Glowing Silicon
Optical chips that transmit data on beams of light promise faster and more reliable computing, but they have not caught on widely because they must use expensive, exotic semiconductor materials to emit light: plain silicon won’t do the job. Now a research group led by physicist Salvatore Coffa at STMicroelectronics, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, has developed an all-silicon chip that combines both optics and electronics. Parts of the silicon are mixed with special rare-earth elements, which enables them to generate light about 100 times more efficiently than any previous silicon device, according to Coffa. The one-millimeter-square device uses light beams to talk to other chips. The STMicroelectronics chip’s first applications will be in telecommunications and biomedical devices, but it could eventually enable new processors for high-end computers and cheaper lasers and plasma displays. Potential customers will test the chip by the middle of 2004, says Coffa, and it could be incorporated into “billions of devices” by 2007.
Keep Reading
Most Popular
A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook?
Robot vacuum companies say your images are safe, but a sprawling global supply chain for data from our devices creates risk.
A startup says it’s begun releasing particles into the atmosphere, in an effort to tweak the climate
Make Sunsets is already attempting to earn revenue for geoengineering, a move likely to provoke widespread criticism.
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2023
These exclusive satellite images show that Saudi Arabia’s sci-fi megacity is well underway
Weirdly, any recent work on The Line doesn’t show up on Google Maps. But we got the images anyway.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.