iTWire - Australian Union develops 'world's first' self-calibrated photonic chip
Melbourne-based research has led to the creation of a self-calibrated photonic chip. Research led by Monash University and RMIT in Melbourne has found a way to replace bulky 3D optics with silicon chips. “We have demonstrated a self-calibrating self-programmable photonic filter chip featuring a signal processing core and an integrated reference path for self-calibration,” explains Monash University’s ARC-winning lead researcher Professor Arthur Lowery. “Self-calibration is very important because it makes tunable photonic integrated circuits useful in the real world; applications include optical communication systems that redirect signals to destinations based on their color, very fast similarity calculations (correlators), scientific instrumentation for chemical or biological analysis, and even astronomy. “Electronics saw a similar improvement in radio filter stability using digital techniques, which led to many phones being able to share the same slice of spectrum: our optical chips h