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IBM's new device uses light pulses for communication |
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The scientists in IBM Research have unveiled a new device that aims at replacing electrical signals that communicate via copper wires between computer chips with tiny silicon circuits that communicate using pulses of light.
The device, called a nano-photonic avalanche photo detector, is the fastest of its kind and could enable breakthroughs in energy-efficient computing that can have significant implications for the future of electronics.
IBM device explores the avalanche effect in Germanium, a material currently used in production of microprocessor chips. Analogous to a snow avalanche on a steep mountain slope, an incoming light pulse initially frees just a few charge carriers which in turn free others until the original signal is amplified many times. Conventional avalanche photo detectors are not able to detect fast optical signals because the avalanche builds slowly.
IBM claims that the avalanche photo detector is the world's fastest device of its kind. It can receive optical information signals at 40Gbps (billion bits per second) and simultaneously multiplies them tenfold. The device operates with a 1.5V voltage supply. Thus many of these tiny communication devices could potentially be powered by just a small AA-size battery, while traditional avalanche photo detectors require 20-30V power supplies.
"This invention brings the vision of on-chip optical interconnections much closer to reality. With optical communications embedded into the processor chips, the prospect of building power-efficient computer systems with performance at the Exaflop level might not be a very distant future," comments Dr TC Chen, Vice President, Science and Technology, IBM Research.
In IBM's device, the avalanche multiplication takes place within just a few tens of nanometers (one-thousandths of a millimeter) and that happens very fast. The tiny size also means that multiplication noise is suppressed by 50 per cent - 70 per cent with respect to conventional avalanche photo detectors. The IBM device is made of Silicon and Germanium, the materials already widely used in production of microprocessor chips. Moreover it is made with standard processes used in chip manufacturing. Thus, thousands of these devices can be built side-by-side with silicon transistors for high-bandwidth on-chip optical communications.
"The dramatic improvement in performance is the result of manipulating the optical and electrical properties at the scale of just a few tens of atoms to achieve performance beyond accepted boundaries. These tiny devices are capable of detecting very weak pulses of light and amplifying them with unprecedented bandwidth and minimal addition of unwanted noise," states Dr Solomon Assefa, the lead author on the paper.
The paper is titled 'Reinventing Germanium Avalanche Photodetector for Nanophotonic On-chip Optical Interconnects' and the other two co-authors include Fengnian Xia and Yurii Vlasov.
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