The following is my answer, the origin of photonic chips is closely related to the development of information technology and the rise of photonics. With the increasing demand for data transmission speed and bandwidth, traditional electronic chips have been difficult to meet the current demand for data transmission speed. Photonics as an emerging technology, its ability to transmit at the speed of light provides us with higher data transmission speed and greater bandwidth. Therefore, the photonic chip came into being.
Photonic chip is an integrated circuit relying on photonics, which integrates photonic devices on the chip to achieve the integration of optoelectronics. Photonic devices include optical transmitters, optical receivers, optical amplifiers, optical modulators, etc. These devices can convert electrical signals into optical signals, and are modulated, amplified, received and other processing, so as to achieve high-speed optical communication. In a photonic chip, the light signal is transmitted through an optical waveguide, a wire-like structure that directs the light signal to a specific chip region.
Photonic chip has a wide range of application prospects, and can be used in communication, computing, sensing and other fields. Whether in data centers or communication network scenarios, photonic chips can make data transmission faster, more stable, and more secure. At the same time, photonic chips can also be applied to machine learning, artificial intelligence and other fields, as well as environmental monitoring, biological detection and other fields. In short, with the development of information technology and the rise of photonics, photonic chips, as a technology with advantages of high speed, large capacity and low energy consumption, will play an increasingly important role in the future communication, computing, sensing and other fields.
Photons, the particles that make up light, have largely replaced electrons in data transmission in communications networks. The high bandwidth of optical signals has driven huge growth in telephone systems, television broadcasts and the Internet, however, photons have yet to replace electrons in computers.
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Using light to transmit data across processor chips and their interconnects will greatly increase the speed of computers (communication within and between chips can be up to 1,000 times faster) while reducing the power required for them to operate. Advanced microprocessor chips can contain tens of billions of transistors, and their copper-electric interconnections generate a lot of heat when they run. Unlike photons, electrons have mass and charge. As they flow through metal or semiconductor materials, they are scattered by silicon and metal atoms, causing them to vibrate and generate heat. As a result, most of the power supplied to the microprocessor is wasted.