GoKawiil
Tech News
Scientists reported a new optical approach using light and mirrors to help build larger, more practical quantum computers, according to a Nature news item. The report describes the technique as a step toward overcoming scaling challenges that have limited quantum computing systems.
A research team built an integrated frequency-comb device that inverts the usual design: instead of cascading outward from a single pump laser, two lasers spaced exactly one octave apart drive a soliton inside a chip-based resonator, generating a comb that fills the gap between them. The resulting octave-spanning comb, spanning telecom to visible wavelengths, automatically aligns to both pump lasers across multiple fabricated chips and setups, giving it a well-defined zero-frequency offset that is easy to detect and stabilize. The team used this single device to perform optical frequency synthesis, low-noise millimetre-wave generation, and optical clock readout by simply changing which signals the pumps were locked to.
Tower Semiconductor plans to co-invest $4 billion with the Japanese government to expand its Niigata and Toyama fabs into a major hub for optical-connectivity chips. The plan, dubbed Track One and Track Two, will convert an idle 200mm fab to 300mm production, boost output at an existing 300mm fab, and eventually add a new 300mm fab, raising total capacity to the equivalent of 45,000 300mm wafers per month by 2029.
GlobalFoundries and Marvell Technology have extended their manufacturing partnership, with GlobalFoundries boosting silicon germanium (SiGe) production capacity at its Burlington, Vermont facility. The multi-year deal targets components used in pluggable optical transceivers, near-packaged optics, and co-packaged optics, technologies that data centers need to move data faster than copper wiring allows.
A compiled reference list surveys recent research on heterogeneously integrating single-crystalline nanomembranes onto photonic and electronic platforms, covering methods like remote epitaxy, van der Waals layer transfer, and atomic lift-off. The cited works span parametric amplifiers, expanded photonic spectra, oxide membrane integration, and applications from infrared detectors to micro-LEDs.
Scientists at the Technical University of Denmark built a nanolaser small enough to potentially be embedded by the thousands on a single microchip, letting devices transmit data as light rather than electrical signals. The work, led by professor Jesper Mørk with colleagues Meng Xiong and Yi Yu, appeared in Science Advances.
GoPro has agreed to be acquired by Starman Optical for $285 million, with shareholders receiving $1.14 per share and retaining roughly 10% of the combined company. The deal, expected to close by year-end, will eliminate GoPro's $92 million in debt and keep the company publicly traded. It follows earlier signals that GoPro was exploring a shift toward defense technology, and comes just after YouTuber Markiplier disclosed an 8.5% stake in the company.