AN ITALIAN company has worked out how to make silicon emit light when an electric current is passed through it. This promises to revolutionise electronics by freeing microchips of the layers upon layers of connecting wires that slow them down and lead to overheating. Instead, circuits on chips will be able to beam signals to each other using light.
Researchers have been trying to squeeze light out of silicon for years, but the results announced by ST Microelectronics, the world’s third largest semiconductor maker, appears to put others’ efforts in the shade. The company claims it has achieved a “quantum…
