Abstract The generation, processing, and measurement of microwave signals using optoelectronic technology on compact chips represent a significant trend in the evolution of microwave photonics (MWP). Among various platforms, silicon photonics has emerged as a leading choice, primarily due to its compatibility with established complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) processes. This compatibility enables the complete integration of high-performance radio frequency (RF) links while addressing key challenges such as size, power consumption, cost, and reliability. In this article, we review recent advancements in silicon-integrated microwave photonics, focusing on the developments of device-level integration and system-level applications. At the device level, we highlight critical innovations in silicon-based passive and active components towards MWP concerns, including ultralow-loss waveguides, high-fitness micro rings, large-bandwidth/high-linearity electro-optic modulators, hybrid/heterogeneous integrated lasers and amplifiers on silicon, frequency combs, and more. These breakthroughs form the basic foundation for advancing MWP system-level implementation. At the system-level applications, we concentrate on integrated MWP systems with diverse functionalities on silicon chips, including microwave signal generation, processing, programmable circuits, and measurement systems. Finally, we discuss current challenges and provide insights into the future of silicon-integrated MWP.

This paper presents a 50-Gb/s optical receiver (ORX) chipset, consisting of a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) and a clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit in a 45-nm silicon-on-insulator CMOS. The proposed inverter-based TIA employs hybrid shunt-series peaking inductors to extend the bandwidth (BW). A baud-rate CDR is proposed to reduce the sampling phases and clocking power by half. To optimise the ORX for in- package integration, a compact-size digital loop is adopted in each channel, and the clock is recovered by phase interpolation from a shared reference. A complete optical-to-electrical (OE) link is built by integrating the proposed ORX with a high-speed Silicon Photonics (SiP) photodetector (PD). Measurements show that the proposed TIA has a transimpedance gain of 53 dB$\Omega $and a BW of 27 GHz. By integrating it with the SiP PD, the OE front-end (PD+TIA) achieves an input sensitivity of −7.7 dBm at 50 Gb/s and BER$ < 10^{-12}$. It features a power efficiency of 1.61 pJ/bit at a data rate of 64 Gb/s. The complete 50 Gb/s ORX achieves data recovery at a quarter rate of 12.5 Gb/s with an output jitter of 1.6 psrms, and has a 3.125 GHz clock with phase noise of −115.22 dBc/Hz at an offset frequency of 1 MHz.