Intel: the future of electronics is a hybrid silicon “laser device”

Intel announced today that it has reached a milestone in its efforts to replace copper wiring with light by creating a stable, 50Gbps link between two devices using fiber optics. Dubbed “silicon photonics,” the chipmaker’s innovations are the basis for a fiber optic interconnect that can be theoretically scaled to 1Tbps for device-to-device and wide-area networking connections. Those same innovations could one day be used to replace copper interconnects in electronic systems.

One of the key innovations that drives this technology is research conducted in concert with UC Santa Barbara to developer hybrid silicon lasers. Using a unique process to bond indium phosphide to silicon along with carefully etched gratings in formed silicon waveguides, designers are able to create variable-wavelength solid state laser emitters by merely manipulating the etching pattern.

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