The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition Geoff Taylor, the chief scientist for Poet Technologies, has spent much of the past 18 years developing a next-generation semiconductor chip based on gallium arsenide technology. The Globe's Paul Attfield writes that by combining electronics and optics on one monolithic chip, Dr. Taylor believes it can usher in a new wave of innovation, lowering power consumption by up to 10 times compared with current silicon chips, with an increase of between 20 and 50 times the speed. "To me, innovation was always about taking that next big jump from where we are today," Dr. Taylor says. "I was in a unique position in that I made these basic discoveries in terms of device structures way ahead of my time." Dr. Taylor, a native of Cobourg, Ont., is also a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Connecticut, where his lab is based. So far, much of his work has relied on the financial largesse of the U.S. government combined with smaller state grants. His work has resulted in 34 patents, with another seven pending. Though his chip technology has yet to be commercialized, Poet is currently demonstrating the product for some of the leading chip maker.

 

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