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Researchers create laser light interconnects on silicon

E

Eeyore

Jan said:
Researchers create laser light interconnects on silicon.

Channels etched in silicon are used to guide IR laser light generated by
a bonded indium phosphide layer that is electrically activated.

Thse optical on chip interconnects could lead to 100x faster interconnects.

Really ????


And what about the energy needed for the laser beam ?

This sounds like as much sense as the 'hydrogen economy' !!!!

Graham
 
J

Jan Panteltje

Really ????



And what about the energy needed for the laser beam ?

This sounds like as much sense as the 'hydrogen economy' !!!!

Graham

Think, just for a moment, the article mentions 500x speed.
We are at say 4GHz, so 2THz.
The parasitic C and L from a 1 mm chip connect, you can calculate that no?
Also calculate the R, then apply 2THz in your spice, and see what comes out
at the other end as peak to peak signal.
Tiny laser dots, nanometer size optical wave guides, and tiny Si photo
diodes are _the only way_ to transfer a signal at that speed, unless you
can find a way to make such a small transmission line in silicon with
proper impedance matching to the driver and receiver.
And, termination = losses.
An other advantage is that you can take the signal, serialise, go optical,
and of chip with a fibre, all on the same silicon.
So perhaps no longer 1000 pin chips, but just like we got rid of the flat
cables in the IDE drive, go serial, an optical chip interconnect.
All on silicon... see how the CMOS camera sensors are making inroads into
_anything_ replacing more complicate CCDs, and going where these are
not feasible.
All on silicon is important.

This is the future, in my view.
 
G

George Macdonald

Really ????

Yeah, all we need to complement it is them holographic memories I've been
hearing are just around the corner... for the last >30 years.
And what about the energy needed for the laser beam ?

This sounds like as much sense as the 'hydrogen economy' !!!!

Wha?... bad as that? It's just another fraud?:)
 
J

Jan Panteltje

Yeah, all we need to complement it is them holographic memories I've been
hearing are just around the corner... for the last >30 years.

Hearing about? They will be at IBC 2006 in Amsterdam in a few days.
http://www.inphase-technologies.com/

Know anything about Ikegami?
http://www.inphase-technologies.com/news/Ikegami2006.html

Ever used one of their cameras?

You are getting behind, read the wrong papers perhaps?

Rgds, George Macdonald

Juppy hupppy wuppy duppy
2006
Set y'r alarm clock.
RINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
 
J

John Larkin

Researchers create laser light interconnects on silicon.

Channels etched in silicon are used to guide IR laser light generated by
a bonded indium phosphide layer that is electrically activated.

Thse optical on chip interconnects could lead to 100x faster interconnects.

No capacitance.... no resistance, no heat...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/technology/18chip.html?ref=technology

EE Times has a page that announces a similar breakthrough every week,
but I haven't heard of any of these breakthroughs going commercial.

The laser makes heat, its driver makes a lot more, and the detector
speed will be dominated by capacitance. True, the middle part, the
optical waveguides, will be fast, but that's always been the easy
part.

The NYT article is full of obvious errors.

And didn't Intel just pull the plug on this technology? Yeah, here it
is:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060911/20060911005589.html?.v=1

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192701025

I think they paid a few per cent of what Intel had invested; Intel
just dumped it to get it off the balance sheet.

John
 
J

Jim Thompson

EE Times has a page that announces a similar breakthrough every week,
but I haven't heard of any of these breakthroughs going commercial.

The laser makes heat, its driver makes a lot more, and the detector
speed will be dominated by capacitance. True, the middle part, the
optical waveguides, will be fast, but that's always been the easy
part.

The NYT article is full of obvious errors.

And didn't Intel just pull the plug on this technology? Yeah, here it
is:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060911/20060911005589.html?.v=1

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192701025

I think they paid a few per cent of what Intel had invested; Intel
just dumped it to get it off the balance sheet.

John

Don't you love that term "Off-Load"? Doesn't that mean "Dump" ?:)

...Jim Thompson
 
J

Jan Panteltje

EE Times has a page that announces a similar breakthrough every week,

Not exactly this sort of thing.

but I haven't heard of any of these breakthroughs going commercial.

