During the next 20 years, the changes in isolation technology were largely incremental until 2000, when the first of the new chip scale digital isolators were introduced. The capabilities of optical isolation shaped many of the properties for these communications buses due to the limits of the isolation devices. These shaped the development of communications standards such as RS-232, RS-485 and industrial busses like 4 to 20mA current loops and DeviceNet and PROFIBUS ®. In the 1970s there was a proliferation of optoelectronic devices. They allowed feedback in power supply control circuits, signal isolation in communications to break ground loops, and communications to high side power transistors or current monitors. The advent of the modern optocoupler about 45 years ago was a great step forward for designers. We will also explore several applications that can benefit from this new class of devices. In this article, we will examine the latest developments in ultralow power isolation, how it relates to the available technologies, and how it has been achieved. Old technology optocouplers and even many newer digital isolators consume so much power that certain types of applications have not been practical. It is a burden because it limits communication speed and consumes a lot of power and board space. It is necessary because it makes electronics safe for anyone to use. Isolation has long been considered a necessary burden by designers. The research was published in Nature Photonics ( Power Opening Applications to High Speed Isolation The researchers are working to create quantum coherent microwave-to-optic converters that could facilitate quantum interconnects between superconducting qubits, which requires conversion of single quanta of the microwave field to the optical domain, and vice versa. The researchers anticipate the new optical isolators giving rise to new applications, including chip-scale atomic clocks, lidars, optical quantum computing, and on-chip spectroscopy. Junqiu Liu, who leads the fabrication of Si 3N 4 chips at EPFL’s Center of MicroNanoTechnology. The hybrid semiconductor fabrication technology is also fully CMOS-compatible and accessible via large-volume foundry processes, said Dr. The study reports linear optical isolation of 10 dB, and experimental measurement of one-way, no-loss digital data transmission on an optical signal carrier. Though magnet-free optical isolators have been introduced previously, the collaborative work produced the first that is driven electrically and operated in the linear optical regime. Replacing magnetic materials with piezoelectric thin-film transducers eliminated the need for a magnetic field. This acousto-optical modulation, spatio-temporal modulation, mimics the effects of magnet-driven isolators. ![]() ![]() The design created an effective rotating acoustic wave that allowed indirect interband transition in only one direction among a pair of strongly coupled optical modes. Courtesy of EPFL.īy synchronously driving multiple piezoelectric microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) actuators, bulk acoustic waves are generated electromechanically, which can couple to and deflect light propagating in the Si 3N 4 waveguide below. A fully CMOS-compatible hybrid semiconductor fabrication technique, developed by a team from EPFL and Purdue University, uses piezoelectric aluminum nitride that is monolithically integrated on PICs. The researchers’ approach combines integrated photonics and micro-electromechanical systems technology, made using piezoelectric aluminum nitride monolithically integrated on ultralow-loss silicon nitride (Si 3N 4) photonic integrated circuits (PICs).Ī fabricated piezoMEMS-silicon nitride chips containing multiple optical isolators. However, these are incompatible with current semiconductor foundry processes. Typically, optical isolation is achieved through the use of magnetic materials or magnetic fields. 29, 2021 - A collaboration between École Polytechnique Féderalé de Lausanne and Purdue University has led to the development of an electrically driven, magnet-free optical isolator that enables light routing on a chip.
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