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Intel Researchers Build Laser on Chip
Victor Ramen writes "Working with the basic material of computer chips, Intel Corp. researchers have constructed an all-silicon laser that could lead to computers one day harnessing light waves rather than electrical currents to shuttle data swiftly. 'Once you have silicon as an optical material, then you can take advantage of this enormous (silicon) infrastructure that exists around the world,' said Mario Paniccia, director of Intel's photonics lab. 'You can imagine starting to siliconize photonic devices, and maybe integrate photonics and electronics.'"
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Knew this sounded familiar.
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AT&T announced this 12 years ago... http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.01/electrons
To grasp the significance of this, think of the difference between electrical and electronic devices.
Current photonic devices are at the same technological level as electric devices were before the invention of the integrated circuit and the "electronic" revolution occured.
If we're about to see an analog of the "electronic" revolution, but this time using photons instead of electrons, it's going to be absolutely amazing - and its effect will be as unpredictable as the effects of the electronic revolution (computers, the internet, and other radical consequences of the information age) were.
Fascinating times ahead.
Yeah, I was thinking that.
The link at the bottom of the main page has a lot more info, but it seems to be saying that they've developed a means of modulating signals at higher frequencies than has been possible before by using only silicon devices. They've stuck it all on one chip for signal generation and one chip for signal detection. If they can get it working in a high volume fab plant then they'll get faster input/output from their chips.
Practical uses: faster bus/interconnects. If they can make it cheap enough. And get it working. And...
Anyway... interesting...
If you can't think of something nice to say then don't say anything at all. No, REALLY.
Well, there ARE applications.
There has been much research about using waveguides instead of copper to connect chips, but the limiter was always the problems with external lasers.
Just putting them on die allows for quite some progress in that area.
Of course i would be really interested how they did it (with SI having an indirect bandgap and all)
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
The parallel (conductive) bus structures on silicon wafers will have to be addressed also. Per the "integrated optics" (IO)comment earlier, closely spaced optical "channels" have a nasty habit of evanescent-field-coupling from one to another (it is amazingly counterintuitive), so opague blocks will have to be put between them. (I always knew my grad-studies on IO would come in handy some day). They have a ways to go yet -unless they want to run the optical busses serially..?
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
Is there really any speed difference between sending a laser over a bus and sending and electrical signal down a wire. Doesn't electricity travel at c (the speed of light). I know that's just thoery and that in reality, it travels at less than c, but so does light going to any substance other than a vacuum. The other thing. Wires can be made really small, and still carry a current. Can we expect to fibre optic cables down to the same size?
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.