Chip installed in the data center server homely constantly evolving, consisting chip optical technology has been steadily progressing. Silicon photonics technology, using silicon semiconductor medium as an optical signal, digital signal transmission device much faster than conventional electronic semiconductors.

 

Silicon photonics technology involves several core components. First, the laser optical apparatus of any heart. Currently the use of silicon and indium phosphide lasers produce consistent infrared laser. Then photon need modulation, the light broke away to form a light pulse. Optical waveguides and other Internet devices will pulse from a move to another place. In addition, because 100% of the optical system, that is completely connected by an optical chip optical devices, it may still take decades to achieve, as also need a way to convert electrical signals into optical signals and back again.

 

Fortunately, each optical component which can be manufactured using current technology to manufacture semiconductor electronics. In fact, it is entirely possible the manufacture of electronic and optical components on the same substrate, to create a hybrid chip, complete numerous telecommunications and network functions.

 

Short term, a silicon photonic chips will be deployed in the high-speed signal transmission system, it is far beyond the capacity of copper cable. Earlier this year, Kotura announced that its Optical Engine can achieve through the use of wavelength division multiplexing 100Gbps data transmission rate, it allows multiple data signals having different wavelengths share the same optical path. Such equipment is suitable for data centers and high performance computing applications that solve the problem of performance problems on copper Ethernet network based. IBM, Intel and NEC and other major chip manufacturers are also developing silicon photonic devices.

 

With the development of silicon photonics, chips become more complex, it is expected that the technology will be used in multi-tasking chip interconnect multiple cores, increase the rate of access to shared cache and bus. Final silicon photonics could put more practical and widely used, even replace semiconductor transistors and other optical chip, higher computing performance.

 

Another application area of ​​silicon photonics, including biometrics. Nano and Biophotonics Center researchers at the University of Ghent in Belgium to use the technology to make implantable medical device, similar to a blood glucose meter, and with the spectrometer on the chip, along with other medical / diagnostic equipment used together.