The potential of silicon-based designs for various optoelectronic functions is discussed. Si-based light detectors are the most advanced, especially in the form of metal-Si-metal (MSM) photodetectors. They use Si band to absorption for visible light and Schottky-barrier emission for the infrared (IR). The different light sources show rapid progress, but still face challenges to reach a quantum efficiency of 10~-2. In addition to the intrinsic silicon based designs, some new Si breadboard concepts are shown: espcially for waveguides, modulators and all-optical amplifiers, it may be advantageous to add entirely different materials (polymers, glasses, BaTiO_3 or Al_2O_3) onto the Si wafer.
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