MIT advances photonic links to petabit-speed data transfer

MIT's FUTUR-IC program unveils advances in electronically-photonic integration to push data transmission toward and beyond one petabit per second with lower energy use, including evanescent and GRIN optical couplers plus a third previously developed one—optical 'solder bumps' linking photonic devices. These approaches can be manufactured with existing semiconductor equipment, and Earthster models environmental impact while the initiative trains a workforce for semiconductor efficiency. The aim is to separate computation (electronics) from communication (photonic) to reduce data-center energy as AI and cloud services scale.