IBM uses light to transfer data, reducing bandwidth pressures

IBM uses light to transfer data, reducing bandwidth pressures

IBM has announced that it has developed a technology that uses light to transmit information without the need for electrical signals.

Silicon nanophotonics, as it is known, uses silicon chips and semiconductor technology to position optical components and electrical circuits next to each other. Large amounts of information can then be transmitted between these chips and data centre using pulses of light. IBM claims that this new way of moving information around could help to alleviate some of the bandwidth pressures that high-volume data transfer currently struggles with.

This new use of light could help to meet the challenges presented to companies dealing with Big Data. Dr John E Kelly, the senior vice president of IBM research, explained, "This technology breakthrough is a result of more than a decade of … research at IBM.”

“This allows us to move silicon nanophotonics technology into a real-world manufacturing environment that will have impact across a range of applications.”

The challenge for IBM when it first started looking into the technology was making it commercially viable. However, it has since discovered a way to ensure the computer chip transceivers necessary for the technology can be manufactured in a regular semiconductor foundry. IBM claims that discovery will facilitate the transfer of large data streams at high data rates over long distances.

It will present more information on the exciting new technology at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting where Dr Solomon Assefa with present a talk entitled ‘A 90nm CMOS Integrated Nano-Photonics Technology for 25Gbps WDM Optical Communications Applications’.

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