Experts at the Purdue University announce the development of a new, miniature device, which has the ability to make wires obsolete. Communications in the homes and offices of tomorrow could be based on ultrafast laser pulses, which the instrument would convert into radio-frequency signals. According to the experts behind the innovation, this approach could be used in most types of existing devices, ranging from high-definition television (HDTV) broadcasts to secure computer connections. Additionally, the system will be fairly simple to use, consisting of a single base station that would cover the entire home or office. Practical applications for the technology are still some years away though, its creators add.
“Of course, ideas about specific uses of our technology are futuristic and speculative, but we envision a single base station and everything else would be wireless. This base station would be sort of a computer by itself, perhaps a card inserted into one of the expansion slots in a central computer. The central computer would take charge of all the information processing, a single point of contact that interacts with the external world in receiving and sending information,” explains PU assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering Minghao Qi.
“But initially, industry will commercialize devices that only receive signals, for 'one-way' traffic, such as television sets, projectors, monitors and printers. This is because the sending unit for transmitting data is currently still a little bulky. Later, if the sending unit can be integrated into the devices, we could enjoy full two-way traffic, enabling the wireless operation of things like hard-disc drives and computers,” the project member adds. The device was researched and designed at the Birck Nanotechnology Center, which is located in Purdue's Discovery Park.
The thing about existing radio-frequency (wireless) transmissions is that they are subject to many interference from external sources, including signals bouncing off walls and other surfaces in that particular room. But the new device, called “chip-based spectral shaper,” produces pulses that are less subjected to such interferences. The Purdue Scifres Family Distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering, Andrew Weiner, says that the new laser pulses are deciphered using a revolutionary technology devised at the university, called “optical arbitrary waveform technology.” Each of the laser pulses lasts for only 100 femtoseconds.
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