Future Technology Trends

Computers of the future may route data at an ultra-fast rate. Plasmonics is a way to create optical interconnects smaller than 100 nanometers wide. There are drawbacks to other methods. An electrical signal begins to degrade as the frequency goes above a certain amount of gigahertz. This limits the number of bytes that transfer across a wire at any given time. Conventional photonics, on the other hand, cannot shrink down past a specific size (hundreds of nanometers). A new European project called NAVOLCHI is seeking to develop nanometer scale chip-to-chip connections that utilize plasmon polaritons as a carrier of information. There is hope that this channel will overcome a few of the restrictions of other types of technology. Electronic, photonic and plasmonic combinations may become easier to carry out.  Read More »

Electronic components are shrinking down to extremely small sizes. Currently, cutting-edge processors utilize the 22-nanometer node. This will further scale down over the next decade or so. Silicon has enabled researchers to construct complicated microchips that have billions of units. The doubling pace of fitting miniature devices on a single CPU has slowed somewhat. In the next ten years, the amount of transistors on an integrated circuit probably won’t change as much as in previous decades. Scientists are just not attaining the energy savings, as sizes get smaller (see dark silicon). Photonics is a potential route to overcome a few of these limitations. One main issue with this is the diffraction limit whereby light cannot confine to a location that is much smaller than its wavelength. This makes it difficult to compete with electronics for certain applications. Electrical signals move nearly at the speed of light as well. The benefit of photonics is partially due to the higher frequencies that are considered achievable.  Read More »

The Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST) has created a novel kind of nanophotonic cavity. This device improves the precision of collecting light from a quantum dot (QD). The dots are capable of emitting single photons. Powerful quantum computers may one day rely on these miniature components to solve challenging problems. Currently the applications for QDs have been limited due to the amount of light collected by nearby lenses. This figure can be less than one percent. Now they have found that a novel structure can enhance both the absorption and emission of particles. This material consists of a suspended 200 nm-thick GaAs membrane that has embedded dots encircled with a partially etched dielectric grating. The efficiency rises to 10% because of this innovation. Read More »

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics along with other collaborating institutes have made a breakthrough in gaining mastery over light. They were able to create the shortest pulses of lasers that operate on the visible spectrum lasting only 2.1 femtoseconds. A femtosecond is one quadrillionth of a second and this tiny scale is necessary to better delineate molecular dynamics. They first used white laser and then sent it through a “light field synthesizer”. This synthesizer has the capability of breaking up the white light into the various color components. The device is a complicated array of mirrors and beam splitters. White light is an amalgam of the entire visible electromagnetic spectrum. After that, the individual beams are recombined together in order to create a specific waveform that has certain blends of wavelengths. Photons have extremely short oscillating frequencies that are also in the femtosecond range. This is the first time that they could synthesize sub-optical-cycle flashes of visible laser light. Read More »

Electrical signals move at close to the speed of light and can be confined in very small areas. This makes them ideal for carrying out on-chip calculations. A fiber-optic connection, on the other hand, is able to transfer large amounts of data from one region to another. The frequency of photons means the bandwidth can be much higher than electricity in copper wires.  The worldwide telecommunications network is in need of better chips than can effortlessly alternate between these different mediums.  There is a constant desire to have a greater internet capacity due to a voracious consumer appetite for streaming or downloading large media files. Silicon nanophotonic chips are a way of enabling higher speeds. Researchers at A*STAR have helped propel this technology further to help accomplish this. Some of the main problems are the challenges to fabricating a microchip in an easily manufacturable form that has a high output. Read More »

Surface plasmons are oscillations of charge density located on metal surfaces. They are of interest due to their ability to enhance the performance of nanophotonic devices.  Plasmonic circuits may eventually have much higher frequencies than what is possible with current electronics.  Some scientists have claimed that CPU’s based on this technology might operate at speeds over 100 times greater than what can be bought at a store today.  With grandiose proclamations like this, there is reason to be skeptical.  For high performance computing, the limitations of current CMOS chips are obvious.  While it is too soon to say whether this will actually find its way into the market, there have been promising new developments.  Chinese scientists have been able to synthesize logic gates based on the technology.  Logic gates are the fundamental units that allow microchips to swiftly carry out calculations.   Read More »