Photonics breakthrough

Intel claims photonics breakthrough - The INQUIRER

In the paper, Intel scientists report having fabricated a silicon APD with a
'gain bandwidth product' (GBP) of 340GHz, which they said is approximately three
times more powerful than conventional indium phosphide photodetectors. Presently
most other photodetectors have a GBP of only about 120GHz, they said.

The gain bandwidth product expresses a photodetector's amplification, or
gain, multiplied by its maximum signal transmission speed, that is, its
bandwidth. Intel said that its APD design can be tuned to trade off gain versus
bandwidth, allowing devices to be built either with higher gain and lower
bandwidth or, conversely, lower gain and higher bandwidth.

Intel said this means that an APD can be designed to either transmit high
data rates over short distances or send lower data rates over longer distances.

The Intel researchers said it looks possible to build low cost optical links
that will be able to run at data rates of 40Gbps or higher.