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Computing at the Speed of Light

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Abstract

By 2020, data centers will consume in the US alone more than 250 megawatts of electricity. As Data-centers are expected to carry a large portion if not the majority of all kinds of computations in the future, driving this power consumption down is a major engineering, industrial as well as political concern. Light as a means for propagating high amounts of computing data, is recognized today as the most promising direction for solving this paradigm. Light, in contrast to electronics, does not dissipate power as it propagates. The challenge with this approach is that until recently silicon- the basic material used in microelectronics and computing today- has been considered a low quality optical material. We have shown the ability to control the flow of light. at GHz frequencies using a nano-structure that enhance the natural electro-optic properties of silicon. This ability to create active optical devices on silicon is the basis for the burgeoning field of silicon photonics, or light on a silicon chip.

© 2015 Optical Society of America

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