Fujitsu today announced that it has been able to halve the power consumption of an optical waveguide switch based on silicon photonics through the world’s first use of fine-patterned silicon germanium (SiGe) for this application, rather than conventional silicon (Si).

This achievement will allow for high-speed optical switches capable of operating across a wide range of wavelengths, while featuring the world’s lowest power requirements.

In accordance with the constant rise of data volume being transmitted over networks, likewise, the power consumption of networking equipment shows a continuous growth trend, leading to concerns for a potentially serious energy problem in the future.

Fujitsu’s newly developed technology will help contain power consumption while supporting large-volume network traffic, thus enabling high-end services linking multiple cloud networks and ultra-high-definition videoconferencing, among other applications.