Intel, UCSB produce hybrid silicon laser

Researchers at Intel Corp. claim a new breakthrough, by achieving a method of producing components using standard semiconductor processes that are reliable, cost-effective and can make computers faster, speeding up long-promised technologies and making search and other Internet activities more powerful.

Chip making giant, Intel Corp. said Monday, that a joint team of researchers from the company and from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), has created the world's first electrically powered hybrid silicon laser using standard silicon manufacturing processes.

The researchers said, that they have discovered a way to use lasers, working at the speed of light, to send information around on a computer chip as well as from one chip to another.

On its new development, Santa Clara-based Intel said the breakthrough "addresses one of the last major barriers to producing low-cost, high-bandwidth silicon photonics devices for use inside and around future computers and data centers."

The team that produced the breakthrough comprised two eminent scholars, one from academia and one from industry. John Bowers, 52, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC Santa Barbara and a veteran of the famed Bell Labs, teamed up with Mario Paniccia, 39, director of Intel's Photonics Technology Lab in Santa Clara for the development.

They combined the light-emitting properties of indium phosphide, a material long popular in telecommunications, with the light-routing capabilities of silicon into a single hybrid chip, in a way that many researchers had not thought possible, company said. Silicon can also be used "to route, detect, modulate and even amplify light but not to effectively generate light," the company added.

The key to manufacturing the device is the use of a low-temperature, oxygen plasma, an electrically charged oxygen gas, to create a thin oxide layer (approx. 25 atoms thick) on the surfaces of both materials.

About its working, Intel said, when voltage is applied, light generated in the indium phosphide, enters the silicon waveguide to create a continuous laser beam ,that can be used to drive other silicon photonic devices.

With the development the chipmakers are now anticipating a day when they will beam it down microscopic pathways with the light from lasers, instead of moving data around on copper wires, which are limited in their speed, costly to build and generate heat in a computer.

The recently announced technology could be five to seven years away from reach, but it brought enthusiastic reviews from an industry that has waited long for such a development. "While still far from becoming a commercial product, we believe dozens, maybe even hundreds of hybrid silicon lasers could be integrated with other silicon photonic components onto a single silicon chip,” said Mario Paniccia.

Intel shares today jumped 14 cents to $19.65.