Skip to Content

Light Booster

September 1, 2005

A new device designed by garrett Cole and Qi Chen at the University of California, Santa Barbara, could help bring fiber-optic connections – and the massive doses of bandwidth they provide – to home Internet users. The device is an inexpensive amplifier that could be used to boost data signals in the critical “last mile” of fiber-optic cable running between a home or neighborhood and the telecom backbone. One of the major hurdles in telecommunications has been the cost of existing amplifiers, such as the sophisticated devices used in the backbone. But the new amplifier can be fabricated the same way computer chips are, without any mechanical assembly, so it promises to be much cheaper. What’s more, it’s tunable, like a radio dial, so it can compensate for changes in light frequency that confound other inexpensive amplifiers. “If a company were to show interest,” says Cole, “it should take only a few years to develop a commercial device.”

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he’s now scared of the tech he helped build

“I have suddenly switched my views on whether these things are going to be more intelligent than us.”

ChatGPT is going to change education, not destroy it

The narrative around cheating students doesn’t tell the whole story. Meet the teachers who think generative AI could actually make learning better.

Meet the people who use Notion to plan their whole lives

The workplace tool’s appeal extends far beyond organizing work projects. Many users find it’s just as useful for managing their free time.

Learning to code isn’t enough

Historically, learn-to-code efforts have provided opportunities for the few, but new efforts are aiming to be inclusive.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.