REMOVING A COMMUNICATIONS BOTTLENECK WITH INKJETS. At last week's Optical Fiber Communication Conference, held in Baltimore by IEEE and the Optical Society of America, researchers from Agilent Technologies (a spinoff of Hewlett Packard) unveiled technology that makes possible a faster, all-optical communications network. Currently, fiber optics networks are not completely optical. Traditional switches for re-routing a fiber-optic signal are devices that convert photons into electrons and then back into photons. However, the new device employs a specially designed "planar-lightwave circuit"--a flat circuit through which multiple light signals can travel. The waves converge at "cross points" filled with a fluid possessing the same optical properties as the rest of the material. Through the fluid, optical signals can pass through undisturbed. Rerouting the signal is accomplished by injecting an inkjet bubble at the cross point. The bubble displaces the fluid and changes the optical properties of the cross point, enabling the signal to switch direction. The bubbles, which can be added and removed hundreds of times a second, thereby allow signals to be rerouted without any moving parts or mirrors, let alone electrons. This "Photonic Switching Platform" should be available commercially by the end of the year. (For more details, see http://www.agilent.com/about/feature/photonic.html)
