MICROPHOTONICS

The Successor to Electronics?

With the electronics industry quickly approaching a time when limitations posed by the size and speed of electrons become a constraint, micro photonics-the science of directing and controlling microscopic photons of electromagnetic energy is being developed as a potential successor to electronic system components.

According to Mayan prophecy, the solar system will enter the photon radiation belt in 2012. Ingress into take two days, followed by darkness for three days, when electronic systems will not function due to the prevailing hyper-magnetism. This will be followed by a period of permit light, for all 24 hours of a day, for 2160 years. In this period, ice glaciers will cover the earth, but will melt due to constant radiation to flood the continents.

The imminent cataclysm will mark the beginning of anew cycle—a cycle of light, peace, justice, without diseases, nor wickedness. A kingdom for the just, for those elected among thousand, and for ones who vibrate in unison with the tune of the Cosmos. By 2012, the earth would have adjusted its molecular structures to get ready for this great change.

Few things are more familiar than light. The man has begun to harness and exploit opportunities that light provides Progress in optoelectronic ICs, fire-optics, optical micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS), biophtonics, materials and structures has significantly impacted our life.

Photonics has revolutionized communications and holds similar potential for computing, sensing and imaging applications. Australian researchers have been successful in teleporting light beams in labs, teleportation implies moving from ’A’ to ‘B’ without passing through points between ‘A’ and ‘B’ One thing dematerializing in one place can simply rematerialize somewhere else. This is something which you saw in TV series one moment you’re here and in no time appear there

The University of Innsbruck has successfully teleported the quantum state of a trapped calcium ion to another calcium ion. The eventual dream is to teleport the man by machine that manipulates trillions of atoms in the human body to send it to another locale for reassembly.

Space rovers dispatched to Mars by NASA are being controlled by commands beamed from the earth. In the future, teleporting will facilitate assembly of the spacecraft in site by using local materials of Mars. That is true teleportation. At its logical endpoint, this will happen when photons dominate the earth.

WHAT’S MICROPHOTONICS?

Micro photonics is an emerging field encompassing photonics, electro-optics, integrated opto-VLSI chips, broadband photo receiver arrays and related systems to manipulate, transmit and detect photons at a microscopic level. With potential to enhance information and image processing, it offers the benefits of sped, immunity to interference, increased band width, parallel processing and enhanced data-storage potential application are in the information, communication, precision apparatus, and medical service, and security and energy sectors.

Micro photonics empowered radars will warn drivers of auto collisions before they occur, sensors will detect the impending earthquake, microchips will dial ‘911’ in emergency and PCs will function as command centers. Micro photons translate network, radar, speech and video data into optical signals and transmit them over wireless or fiber links. Photons can be harnessed for processing of chips and transmission of data, be it inside the drug delivery device, microchip or even living cell.

Ecole polytechnique Federale de Lausanne(EPFL), France, has achieved success in controlling the speed of light in an optical fiber. This method could be used to generate high performance microwave signals for next generation wireless communication networks or improve transmissions between satellites

OPTICAL INTERCONNECTS

Inside PCs it’s copper wire all the way. More than 99 percent of interconnects reside in and around pcs and servers, where optical communications is non existing. As faster microprocessors roll out, copper connections that feed processors in PCs and servers will not be able to handle tides of data. Future clock frequencies will be higher than 6GHz. As processors become dense, interconnect related power dissipation and costly input/output (I/O) pins will pose hurdles.

Optical interconnects at board level and interconnection lines on the chip are a viable option for fast inters chip data transfer. Optical waveguides and links multiplex many signals, reduce power dissipation and crosstalk at GHz frequencies, and solve clock distribution and I/O problems.

Optical interconnects in the form of optical transceivers integrated on silicon chips, can send and receive 100 billion bits per second. So users can conduct fast searches of image, audio or text data on PCs and servers, and download video for remote monitoring surveillance, teleconferencing and entertainment.

IBM has developed a tiny device that represents a big advance toward the eventual use of light in place of electricity in connection of electronic components, potentially leading to vast improvements in the performance of computers and other electronic systems. The researchers were able to slow light down to less than of its usual speed by directing it through perforated silicon called ‘photonic crystal waveguide.’ Light speed in the silicon chip is controlled by applying a voltage to the waveguide. This can help develop micro photonic components, optical delay lines, optical buffers and optical memories for pcs.

PHOTONIC SWITCHING

Optical fibers are carrying ore and more data, but when speeding light signals reach networks central hubs they have to be converted into electrons and switched by electronic switches and then converted back into light signals for retransmission. This results in an electronic bottleneck at the switching node4s. The problem now is not the bandwidth of the fiber but slow switching of data.

To overcome this malaise, communicators are resorting to photonic switches, which redirect information without having to carry out the process of converting from optical signals into electronic signals and back again. Photonic switches are smart enough to serve as routers by recognizing the data packets and directing them to destination. These imbibe the speed of optics with the intelligence of microelectronics.