Researchers from Intel have succeeded in using silicon manufacturing processes to create a novel “transistor-like” device that can encode data onto a light beam.
Performance of the silicon-based optical modulator exceeds 1 GHz and the Intel researchers believe they can the scale the technology up to 10 GHz or faster in the future. To achieve the result, a beam of light is split into two beams as it passes through the silicon. Then, a novel transistor-like device is used to hit one beam with an electric charge, inducing a “phase shift.” When the two beams of light are re-combined the phase shift induced between the two arms makes the light exiting the chip go on and off at over 1 GHz. The on and off pattern of light can be translated into the 1’s and 0’s needed to transmit data.
“This is a significant step toward building optical devices that move data around inside a computer at the speed of light,” said Patrick Gelsinger, senior vice president and chief technology officer at Intel. “It is the kind of breakthrough that ripples across an industry over time enabling other new devices and applications. It could help make the Internet run faster, build much faster high-performance computers and enable high bandwidth applications like ultra-high-definition displays or vision recognition systems.” A copy of the paper and more information about Intel’s silicon photonics research can be found at http://www.intel.com/technology/sphttp://www.intel.com
