Optical chips on the way

The day when optical technology takes over from electronics has come a step closer thanks to a recent development at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

The development should improve the way in which optical data is transferred between separate microchips and also 'switched' across the chip itself.

One of the major problems in using optics to manipulate information is passing the data between separate components. This latest development uses a chip with a thin layer of sapphire on top of the silicon semiconductor, through which light is passed.

By using a microscopic laser built into the chip, the information encoded in the light beam can be transmitted to another part of the chip or, via fibre-optic cable, to a separate chip.

Combinations of optical and electronic technology, dubbed 'optronics' by some, could potentially increase the speed at which data is processed, since light can store information in many ways - phase, intensity, wavelength - compared to the transfer of electrons in a conventional conductor. This is particularly true since electrons moving through a conductor are slower than the speed of light in a vacuum.

It's still likely to be many years, however, before computers that make advanced use of optical chips are found on the desktop.

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