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Silicon Chips to Enter World of High Speed Optical Processing


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on-chip optical integrator

The on-chip, all-optical integrator will be a key enabler of next generation fully-integrated ultrafast optical data processing technologies for many applications.

Credit: David Moss / University of Sydney

University of Sydney physicists have developed an on-chip, all-optical temporal integrator on a complementary metal oxide semiconductor, a development that eventually could enable all-optical computing and information processing. The researchers say that an all-optical integrator, or lightwave capacitor, will be a crucial part of next generation, ultrafast, optical data processing technologies.

"This on-chip optical integrator is a key to enabling many optical functions on a chip, including ultra-high-speed signal processing, computing, and optical memory," says Sydney professor David Moss. He says the device, based on high index doped silica glass, is low loss and has a high degree of manufacturability and design flexibility. Its design makes it an ideal ultrahigh speed optical integrator with a performance good enough for a wide range of applications, including optical memory and real-time differential equation computing units.

"With society's demands for even faster technology, ultrafast optical computing and signal processing are important," Moss says.

From University of Sydney
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Abstracts Copyright © 2010 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA


 

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