Research Bits: March 15


Interferometer on chip Researchers at the University of Rochester developed an optical interferometer on a 2mm by 2mm integrated photonic chip that is capable of amplifying interferometric signals without a corresponding increase in extraneous noise. Interferometers merge two or more sources of light to create interference patterns that provide information able what they illuminate. “If y... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Feb. 7


Stopping interference in integrated photonics Researchers at EPFL and Purdue University combined integrated photonics and MEMS to develop an electrically driven optical isolator-on-a-chip that transmits light in only one direction. Optical isolators are useful to prevent reflected light from other components compromising or interfering with an on-chip laser’s performance. They are often c... » read more

Electro-optic spatial light modulator from an engineered organic layer


Abstract "Tailored nanostructures provide at-will control over the properties of light, with applications in imaging and spectroscopy. Active photonics can further open new avenues in remote monitoring, virtual or augmented reality and time-resolved sensing. Nanomaterials with χ(2) nonlinearities achieve highest switching speeds. Current demonstrations typically require a trade-off: they eith... » read more

Expanding Advanced Packaging Production In The U.S.


The United States is taking the first steps toward bringing larger-scale IC packaging production capabilities back to the U.S. as supply chain concerns and trade tensions grow. The U.S. is among the leaders in developing packages, especially new and advanced forms of the technology that promise to shake up the semiconductor landscape. And while the U.S. has several packaging vendors, North A... » read more

Crystal Phase Control during Epitaxial Hybridization of III-V Semiconductors with Silicon


Abstract: "The formation and propagation of anti-phase boundaries (APBs) in the epitaxial growth of III-V semiconductors on Silicon is still the subject of great debate, despite the impressive number of studies focusing on this topic in the last past decades. The control of the layer phase is of major importance for the future realization of photonic integrated circuits that include efficien... » read more

Weight Adjustable Photonic Synapse by Nonlinear Gain in a Vertical Cavity Semiconductor Optical Amplifier


Abstract: "In this paper, we report a high-speed and tunable photonic synaptic element based on a vertical cavity semiconductor optical amplifier (VCSOA) operating with short (150 ps-long) and low-energy (μW peak power) light pulses. By exploiting nonlinear gain properties of VCSOAs when subject to external optical injection, our system permits full weight tunability of sub-ns input light p... » read more

Can Coherent Optics Reduce Data-Center Power?


As optical bandwidth requirements increase, system designers are turning to “coherent” modulation schemes that can place more data on the same laser light, and lower power over long connections. A newer question is whether those savings could be achieved for short connections within data centers, as well. “Coherent is the direction everything's moving, because for a given system and... » read more

Considerations for Neuromorphic Supercomputing in Semiconducting and Superconducting Optoelectronic Hardware


Abstract: "Any large-scale spiking neuromorphic system striving for complexity at the level of the human brain and beyond will need to be co-optimized for communication and computation. Such reasoning leads to the proposal for optoelectronic neuromorphic platforms that leverage the complementary properties of optics and electronics. Starting from the conjecture that future large-scale neurom... » read more

Quantum well interband semiconductor lasers highly tolerant to dislocations


Abstract "III-V semiconductor lasers integrated on Si-based photonic platforms are eagerly awaited by the industry for mass-scale applications, from interconnect to on-chip sensing. The current understanding is that only quantum dot lasers can reasonably operate at the high dislocation densities generated by the III-V-on-Si heteroepitaxy, which induces high non-radiative carrier recombination ... » read more

Changing Server Architectures In The Data Center


Data centers are undergoing a fundamental shift to boost server utilization and improve efficiency, optimizing architectures so available compute resources can be leveraged wherever they are needed. Traditionally, data centers were built with racks of servers, each server providing computing, memory, interconnect, and possibly acceleration resources. But when a server is selected, some of th... » read more

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