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A team of researchers led by the University of Sydney鈥檚聽Associate Professor聽Niels聽Quack聽has developed a new technology to combine optics and micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) in a microchip, paving the way for the creation of devices like聽micro-3D cameras and gas sensors for precision air quality measurement, including their use in mobile phones.

Published today in聽, the new microfabrication process builds on silicon photonics and uses semiconductor manufacturing techniques to enable a new, more energy-efficient generation of devices for fibre-optical communications, sensors and even future quantum computers.聽聽

Associate Professor聽Quack聽from the聽School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering聽said that the photonic MEMS are unique in that they are compact,聽consume very little power, are fast, support a broad range of optical carrier signals and have聽low optical loss.聽

鈥淭his is the first time that nano-electro-mechanical actuators聽have been integrated in a standard silicon photonics technology platform,鈥� Associate Professor聽Quack聽said.聽

鈥淚t is an important step towards mature large-scale, reliable photonic circuits with integrated MEMS. This technology is being prepared for high-volume production, with potential applications in 3D imaging for autonomous vehicles or new photonic assisted computing.

"Current similar technologies consume a lot of power and occupy a large area on-chip. They also have high optical losses. This makes the integration of a large number of components on a single chip challenging,鈥� he said.

鈥淥ur silicon photonic MEMS technology overcomes these shortcomings, providing a route for efficient scaling of photonic integrated circuits.聽

鈥淭he technology will advance knowledge in the field of micro- and nanofabrication, photonics and semiconductors, with a wide range of applications. These include beam steering for LIDAR 3D sensing in autonomous vehicles, programmable photonic chips, or information processing in quantum photonics.鈥