Finland's VTT Technical Research Centre and Aalto University, together with a number of partners, are embarking on a project to develop optical switching and transmission technologies. The work is intended to improve the scalability and energy efficiency of data centres and 5G networks.
The project, part of Finnish funding agency Tekes’ 5thGear programme, is called Optical Information Processing for Energy Efficient Data Centres (OPEC). It will focus on the development of novel optical components and technologies based on VTT’s proprietary silicon photonics platform, as well as on new silicon wafer production and precision assembly concepts. The project, supported by Nokia, Rockley Photonics, Okmetic, nLight, Ginolis and Picosun.
The partners are looking to develop active photonic components based on graphene and other layered 2D materials in order to achieve levels of performance beyond the theoretical limit of the traditional materials. The project also explores the feasibility of integrated photonics in analogue signal transfer and manipulation, such as radio over fibre and microwave beam steering in mobile link stations.
Author
Graham Pitcher
Source: www.newelectronics.co.uk