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MIT Researchers Make Advance Toward Photonic Circuits

Posted by Unknown on from the look-into-the-light dept.

MrSeb writes with this excerpt from an article in Extreme Tech: "Light-emitting diodes are a cornerstone of consumer tech. They make thin-and-light TVs and smartphones possible, provide efficient household, handheld, and automobile illumination, and, of course, without LEDs your router would not have blinkenlights. Thanks to some engineers from MIT, though, a new diode looks set to steal the humble LED's thunder. Dubbed a diode for light, and crafted using standard silicon chip fabrication techniques, this is a key discovery that will pave the path to photonic (as opposed to electronic) pathways on computer chips and circuit boards. The diode for light — which is made from a thin layer of garnet — is transparent in one direction, but opaque in the other. Garnet is usually hard to deposit on a silicon wafer, but the MIT researchers found a way to do it."

3 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. light transistor by greywire · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Does this mean a light transistor is coming soon?

    I am wondering if there is any material that acts as a mirror and can be switched from reflective to transparent electronically? I assume there is not or you wouldn't have devices like MEMS displays. I'm thinking if you had such a material it would be essentially a light transistor.

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    1. Re:light transistor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well we currently have devices that can become opaque or transparent depending on signal.

      Also, couldn't metamaterials technically be used in this way?
      That EM blackhole that was created could be turned in to a one-way channel for light instead of just an infinite spiral to absorption
      Reflective could be a mirror that punts it back through another channel that comes out at the same input, shift mirror to allow it through.
      Of course, that involves mechanical stuff (even if incredibly tiny), but the use of photonics could possibly decrease the heat and space requirements for boards, so a significantly larger number could probably be used.

  2. Re:Hasn't it been supposedly "paved" several times by timeOday · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sadly, progress is not made in academia. It's made in the market. Until there is a photonic device on the market they are simply blowing smoke... Wake me up when they have actually got something on the market.

    This mentality is a big part of our national decline. Nobody wants to make the investments or do the hard work. They just want to swoop in when the technology is ripe for commercialization and reap all the profit from others' years of investment. Individuals and big companies act this out in different ways, but it boils down to, "just wake me up when I can get it on sale at Walmart."