Light-powered chip technology to help data centres keep up with demand
7 May 2025
- Information and Intelligence
- Microcomb Science and Technology
Our Chief Investigator William (Bill) Corcoran in the laboratory investigating light-based technologies to help our data centres keep up with growing data demands.
Our world wide web traffic is growing exponentially by 25% every year, and published today in Nature Photonics, COMBS researchers have shown that microcomb technology – devices that can fit on a chip the size of a fingernail – could help our data centres to keep up with demand.
The review paper describes how the cutting-edge, light-powered chip technology that is the focus of our Centre could address massive demands on global fibre optic communication networks.
Microcombs are reliable and stable and can be used to transmit orders of magnitude more data than current commercial systems through existing fibre optic cables, making them a cost-effective solution for meeting future internet demands.
This review paper was written by our COMBS Centre members, including:
- Chief Investigator William (Bill) Corcoran
- Deputy Director David Moss
- Director Arnan Mitchell
- Partner Investigator Leif Katsuo Oxenlowe
- Partner Investigator Roberto Morandotti
Read the article Optical microcombs for ultrahigh-bandwidth communications in Nature Photonics here: www.nature.com/articles/s41566-025-01662-9