Silicon-Erbium Chip Achieves 170 Gb/s
ENSCHEDE, Netherlands, Sept. 21, 2012 — The integration of silicon and an erbium-doped material on a single chip will amplify light at speeds up to 170 gigabits a second, says a doctoral student at the University of Twente who demonstrated a working prototype. On optical microchips, light moves through channels, or waveguides, made of silicon. But silicon passively conducts the light; it cannot amplify it and even loses some of it along the way. To boost the signal, or even include a light source on the chip, other types of semic...