Michael Watts and pals at MIT have designed and built the first photonic modulator that operates at an ultralow 1 femtoJoule power level.“We propose, demonstrate, and characterize the first modulator to achieve simultaneous high-speed (25 Gigabits per second), low voltage (0.5 peak-to-peak Voltage) and efficient 1 femtoJoule per bit error-free operation,” they say.
The new device is a hollow silicon cylinder that acts as a cavity for trapping light waves. It modulates this light thanks to a phenomenon known as the electro-optic effect in which the refractive index of silicon can be changed by modifying the voltage across it.
The modulator solves a number of problems that electronics engineers have been wrestling with. First, it is entirely compatible with the CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) process used for manufacturing chips and so can be made inside any existing fabrication plant. Previous attempts to make devices of this kind relied on indium which is not compatible with CMOS.
This is for handling of input and output. If processing power can also be brought down to around these levels then zettaflop systems become possible.
Femtojoule operations would mean one watt for a petaflop of processing and 1000 watts for an exaflop and a megawatt for a zettaflop. 100 zettaflop supercomputers would need 100 megawatts of power.
Arxiv - A one femtojoule athermal silicon modulator
The full 23 page paper is here
Read more »![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
The new device is a hollow silicon cylinder that acts as a cavity for trapping light waves. It modulates this light thanks to a phenomenon known as the electro-optic effect in which the refractive index of silicon can be changed by modifying the voltage across it.
The modulator solves a number of problems that electronics engineers have been wrestling with. First, it is entirely compatible with the CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) process used for manufacturing chips and so can be made inside any existing fabrication plant. Previous attempts to make devices of this kind relied on indium which is not compatible with CMOS.
This is for handling of input and output. If processing power can also be brought down to around these levels then zettaflop systems become possible.
Femtojoule operations would mean one watt for a petaflop of processing and 1000 watts for an exaflop and a megawatt for a zettaflop. 100 zettaflop supercomputers would need 100 megawatts of power.
Arxiv - A one femtojoule athermal silicon modulator
The full 23 page paper is here
Read more »
