Silicon Photonics Breakthrough: Integrated Lasers on Wafers Enable Faster, More Efficient Computing

Researchers from the US and Europe have achieved a significant advancement in silicon photonics by successfully fabricating miniaturized lasers directly on silicon wafers. This innovation, detailed in a Nature publication, involves 'growing' lasers on a silicon chip, a process that enhances scalability and compatibility with existing CMOS manufacturing used for electronic chips.

This breakthrough addresses a major challenge: integrating light sources with silicon chips. Traditional methods involve attaching separate lasers, which slows operation and increases costs. By creating lasers directly on the chip, data can be transmitted faster using photons, offering greater data capacity and lower energy losses compared to electrons.

The team embedded 300 functional lasers on a single 300-mm silicon wafer, an industry standard. The laser produced light with a wavelength of 1,020 nm, ideal for short-range transmissions between computer chips. This chip could substantially improve computing performance and reduce energy consumption in data centers. The laser required a threshold current of only 5 mA, similar to an LED in a computer mouse, and its output was around 1 mW. While continuous operation was possible for 500 hours at room temperature (25° C), efficiency decreased at around 55°C. This demonstration marks a significant step toward more efficient and powerful computing, paving the way for cost-effective, high-performance optical devices for data communications, machine learning, and AI.