on the progress of mainstream fields in space applications and the current space qualification challenges. The progress in satellite free-space laser communication and microwave photonic are analyzed in detail and state-of-the art researches for space radiation effect of the PICs devices are summarized.