Silicon Photonics: Avalanche Photodetector
Summary
Intel has always been at the forefront in the domain of semiconductor technology. Following Moore’s law, Intel manages to develop smaller and faster computer processors. Mario Paniccia, Intel fellow and director, Photonics Technology Lab enlightens about optical devices made of silicon or as they are simply called, silicon photonics. A new device has been developed called avalanche photo detector that has better performance as compared to devices made of indium phosphide. It can be used for fast information transfers across various cores of a processor thus resulting in faster performance. The avalanche photo detector has been a collaborative effort involving Intel scientists, leading academicians and employees from Neumonics.
Keywords: semiconductor, microprocessors, Intel, Moore’s law, Photonics Technology Lab, silicon, indium phosphide, Neumonics