Modulating the AI era: new approaches to modulation on silicon

Data-center and AI workloads are scaling at an unprecedented pace, driving an urgent need for optical technologies that deliver higher bandwidth, increased density, and dramatically reduced energy per bit. Silicon photonics, enabled by CMOS-compatible fabrication, provides a powerful platform, but its conventional modulators are reaching fundamental limits in speed, footprint, and power efficiency. To meet the demands of AI clusters and next-generation data centers, new devices and materials are needed. Plasmonics, with their ability to confine and manipulate light at the nanoscale, enable ultrafast, ultra-compact modulators with voltage characteristics beyond what silicon alone can achieve. When combined with silicon photonics and advanced organic materials, these hybrid platforms unlock unprecedented performance while remaining compatible with high volume manufacturing. In this talk, we will examine how innovative material systems—especially the fusion of silicon and plasmonics—are redefining what modulators can deliver. We will discuss how these breakthroughs pave the way for the devices required for AI scale computing, high density data centers, and other bandwidth intensive applications.