Hello everyone, Happy DIWALI to all. I hope you all have enjoyed this festival of lights. This time Indra Devta had also joined us in celebrating this auspicious festival through raining. Since DIWALI is festival of lights, so this time I decided to write something on light. Light is source of energy. But the question is – “Is light, the future of electronics?”. Yes, light is the future of electronics & this can be possible through the new emerging technology “PHOTONICS”. Photonics is the science of light. It is the technology of generating, controlling, and detecting light waves and photons, which are particles of light. While studying Photonics, I came across the terminology “Photonics integrated circuits (PIC’s) or Photonics IC’s “.
Conventional integrated circuits work by conducting electricity, or allowing electrons to flow easily through the circuit. Electrons are negatively charged particles that interact with other electrons as well as other particles. These interactions slow electrons down as they move through IC’s, limit the amount of information that can be transmitted, and generate heat, which causes energy losses. A heat sink or other cooling technique is often required to regulate heat generation, otherwise the electrical components may become irreversibly damaged.
Photonic integrated circuits utilize photons, massless fundamental particles representing a quantum of light, instead of electrons. Photons move at the speed of light through the transmitting medium with almost no interference from other photons. This greatly increases the bandwidth and speed of the circuit while drastically reducing the amount of energy loss, making PIC’s more power efficient. With multiplexing techniques, an extremely large number of signals can be sent through a single-mode fiber that is orders of magnitude larger than the number of electrical signals that copper can transmit.
However, one of the biggest drawbacks of PIC’s is their size. The current transistor density on IC’s is about a hundred million transistors per millimeter. This makes nanometer scale IC’s possible and allows personal computers, cellphones, and wearable technology to exist at their current convenient sizes. PIC’s, while continuing to shrink, are still only on the micron scale.
Now a days 4G technology is on boom because of its high data rates & also good quality video calls. People are eagerly waiting for 5G technology. Photonic technology will play a key role in 5G networks. Scientists has developed one such key technology – a photonic chip which uses the interplay of light and sound for speedier information processing. The chip could be potentially employed in devices called phase shifters in phased-array antennas which facilitate beaming of signals in different directions without moving.
Phased-array antennas typically have multiple antennas with elements known as phase shifters that can guide the beams. However, as the required bandwidth and frequencies of operation rise, current electronic phase shifters cannot keep up with the demand. The new photonic chip will be able to overcome these challenges.
The advantage of using optics for wireless communication rather than using conventional electronics is the inherent massive bandwidth that optics delivers, low losses and immunity to electromagnetic interference. This broader area of research known as microwave photonics is getting increasingly important with the increase in the bandwidth requirement. Besides phased array antennas that are critical for 5G communication, the chip can find applications in satellite communication, RADARs, sensing and medical imaging equipment.
By reading above blog, one thing you all must have understood that light plays a very major role in our life. Photonics is a very wide area & I was very eager to share above information with you all. Once again Happy DIWALI to all. May this DIWALI bring a lots of joy, happiness, & prosperity in your lives.
Happy DIWALI
~PALASH JAIN
A journey of a thousand miles begins with single step. 