Copper interconnections are easy but have speed limits and traditional fiber-optic cables don’t work well directly with the silicon chips. New hair-thin polymer ribbon was able to transmit data on three channels at a speed of 105 gigabit per second over polymer ribbon 30 centimeters long and 0.4 millimeter wide, with far greater energy-efficiency than is possible with copper, and with a clean connection to the silicon chips.
Polymer ribbons have been used as waveguides to propagate electromagnetic signals before, but the direct compatibility with silicon chips, without any special manufacturing, is a big plus.
Source and more:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/networks/plastic-polymer-cables-that-rival-fiber-optics
4 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Their conduit is made of plastic polymer, so it’s lighter and potentially cheaper to manufacture than traditional copper cables. But when the polymer link is operated with sub-terahertz electromagnetic signals, it’s far more energy-efficient than copper in transmitting a high data load.
https://news.mit.edu/2021/data-transfer-system-silicon-0224
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/2021/03/11-data-cable-100gbps.htm?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.pcgamer.com/simple-polymer-cables-match-fibre-optic-speeds/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://news.mit.edu/2021/data-transfer-system-silicon-0224