Fusing light and electronics to create high-performance telecom devices only 1/100,000th size of conventional devices
What kind of technology is it?
By employing ultra-fine structural design and process techniques cultivated through electronics, we have successfully developed ultra-small low-power and low-cost modules for optical communications that integrate high-performance optical devices based on silicon waveguides and intelligent photonic devices. These modules open the way to optical networks in data processing systems, and the ubiquitous deployment of optical network systems.
What are the features?
Because silicon has a very high refractive index and can trap light in a confined space, it can be used to make high-performance optical devices that are only 1/100,000th the size of conventional devices. And because silicon is a semiconductor, it conducts electricity and can be used for the high-speed control of light. By exploiting the strengths of both light and electricity, we have successfully developed far more densely integrated and less expensive telecom devices that operate at very low power.
What can it do?
The development of ultra-small optical modules that operate at low power together with optical circuits integrating numerous elements capable of processing complex signals will make compactly implemented and low-cost high-speed optical communications widely available to residential subscribers. Hybrid implementations including electronic circuits will also find wide-ranging applications in many other areas besides communications.