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Chinese scientists find a way to mass-produce optical chips that the US cannot sanction
Researchers developed a technique that uses a low-cost material – lithium tantalate – that is already being used to make smartphone components.
PICs can be made using various materials, including lithium niobate, which is known for its excellent properties in converting electronic data into photonic information, an essential part of the electro-optical conversion process. Using a deep ultraviolet stepper-based manufacturing process, the team showed that lithium tantalate could be etched to create low-loss PICs, which the researchers believe could also be used in precision measurement and laser imaging detection and ranging. “Our work paves the way for the scalable manufacture of low-cost and large-volume next-generation electro-optical PICs,” Ou said, underscoring the potential of lithium tantalate in wireless applications.
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