TOH edition: Friday, 11 September 2026 · Science & Technology
Replacing Electricity With Light Inside Microchips Could Slash Computing Power. A Decades-Old Roadblock Just Fell.
Reported by Tech Xplore
Publisher date:
Engineers at Tohoku University and Kyocera have engineered a precise laser treatment that bonds optical components directly onto silicon chips without thermal damage. Transmitting data via photons rather than electrical current drastically reduces the energy and heat generated by intensive digital computing. Although high-volume commercial production remains ahead, solving this physical manufacturing barrier moves light-based computing from theory toward reality.
Conquering a stubborn microchip manufacturing hurdle brings ultra-efficient, light-driven computing closer to drastically reducing the energy consumed by the world's digital infrastructure.
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