Indoor wireless communication is reaching its limits as more and more devices cover the same spectrum. Streaming, video calls, and smart home devices place greater strain on networks while power consumption increases. A new class of laser chips offers a different approach by transferring data to light.
Researchers built a chip-scale optical interconnect that enables ultra-fast internal connections with lower power consumption. Instead of spreading signals over wide areas, it sends data over controlled infrared beams, creating more usable capacity while avoiding interference in tight spaces.
The centerpiece is a chip with 25 microscopic lasers, each of which transmits its own current. By working in parallel, they increase throughput far beyond a single source. In the test, the setup achieved more than 360 gigabits per second over a short indoor connection.
The gain is not just in speed. Electricity consumption drops significantly, providing a more efficient way to meet increasing demand.
Laser array proves the speed
Power comes from a 5×5 array of vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers, each acting as its own high-speed channel.
In tests over two meters, individual lasers delivered around 13 to 19 gigabits per second. With 21 active channels, total throughput reached 362.7 gigabits per second, which is among the fastest chip-scale optical results to date.
The limit came from the receiver hardware, not the transmitter, suggesting that higher speeds are possible with better components.
A tailored optical setup also shapes each beam into a defined square, limiting overlap so multiple links can run side by side without interference.
Why light changes the equation
Wireless networks struggle in crowded spaces where signals interfere and capacity is overwhelmed. Light gets around these limitations by offering more bandwidth and precise control over where signals go.
Instead of covering a room, the system creates a grid of targeted beams with minimal spillover. Measurements show uniform coverage across the target area, helping to maintain stable performance across multiple devices.
The setup runs at about 1.4 nanojoules per bit, about half as much as comparable Wi-Fi systems. The trade-off is range, as the current setup works at short distances and depends on line of sight.
Where does this lead next?
This approach is intended to complement existing networks by shifting heavy traffic to heavily used indoor spaces.
The hardware fits on a submillimeter chip manufactured using standard processes, making integration into devices or access points plausible, although no commercial timeline is given.
As demand increases, combining radio and light links could become standard, with laser systems handling the heaviest traffic.
