Archive : 19 December 2014 год

Academics from the University of Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) have collaborated with Eblana Photonics to develop an approach that enables advanced modulation format signals to be generated by the modulation of laser currents. 

The research, published in Nature Communications, explores a new approach to the generation of the spectrally efficient advanced modulation format signals required in modern optical communication systems. 

Whilst direct current modulated lasers are widely used in optical communications and telecommunications, as well as in sensor and high power fibre laser systems, their inability to accurately control the full optical field emitted directly from such lasers is said to have limited the applications. 
The new technology, patented by the University and licensed to Eblana, is said to avoid the need for the costly and power inefficient external modulator schemes that are currently used to generate such signals. 

Dr Radan Slavik, principal research fellow at ORC, said: "The capability we have demonstrated will be of relevance and could be of significant impact within many scientific and engineering communities that are directly concerned with or exploit laser radiation. 

"We have previously presented some of the results included in this paper at conferences and at an international symposium and this has already generated a lot of interest from senior academics in our community, as well as from leading industrial players." 

Eblana's sales director Dr Rob Lennox said: "We are very pleased to have collaborated on this innovative development work by ORC and are looking towards making this new approach a commercial reality."

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has announced funding for 10 research projects that are expected to develop new and exciting functional materials, as well as accelerate the application of the materials. The projects, which will involve 17 universities, are receiving funding of £32.1million. 

Welcoming the announcement Business Secretary Vince Cable, pictured, said: "Working with academia and industry to support game-changing manufacturing projects like these is at the heart of the Government's industrial strategy. By supporting the jump from the manufacturing lab to the market place, we are driving innovation, creating valuable new jobs and delivering economic growth that will secure the UK's global leadership for decades to come." 

Amongst the projects are: 
* developing thin film materials and novel manufacturing methods for wearable technology; 
* developing the materials needed for the new class of photonic integrated circuits for use in communications, sensors, imaging and lighting; and 
* developing advanced fabrication processes for gallium nitride and related materials. 

Professor Philip Nelson, EPSRC's CEO, said: "These grants for functional materials research will take advantage of the excellent capability that exists across the UK. The level of partnership between universities and industry means they are well positioned to advance the exploitation of the knowledge and discoveries of our pioneering scientists and engineers. These are really exciting projects that can add to the long term prosperity of our country."

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

Xilinx says its Kintex UltraScale KU040 FPGAs have moved into volume production on a 20nm process. 

"Xilinx is pleased to move the KU040 into full production," said Wouter Suverkropp, senior product line manager for Kintex FPGAs. "This milestone follows months of design work by our customers, leveraging the performance of the UltraScale architecture." 

Described as being targeted at mid range applications, Kintex UltraScale devices are said to provide optimal price/performance/watt when used in 100G OTN, packet processing and data centre designs, amongst others. 

Kintex UltraScale FPGAs features include up to 1.16million logic cells, 5520 optimised DSP slices, 76Mbit of block RAM and an integrated 100Gbit/s Ethernet MAC. The parts also feature DDR4 memory interfaces operating at 2.4Gbit/s.

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk