Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Researchers at IBM have published a
paper at the IEEE's International Electron Devices Meeting, showcasing a
feasible method to embed optical data links into power-efficient 90nm
silicon microchips, capable of data rates of 25Gbps. The IBM silicon nano-photonic chip
has both regular (electrical) and optical data connections, with the
latter theoretically providing a boost in data transfer speeds and
distances, as well as a reduction in power consumption.
An excerpt from the paper presented at the IEEE IEDM event describes the technology:
The first sub-100nm technology that allows the monolithic integration of optical modulators and germanium photodetectors as features into a current 90nm base high-performance logic technology node is demonstrated. The resulting 90nm CMOS-integrated Nano-Photonics technology node is optimized for analog functionality to yield power efficient single-die multichannel wavelength-mulitplexed 25Gbps transceivers.
The photonics
researchers say they can use multiple methods for sending and receiving
data using pulses of light, including wavelength division multiplexing,
which allows for separate recognition of multiple frequencies of light,
thereby upping the data transfer rate on a single node. Current speeds of 25Gbps with the prototype connection can reasonably be
expected to improve, with improvements in associated technologies and
applied parallelism. IBM’s research into the subject was to find
feasible methods of bypassing Moore’s Law, with current day technology.
