Albany, NY--The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany and integrated silicon photonics pioneer APIC Corporation (Los Angeles, CA) have formed a $10 million partnership for joint development and commercialization of computer chips that use significantly less energy than do current devices while also running much faster. 

The APIC-CNSE partnership targets development and delivery of a new generation of modules and systems that utilize photonic integrated circuits or PICs. These devices combine optical communications with silicon-based CMOS technologies. As ongoing scaling continues to shrink the bandwidth of metal wiring used to connect CMOS circuits, severely limiting speed and functionality for advanced processors and multi-core systems, optical communication could help break this communications bottleneck. 

These PIC systems will be particularly useful in addressing the 21st century explosion in bandwidth and computing power needs--including advanced data centers, cutting-edge medical research, secure financial transactions and next-generation gaming capabilities--potentially increasing processing speed by up to 60%, while reducing power consumption by as much as 90%.

The collaboration, which integrates APIC’s expertise in photonics systems and devices with CNSE’s world-class nanoelectronics resources, will result in creation of at least 20 high-tech jobs over the next 18 months, the majority at CNSE’s Albany NanoTech Complex.

The partnership between APIC and CNSE also includes the potential for further R&D initiatives in the future, which may involve the location of additional APIC employees at CNSE’s Albany NanoTech Complex.

Source: CNSE

Posted by: Steve Anderson
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