Photonics ICs are all around. You can find it in many different applications, but mostly in datacom and telecom.
A very simple example: anywhere you have a optical fiber you also need a photonic IC to, at least, convert the light into electrical signal to interface your electronics (and vice-versa).
What we are doing with photonics is adding more functionality in the optical part (filtering signal, multiplexing, modulation, etc) once, in mostly cases, it's more efficient doing that in the optical domain instead of using electronics.
Photonics ICs are all around. You can find it in many different applications, but mostly in datacom and telecom.
A very simple example: anywhere you have a optical fiber you also need a photonic IC to, at least, convert the light into electrical signal to interface your electronics (and vice-versa).
What we are doing with photonics is adding more functionality in the optical part (filtering signal, multiplexing, modulation, etc) once, in mostly cases, it's more efficient doing that in the optical domain instead of using electronics.