Imagine downloading five full HD movies in one second flat. That's exactly the kind of speed a tiny new chip developed in South Korea could soon make possible inside the world's data centers.
Researchers at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, known as ETRI, in Daejeon, South Korea, have built Korea's first photodetector chip that can handle 200 gigabits per second of data — roughly double what most data centers use today. The chip is smaller than a grain of rice, measuring just 0.5 millimeters by 0.4 millimeters, about half the width of a sesame seed.
Photodetectors are tiny semiconductor parts that work like super-sensitive eyes. When light carrying data zips through fiber optic cables, these chips catch the light and turn it into electrical signals that computers can read. The faster and better they work, the quicker data moves through the internet.
Kwon Yong Hwan, a leader at ETRI's Photonic and Wireless Devices Research Division, said this breakthrough could give Korea's optical components industry a real competitive edge in the growing AI data center market. "By developing, for the first time in Korea, core photodetector device technology applicable to the fast-growing AI data center and 5G/6G markets, we are now able to contribute to strengthening the competitiveness of Korea's optical components industry," he said.
The secret behind the new chip is a clever design that integrates a tiny convex lens directly onto the back of the semiconductor, eliminating the need for separate lens parts. This makes the chip easier to manufacture and cheaper to package into the optical modules that go inside data center servers.
Han Young Tak, a principal researcher at ETRI who worked on the project, explained that the real challenge was mastering the tricky manufacturing process for compound semiconductors. "The key to this achievement was securing both core source technologies and stable foundry operation capabilities in the field of compound opto-semiconductors, which is highly sensitive to process variables," he said.
The technology was transferred to Wooriro Co., Ltd., a Korean company that will work to bring it to market. According to market research firm LightCounting, the global market for optical transceivers — the modules that use photodetectors — is expected to triple from six billion dollars in 2019 to eighteen billion dollars by 2026, driven by surging demand from AI, cloud computing, and streaming services.
ETRI has filed patents for the technology in both Korea and internationally. Researchers say the design could help reduce Korea's reliance on foreign suppliers and strengthen the country's position in the next generation of optical communication technology, including 800 gigabits per second and 1.6 terabits per second modules.