Bell Labs gets the dirt on optical chips

Article Abstract:

AT and T's Bell Laboratories is researching a new method for removing impurities from the chip making process. The project, under the direction of Dr Timothy D. Harris, is intended to make AT and T the first mass manufacturer of a revolutionary new optical communications processor from indium phosphide. Harris uses lasers, a cryogenic chamber with a strong superconducting magnet kept at near absolute zero temperatures, and a sensitive camera developed by astronomers to weed out impurities. An intense light is shone through the indium phosphide crystals and the differences in color patterns caused by each impurity is measured. A superconducting magnet is used to separate identical colors emitted by such impurities as silicon, germanium and sulfur. The new method may help reduce costly electronic conversion that is needed when gallium arsenide chips are employed, and thereby increase a system's efficiency.

COMMUNICATION, Commercial physical research, Column, Communications industry, Optical communications technologies, Optical communications, Semiconductor Preparation, Optical Communication

---

R&D hardball: defying boss's orders pays off for physicist and his firm, AT&T; Linn Mollenauer developed a laser that may yield big edge in fiber optics; race for undersea phone line

Article Abstract:

Linn F. Mollenauer has worked for 12 years at Bell Laboratories, researching light pulses called solitons. Mollenauer's aim is to develop light pulses for sending messages via undersea cables. Three years ago, Arno Penzias, chief of research, ordered Mollenauer to give up his project and work on something else. But Mollenauer refused to give up his research, and in 1990, he demonstrated that he could send light pulses 6,000 miles without regeneration, and Penzias now praises Mollenauer's persistence. But Mollenauer now faces a deadline: by the fall of 1991, he must convince AT&T to use his system on its next undersea cables. If he does not convince the company to use his ideas, all his work might come to nothing, and new developments at AT&T or elsewhere might overshadow what he has accomplished. Meanwhile, rival researchers in Japan and England are said to be working hard on soliton research.

Telephone communications, exc. radio, Telecommunications services industry, Telephone companies, Fiber optics, Submarine cables, Telephone Company, Solitons, Mollenauer, Linn F., Penzias, Arno

---

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Strategic change: the effects of founding and history. Turbulence at the top: a new perspective on governance structure changes and strategic change
• Abstracts: Computer firms see the writing on the screen. IBM to join ranks of firms developing computers that recognize handwriting
• Abstracts: Hewlett-Packard profit fell 38% in its 4th period. Hewlett's profit climbed by 18 percent in its first quarter; most forecasts exceeded as cost-cutting moves begin to show results
• Abstracts: FileNet to switch strategy in wake of 4th-period woes; computer firm must 'reinvent' itself after changes in industry it founded
• Abstracts: Intel's bold steps to thwart foe in patent case. AMD's first-period net exceeds expectations despite 28% decline

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.