SYDNEY, Australia, Dec. 8, 2008 \u2013 Intel researchers have made the next advance in the field of Silicon Photonics by achieving world-record performance using a silicon-based Avalanche Photodetector (APD) that could lower costs and improve performance as compared to commercially available optical devices. The research results were published today in Nature Photonics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Silicon Photonics is an emerging technology using standard silicon to send and receive optical information among computers and other electronic devices. The technology aims to address future bandwidth needs of data-intensive computing applications such as remote medicine and lifelike 3-D virtual worlds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ultra-fast transfer of data will be essential for future computers powered by many processor cores. Silicon Photonics-based technology could deliver higher-speed mainstream computing at a lower cost. This advance builds upon previous Intel breakthroughs such as fast silicon modulators and hybrid silicon lasers. Combined, these technologies could lead to the creation of entirely new kinds of digital machines capable of far greater performance than today.
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\nA team led by Intel researchers created the silicon-based APD, a light sensor that achieves superior sensitivity by detecting light and amplifying weak signals as light is directed onto silicon. This APD device used silicon and CMOS processing to achieve a \u201cgain-bandwidth product\u201d of 340 GHz — the best result ever measured for this key APD performance metric. This opens the door to lower the cost of optical links running at data rates of 40Gbps or higher and proves, for the first time, that a silicon photonics device can exceed the performance of a device made with traditional, more expensive optical materials such as indium phosphide.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis research result is another example of how silicon can be used to create very high-performing optical devices,\u201d said Mario Paniccia, Ph.D., Intel Fellow and director of the company\u2019s Photonics Technology Lab. \u201cIn addition to optical communication, these silicon-based APDs could also be applied to other areas such as sensing, imaging, quantum cryptography or biological applications.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Intel worked with industry and academic collaborators, and the research was jointly funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Numonyx, a leading maker of NOR, NAND, RAM and phase change non-volatile memory technologies, provided manufacturing and process development. \u201cThis achievement is a good example of the effective collaboration between Intel and Numonyx,\u201d said Yonathan Wand, Numonyx manufacturing vice president and Fab1 plant manager. \u201cWe are committed to enhancing this collaboration, to enable further research breakthroughs in the Silicon Photonics area.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Prof. Joe Campbell of the University of Virginia and Prof. John Bowers of the University of California, Santa Barbara, both APD experts, provided consultation and assisted with testing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis APD utilises the inherently superior characteristics of silicon for high-speed amplification to create world-class optical technology,\u201d Bowers said. \u201cWe were glad to help characterise these devices and will continue to work with Intel to realise the full potential of silicon photonics devices.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SYDNEY, Australia, Dec. 8, 2008 \u2013 Intel researchers have made the next advance in the field of Silicon Photonics by achieving world-record performance using a silicon-based Avalanche Photodetector (APD) that could lower costs and improve performance as compared to commercially available optical devices. The research results were published today in Nature Photonics.\u00a0 Silicon Photonics is<\/p>\n