Intel claims optical chip breakthrough

Writing in Intel's research bog, lead boffin Ansheng Liu said that a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) could cheap optical communication and interconnects.

Optical modulators have been around for a while and can manage 40 Gbps. However they use electro-optic materials such as lithium niobate and III-V compound semiconductors and cost an arm and a leg to make. PICs on silicon platforms are considered the way forward be cause they are cheap and can be manufactured by the ton.

Getting the silicon chip to 40 Gbps speed is a landmark because it matches the fastest devices deployed today using other materials.

Liu said that it will soon become possible to integrate multiple devices on a single chip that can transmit terabits of aggregate data per second in the near future.

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