optoelectronics

Although the iPad 2 is only a few months old, Apple is already trying to gather up the necessary parts for the iPad 3, according to a report from DigiTimes yesterday.

Citing industry sources, DigiTimes said that Apple has begun certifying components for the next-generation iPad, a process that's triggered quick responses from many Taiwan-based hardware manufacturers.

The sources said that Radiant Opto-Electronics has already won certification for its LED backlight units, while makers of backlight modules and light bars have received certification as well.

One component still to be certified is the tablet's touch-screen panel itself. Companies … Read more

IBM has devised an optical switch that it says could one day allow processor cores to exchange large files rapidly, the company plans to announce Monday.

The component, which is still in the experimental stage, is the latest piece of technology in the field of optoelecronics. Currently, signals inside chips gets passed on electrons running on microscopic wires. Compared with photons (particles of light), electrons are slow, and they generate heat. In optoelectronics, researchers hope to take technology from fiber-optic communication and shrink it to the chip level. Ideally, these miniaturized components can be produced inexpensively on silicon, increase computing … Read more

IBM has come up with a technology that could one day let different cores on a processor exchange signals with pulses of light, rather than electrons, a change that could lead to faster and far more energy efficient chips.

The device, known as a silicon Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator--converts electrical signals into pulses of light. The trick is that IBM's modulator is 100 or more times smaller than other small modulators produced by other labs. Eventually, IBM hopes the modulator could be integrated into chips.

Here's how it works. Electric pulses, the yellow dots, hit the modulator, which is … Read more