• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Intel Announces Record Performance In Optical Communications

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 December 2008, 07:55 CST

Intel Corp. claims it’s silicon photonics have achieved record-setting performance in optical communications. The company says the development, which combines silicon with the element germanium to make a device called an avalanche photo detector, will reduce costs while increasing the speed of transmitting data. 

Silicon photonics-based photo detectors are used to send and receive optical information, particularly in ultra high-bandwidth applications. 

The company said the development marks the first time a silicon-based optical component surpassed the performance of an equivalent component comprised of more costly and conventional materials, such as indium phosphide.

Optical communications involves encoding information on streams of laser-generated light particles. The technology performs faster than standard electrical connections, and uses thin glass fibers rather than cumbersome cables. 

Such optical connections are typically used for high-volume long-distance transmissions or to connect massive, ultra high-bandwidth supercomputers, whose key components often cost tens to hundreds of dollars each.

Scientists are now seeking to reduce these costs by using materials found in conventional chips --a field known as silicon photonics.
 
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Intel in particular has been generating a series of research papers describing prototype optical components made from silicon.

In the latest development, which was jointly funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Intel’s engineers collaborated with counterparts at Numonyx BV. Scientists at the University of Virginia and the University of California at Santa Barbara were consulted on the project and also provided testing, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Photo detectors sense and amplify light pulses generated by lasers. The new prototype achieved a "gain-bandwidth product" of 340 gigahertz, the highest ever recorded, according to Mario Paniccia, a fellow and director of Intel's photonics-technology lab.

Detector performance improvements could be harnessed in a number of ways, such as increasing the speed data is sent, increasing the distance a signal travels or reducing the energy required to transmit a signal a constant length, Mr. Paniccia said.

"And we believe we can continue to improve the performance," the Wall Street Journal quoted Mr. Paniccia as saying.

Intel expects silicon-based optical components will initially send data between servers in a computer room and between chips in a system.  However, it ultimately hopes to utilize optical connections inside its microprocessor chips as well.

Mr. Paniccia said silicon-based detectors might also find applications outside communications, such as in cryptography, medicine and use with optical sensors. 

However, Mr. Paniccia suggested it would take several years to perfect the technology, and did not provide a precise timetable about when the new components might be incorporated into products.

Meanwhile, Carlsbad, Calif.-based Luxtera, a closely held Intel rival that is already producing silicon-based optical components, challenged the announcement.

Greg Young, Luxtera’s CEO, called the performance described in Intel's paper "tremendous", but said Luxtera researchers were actually the first to top the performance of indium-phosphide photo detectors in research results published more than a year ago.

Young also maintains that Intel's technology is incompatible with conventional semiconductor-production processes, and would therefore not be able to be used in wave-guide detectors that work alongside other components on one piece of silicon.

However, Mr. Paniccia said Intel is developing a wave-guide version that could be integrated on a chip.

John Bowers, an expert in silicon photonics and professor of electrical and computer engineering at University of California-Santa Barbara, said many applications, such as inexpensive fiber-optic links to homes, don't require wave guides. 

"It's a huge paradigm shift," he told the Wall Street Journal.

Intel’s development is described in a paper in the journal Nature Photonics.

---

On the Net:

• Intel Corp.
• Nature Photonics

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

More News in this Category