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A recent AmberWave invention called Aspect Ratio Trapping (ART) is a technology that may open the door to even faster, more powerful chips, which could find their way into a wide range of applications, from silicon- based photonics to improved photovoltaic cells.
In the case of silicon photonics, ART allows manufacturers to combine different materials onto a silicon base, forming chips that use light pulses to carry data, similar to fiber optic technology. The result is increased speed of data transmission far faster than today’s systems allow.
The conduit for information in today’s Internet and telecommunications systems is fiber optics. A single fiber strand can carry up to a trillion bits of data per second, compared to less than 10 million per second in today’s PCs. Unlike electronic data, optical signals can travel miles without distortion or attenuation, plus scientists can put dozens of channels of high-speed data onto a single fiber, separating channels by wavelength. Up to 40 separate signals, each running at 10 gigabits per second, can be put onto a hair-thin fiber.
However, inside one’s PC, the connections are still all copper. Power losses due to internal resistance and line-to-line capacitance are significant when using metals such as copper when data rates near 10 billion bits per second. Replacing those copper connections with optical fiber and using photons instead of electrons would provide huge increases in data rates and much lower power consumption in PCs – and other modern electronic information tools, such as cell phones and PDAs.
The science of ART offers the promise of silicon photonics. Moreover, similar to strained silicon, ART would allow manufacturers to capitalize on their investments in current manufacturing technologies, reducing costs considerably and allowing the devices to be included in a wide range of products at consumer-friendly prices.
For more details on Aspect Ratio Trapping click here. |
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