It is now at an university, because the manufacturing is so simple,
it is reasonable to expect some applications soon (say 5 years).
It is not like fusion power that moves exponentially in the future,
now at 100 years from now.
It is a low $$ thing that any semiconductor company can play with.

The laser makes heat,
yes

its driver makes a lot more,

Nope, you must have heard of switching transistors.

and the detector
speed will be dominated by capacitance.

That is not exactly true, yes, if you use a photo-diode on a high
impedance input opamp, but even 30 years ago we used feedback
to lower input impedance... in Vidicon tube camera preamps.

True, the middle part, the
optical waveguides, will be fast, but that's always been the easy
part.

mm, I think _there_ are a few things that would be 'new territory'.
At least for me.
The NYT article is full of obvious errors.

And didn't Intel just pull the plug on this technology? Yeah, here it
is:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060911/20060911005589.html?.v=1

Intel also killed their DLP chips, Texas is doing well with those I think.
Intel is headed by a marketing druid, possibly assisted by some bean counters,
and lawyers to sue everybody who uses the word 'inside' on their website.
Marketing druid .. engineers fired (read the news) ...
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=intel
select 'max' view.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192701025

I think they paid a few per cent of what Intel had invested; Intel
just dumped it to get it off the balance sheet.

It is a project at an university.
Who will manufacture this is the one who buys the patent.
Intel is irrelevant to this.

Well, seems our view are not the same, time will tell how this will pan out.
But I feel OK about this one, other then 'quantum computer', 'nuclear fusion',
bushism, what not.
 
Jan said:
Not exactly this sort of thing.



It is now at an university, because the manufacturing is so simple,
it is reasonable to expect some applications soon (say 5 years).
It is not like fusion power that moves exponentially in the future,
now at 100 years from now.
It is a low $$ thing that any semiconductor company can play with.



Nope, you must have heard of switching transistors.

To produce a THz modulated signal?

You don't seem to appreciate the trade-offs involved in designing
switching transistor drives.
That is not exactly true, yes, if you use a photo-diode on a high
impedance input opamp, but even 30 years ago we used feedback
to lower input impedance... in Vidicon tube camera preamps.

where the dector capacitance messes up the high frequency noise levels.
Been there, been screwd by that.
 
The NYT article is full of obvious errors.

So can you explain to an EE newbie exactly what the break-through
claims to be? Isn't this like a Laser Diode (laser on a chip) except
on a silicon substrate (if I'm getting this right)? The idea is
silicon is easy and cheap to manufacture right? What was the more
common way? Sapphire? Is that more expensive because of the process
or the material (sand versus rare gem)?

Very sorry for the rookie-ism,
milk
 
D

Del Cecchi

So can you explain to an EE newbie exactly what the break-through
claims to be? Isn't this like a Laser Diode (laser on a chip) except
on a silicon substrate (if I'm getting this right)? The idea is
silicon is easy and cheap to manufacture right? What was the more
common way? Sapphire? Is that more expensive because of the process
or the material (sand versus rare gem)?

Very sorry for the rookie-ism,
milk
I think it might be the bonded GaAs layer (can't make lasers on Si, at
least not easily) and the idea of using trenches as fibers.
 
J

John Larkin

I think it might be the bonded GaAs layer (can't make lasers on Si, at
least not easily)

Yup, but you could already epoxy and wire-bond a
compound-semiconductor laser on top of a silicon chip. I don't see a
breakthrough here. Still no silicon laser, still no bulk deposition of
non-silicon lasers on silicon.

and the idea of using trenches as fibers.

Lots of people have developed SiO2 and polymer and PLZT optical
waveguides on silicon, for 10 years at least, and a couple of them
have even managed to stay in business. Nothing new here, either.


John
 
J

Jan Panteltje

To produce a THz modulated signal?

Well, let us say that we once will be at a point where we can switch
at .1ps.... Sure 2THz is a limit.
That 2THz would not be a modulation limit for _light_ I think?

