Hitachi makes silicon opto-semi

THE RACE TO make an optical semiconductor entirely from silicon appears to have been won by Japanese firm Hitachi.

A report in today's Nikkei Business Daily said that the firm has made a prototype from combining silicon and insilating silicon oxide, promising cheap mass production in the future.

Other prototypes have focused on using compounds like gallium arsenide but the newspaper said Hitachi's prototype works at room temperature. It consists of a light generator and a receptor which converts light to signals and promises speeds of 10 gigabits per second.

Hitachi will now attempt integrating single opto semi elements into blocks to create more complex switches. µ

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