The Sydney University based Centre for Ultra-high bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) team, led by Ben Eggleton, has created a switch embedded in a silicon chip. The chip uses scratches on a glass surface to direct optical traffic at speeds of up to 640 gigabits per second.

Traditionally, switching network traffic means converting it from light into electrical signals and then back again. However, with the massive speeds now used in backbone networks, such an approach is becoming a bottleneck. The new switch opens up the prospect of multi terabit-per-second speeds.

Eggleton says “The switch chip essentially uses one beam of light to control another. The scratches create a photonic circuit that does the job traditionally done by electronics”. The circuit will guide data in much the same way as trains are guided from one track to another.

Just as potentially impressive as the operating speed is the simplicity and potential cheapness of the design. This should eventually allow it to be incorporated into a wide variety of equipment.

The CUDOS team has worked with other researchers at the Australian National University and the Technical University of Denmark on the project. A proof of concept chip is currently under evaluation in Europe.

Find CUDOS here