Picolock - monolithically integrated wavelength meter

Picolock is a new design of wavelength meter. Based on the principles of far-field diffraction, it measures the absolute wavelength of a monochromatic light source with picometer resolution across the entire L and C bands. Featuring simple passive waveguides and a short array of monitoring photodiodes, Picolock can be integrated monolithically with single- or multi-channel tunable laser modues. Picolock is extremely compact: for the weakly contained waveguides used in this example, picometer resolution is provided by a device less than 0.2 square millimeters in size. The temperature sensitivity of Picolock is less than 0.8GH/K, which is comparable to contemporary etalons. The Picolock concept is patented by Farfield Photonics, and is available for license today. For more information, see www.farfield-photonics.com

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Wavelength
• meter
• tunable
• laser
• locker
• DWDM
• monolithic
• integration
• photonic
• integrated
• circuit

[BurtWilson1]

This all sounds very technical, but can this technology replace silicon to build CPUs? If so can the performance of this device improve over time, much like silicon's Moore's Law?