New Alternative of Electronics and Photonics Light Connection

On a standard 'CMOS' chip Electronics and light don't go well together. Researchers have introduced a light connection into the middle of a semiconductor chip.  After this discovery two circuits can communicate or it can be said that the worlds of electronics and photonics are connected. For doing this no special materials or manufacturing processes are required.

The light comes from silicon itself. It is a trial to make a LED out of silicon. There is a drawback of it that silicon only emits a tiny amount of infrared light, while a visible light is required by the detector made out of silicon. To deal with this problem they reversed the LED. In the avalanche mode where there is a very small current the LED will transmit visible light. To 'galvanically' isolate two circuits from each other in an optical link on a chip is a good idea. This method is much safe where we have to connect a circuit of low-voltage and low-current one, while the other is a high-current circuit.

The light source, detector and the light channel can be made using the technology that is utilized to develop the electronic circuits. The amount of light needed for a successful connection is also very less. This is very compact as an alternative of circuit of Electronics and Light.

Content- ww.sciencedaily.com

By- Anita Aishvarya