I am the first one to admit I have never had anything switch that fast.
But what basic physics argument exists against switching light in the
Thz range?
Maybe you only need to inject some electrons to make the laser work.
Sort of a threshold... I can imagine some mechanism like that, but
I think there will be no need to _analog_ modulate so the driver is always
in a linear range.
Also there is the issue of static and dynamic logic design, if you can
send an data impulse and clock impulse, then you can energise very short
periods only, to flip a bit elsewhere.


You don't seem to appreciate the trade-offs involved in designing
switching transistor drives.


where the dector capacitance messes up the high frequency noise levels.
Been there, been screwd by that.

Bill, I dunno enough about that, I take your word for it, never worked
at THz speeds, photo diode, photo transistor, sure there are limits.
Limits are there to be overcome.

Research advances.
First I would expect them to make some device with optical on chip
interface to fiber... maybe for home high speed networks....
Not that I need more then DSL, but some will want HDTV via fibre.
There is a market, there is a need, and so then there is funding
for further research.
I most certainly do _not_ believe in things like making HDMI interface
wireless and messing up the whole radio spectrum like the Intel marketing
druid seems to want?

Well, my best answer for now (10 in the evening), all I know.
Time will tell.
 
J

Joel Kolstad

Jan Panteltje said:
On a sunny day (18 Sep 2006 09:52:52 -0700) it happened [email protected]
Not that I need more then DSL, but some will want HDTV via fibre.
There is a market, there is a need, and so then there is funding
for further research.

Most of the problems related to get everyone a, say, 100Mbps data connection
revolve more around the labor cost associated with installing copper, fiber,
or whatever -- particularly the "last mile" thereof --, and not a limitation
on current technology.

In other words, even if you could build a single 2THz optical switch today for
pennies, I don't think it would really change how long (or how costly) it's
going to be until you can watch The Simpsons, Family Guy, Robot Chicken,
Futurama, and Sealab 2021 all simultaneously in HDTV.
 
M

martin griffith

Most of the problems related to get everyone a, say, 100Mbps data connection
revolve more around the labor cost associated with installing copper, fiber,
or whatever -- particularly the "last mile" thereof --, and not a limitation
on current technology.

In other words, even if you could build a single 2THz optical switch today for
pennies, I don't think it would really change how long (or how costly) it's
going to be until you can watch The Simpsons, Family Guy, Robot Chicken,
Futurama, and Sealab 2021 all simultaneously in HDTV.
What's Sealab 2021 like? Never heard of it


martin
 
Hearing about? They will be at IBC 2006 in Amsterdam in a few days.
http://www.inphase-technologies.com/

Know anything about Ikegami?
http://www.inphase-technologies.com/news/Ikegami2006.html

Ever used one of their cameras?

You are getting behind, read the wrong papers perhaps?



Juppy hupppy wuppy duppy
2006
Set y'r alarm clock.
RINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Back to insulting people just for the sake of an insult? Still can't
get how to conduct a discussion in a civilized way? You really nead
to learn the basic manners before posting your childish insults.

NNN
 
D

Del Cecchi

John said:
Yup, but you could already epoxy and wire-bond a
compound-semiconductor laser on top of a silicon chip. I don't see a
breakthrough here. Still no silicon laser, still no bulk deposition of
non-silicon lasers on silicon.





Lots of people have developed SiO2 and polymer and PLZT optical
waveguides on silicon, for 10 years at least, and a couple of them
have even managed to stay in business. Nothing new here, either.


John
Here, read the account in EDN
http://www.edn.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6372943&partner=enews

It was Intel and UCSB that called it a breakthrough.
 
D

Dirk Bruere at NeoPax

Jan said:
Researchers create laser light interconnects on silicon.

Channels etched in silicon are used to guide IR laser light generated by
a bonded indium phosphide layer that is electrically activated.

Thse optical on chip interconnects could lead to 100x faster interconnects.

No capacitance.... no resistance, no heat...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/technology/18chip.html?ref=technology

I've been reading of these 'optical breakthroughs' for the past 25yrs.
Don't hold your breath.
 
G

George Macdonald

I've been reading of these 'optical breakthroughs' for the past 25yrs.
Don't hold your breath.

Oh, it's been longer than that - holographic was all set to replace core
memory back in uhh, ~1969.
 
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