Joining photonics and electronics – replacing wires with light

Electronic chips continue to get faster and denser at a remarkable pace, but can the wiring keep up with the transistors? Electronics is increasingly limited by interconnects, at all levels, even down to the chip itself. Photonics sidesteps the physics that limits wiring, and may solve these scaling problems. In addition, it offers radical additional possibilities like ultrashort pulses and wavelength division multiplexing. This talk will summarize the arguments for optical interconnects, the new technology needed, and recent advances. see bio info For more information on the night's meeting.