Advances in cost-effective integrated spectrometers

The proliferation of Internet-of-Things has promoted a wide variety of emerging applications that require compact,lightweight,and low-cost optical spectrometers.While substantial progresses have been made in the miniaturization of spectrometers,most of them are with a major focus on the technical side but tend to feature a lower technology readiness level for manufacturability.More importantly,in spite of the advancement in miniaturized spectrometers,their performance and the metrics of real-life applications have seldomly been connected but are highly important.This review paper shows the market trend for chip-scale spectrometers and analyzes the key metrics that are required to adopt miniaturized spectrometers in real-life applications.Recent progress addressing the challenges of miniaturization of spectrometers is summarized,paying a special attention to the CMOS-compatible fabrication platform that shows a clear pathway to massive production.Insights for ways forward are also presented.