Laser chips promise faster, greener indoor wireless at gigabit speeds

A chip-scale optical link delivers ultra-fast indoor connections with lower energy use.

A new class of laser chips moves data onto light using a 5-by-5 VCSEL array of 25 microscopic lasers.

21 active channels produced a total throughput of 362.7 gigabits per second; individual lasers ran about 13–19 Gbps.

Data is sent through controlled infrared beams in a grid of targeted beams with minimal spillover; tests ran over two meters and depend on line of sight.

Hardware fits on a sub-millimeter chip built with standard processes; the setup uses about 1.4 nJ/bit—roughly half the energy of comparable Wi‑Fi—and is intended to complement existing networks; no commercial timeline is given.