A team of researchers from Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, and Italy has achieved a new speed record for an industry-standard fiber optic cable, reaching 1.7 petabits over a 67-kilometer-long fiber. This fiber optic cable consists of 19 cores, each capable of carrying a separate signal, conforming to global fiber size standards, ensuring its adoption without the need for significant infrastructure modifications. Additionally, it requires less digital processing, significantly reducing the power required for each bit transmission.
Researchers from Macquarie University in Australia have developed a crucial glass chip for creating the 19-core fiber optic cable. Dr. Simon Gross from Macquarie University's Faculty of Engineering said, "We have created a compact glass chip that has a waveguide pattern etched onto it using 3D laser printing technology. It allows signals to be simultaneously sent into the 19 individual cores of the fiber with uniform low loss. Other methods were limited in the number of cores and resulted in excessive optical loss, reducing the efficiency of the transmission system. It is exciting to collaborate with the leaders in fiber optic technology in Japan. I hope to see this technology applied to submarine cables within 5 to 10 years."
Another researcher involved in the project, Professor Michael Withford from Macquarie University's School of Mathematics and Physics, believes this breakthrough in fiber optic technology has profound implications. Withford stated, "The optical chip builds upon decades of optical research at Macquarie University. The underlying patented technology has many applications, including the search for planets orbiting distant stars, disease detection, and even identifying damage in sewer pipes."
This collaborative effort involved Sydney's Macquarie University, Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, La Sapienza University in Italy, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and Sumitomo Electric Industries (SEI) in Japan.