Nanophotonics chips might be the next latest technology if what was displayed in Chiba, Japan is anything to go by. IBM experts have come up with technology that combines electrical and optical systems on one piece of silicon making it possible for chips in the computer to send signals using light pulses leading to minute, quicker, and power economical chips than when using conventional technology. The communication is likely to be made via light pulses probably from the following year. Nanophotonics chips are said to be so effective and companies like Samsung and Intel among others are dying to have it. The chip technology is said to be so fast than what petascale can offer 1000 times as much. Given that chips will communicate via optical compared to electrons, it will perform much faster. This might be the reason why IBM is at the moment increasing the processing capacity to manufacture nanophotonics chips on a large scale. The technology is predicted to be in the offing from next year but in the next five years it will have taken over. It will connect boards in one system and ensure cores on the microprocessor are joined. Below is IBM’s latest CMOS combined silicon nanophotonics chip technology integrates electrical and optical systems on one piece of silicon, making it possible for computer chips to pass information using light pulses rather than signals form electricity.
This latest technology known as CMOS integrated silicon nanophotonics has taken ten years to be brought in the limelight by IBM after taking a lot of research in the laboratories. This technology will bring what can be termed as milestone in the world of communication. IBM has hopes in this technology that it will maximize speed and the performance and the organization’s ambition of exascale computer program, which is anticipated at coming up with a special computer that performance is a million trillion faster. This might be a speed the world has never seen.
Apart from putting together electrical and optical system on one chip, the latest technology by IBM can be manufactured on the front edge of a usual CMOS and does not need a special tool. Putting this into consideration, transistors from silicon can use one layer of silicon with nanophotonic silicon system. In order to make this a reality, IBM experts have come up with a package of ultra-compact and nanophotonics systems from silicon that are limited to diffraction. This is the smallest which is quite affordable for dielectric rays.
By increasing several modules of processing to the usual CMOS fabrication, the technology allows a number of nanophotonics from silicon the likes of modulators and photodectors which are germanium in nature to be combined with high working ordinary and digital CMOS system. Due to this, the end result will be one chip optical that can be produced in a CMOS which is standard in its form rather than to have the assembled model which is even expensive. The IBM technology is unrivalled with its electrical circuit occupying a small space. The nanophotonics chips have been taken through a lot of advancement that resulted to development of nanophotonics elements for faster communication.
The series that this technology has undergone in order to be discovered started early this year. The IBM group came up with germanium avalanche photodetectors operating at unrivalled 40 GB/s with CMOS voltage being as little as 1.5V. This added to the discovery of nanophotonics chips. Sometimes after that, IBM came up with yet another minute switch of nanophotonics for controlling traffic using optical communication making sure that information can be routed perfectly. In 2007 towards the end, the IBM brought in the limelight what a modulator which was ultra-compact which translated signals from electricity into pulses of light thus making it possible for communications to be carried out in an optical manner. Towards the end of 2006 IBM experts came up with nanophotonic line form silicon used to improve information recorded in optical rays.
The main objective behind this latest technology is to come up with a technology that for on chip combination of ultra compact nanophotonics chips for managing signals of light just like signals from electricity are managed in computer chips. The photonics circuits are being manufactured to allow combination of finished system which is optical that will allow to conquer the constraints that are brought about today by copper. The recent trend is to maximize processing at all stages to increase chips as well as cores found on chips.
Optics is expected to be made use in data areas so long as optical signals can meet the big bandwidth that is needed for performances which are very high by bringing to the fore benefits of modulation which are on the higher side. Just like what happened in communication field when optic fibers were used to substitute cables made of copper, the copper cables that links racks in data systems are slowly being substituted by optic fibers. In a similar manner, optics can turn to be very competitive with copper slowly by slowly eventually resulting to optical on board and may lastly be communication which is on-chip. Indeed, this new technology will take the world a mile ahead in many ways.