Exabit hit
So, some lab rats say they can get a graphene optical modulator to operate at 1GHz and extrapolate that to 500GHz. And then spin that into claiming exabit data transmission rates are feasible. So what?
I'm trying to make sense of that. How would I demodulate it? What sort of modulation? OOK? Self-clocking Manchester?
We're talking all optical foo here, not electronics. 500GHz isn't something we can handle on a PCB at all. So many real world influences mess it up, Just propagating that signal on a copper PCB trace is nigh impossible. Forget about getting it to go around a turn in the path. Waveguide, really tiny waveguide is the only reliable method. So all this stuff would have to stay on the chip and what's the point of optical then?
Can't use it for fiber, at 25 microns a powerful enough laser to get any range would vaporize the modulator. And multipath along the fiber would muddy up the modulation enough to limit range too.
So we get another breathless press release about an obscure lab miracle that doesn't really matter.
I'm trying to make sense of that. How would I demodulate it? What sort of modulation? OOK? Self-clocking Manchester?
We're talking all optical foo here, not electronics. 500GHz isn't something we can handle on a PCB at all. So many real world influences mess it up, Just propagating that signal on a copper PCB trace is nigh impossible. Forget about getting it to go around a turn in the path. Waveguide, really tiny waveguide is the only reliable method. So all this stuff would have to stay on the chip and what's the point of optical then?
Can't use it for fiber, at 25 microns a powerful enough laser to get any range would vaporize the modulator. And multipath along the fiber would muddy up the modulation enough to limit range too.
So we get another breathless press release about an obscure lab miracle that doesn't really matter.