Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) present a novel component that enables very fast, economical, and reliable data transmission thanks to an advanced manufacturing technology. Their new electro-optical modulator transmits data efficiently through fiber-optic cables and can be manufactured inexpensively in large quantities on standard semiconductor wafers. This is important, as AI applications and growing data traffic are pushing data centers and fiber-optic networks to their performing limits. The researchers present their findings in Nature Communications.

Similar to modern computer chips, the modulator can be manufactured using established semiconductor processes. The researchers combine lithium tantalate —a material that guides light particularly well and serves as the heart of the modulator—with a proven chip manufacturing technique from microelectronics. To date, these two technologies have never been used together. For the first time now, they enable reliable mass production.