UTAH ENGINEERS TAKE A STEP TOWARD SILICON PHOTONIC COMPUTING
AT SPEEDS MILLIONS OF TIMES FASTER THAN CURRENT MACHINES
(May 18, 2015) University
of Utah engineers have taken a step forward in creating the next generation of
computers and mobile devices capable of speeds millions of times faster than
current machines.
The Utah engineers have developed an ultracompact
beamsplitter — the smallest on record — for dividing light waves into two
separate channels of information. The device brings researchers closer to
producing silicon photonic chips that compute and shuttle data with light
instead of electrons. Electrical and computer engineering associate professor
Rajesh Menon and colleagues describe their invention today in the journal
Nature Photonics.