TDK Corp. has announced a breakthrough in optical technology that can process data 10 times faster than existing electronics and solve a key bottleneck that has held back the development of generative AI.
The Apple supplier said it has demonstrated the world’s first “spin photodetector,” which combines optical, electronic and magnetic components and has a response time of 20 picoseconds, or 20 trillionths of a second, potentially replacing existing semiconductor-based photodetectors that transfer data between chips.
The speed at which AI processors can transfer data is severely limited by current electronics, said Hideaki Fukuzawa, senior manager at TDK’s Next Generation Product Development Center.
“This data transfer is the biggest bottleneck for AI, not the performance of semiconductor GPUs,” he said. “Because we were able to break through many of the current bottlenecks, we think this technology will revolutionize the AI and data center industries.”
Arata Tsukamoto, a professor of electrical engineering at Nihon University in Tokyo, who tested the new device for TDK as a research partner, said he believes “spin photodetectors hold extraordinary promise from both a scientific and technological perspective.”
Currently, data is transferred between processors via electrical signals, but the large amounts of data in AI need to turn to optical technology because light travels faster.
TDK plans to conduct further tests to confirm continuous light at ultra-high speeds before providing samples to customers by the end of March 2026 and moving into mass production in the next three to five years.
Although the technology is immature and there are huge challenges in building an ecosystem for the technology with integrated circuit designers, TDK believes its device can have a cost advantage over other solutions by reducing the number of wafer processes.
TDK supplies batteries for iPhones, but it has applied its head technology to hard drives to achieve breakthroughs in photonics.
Its new device also consumes less power — another important issue for the expansion of AI data centers. Augmented reality and virtual reality smart glasses and high-speed image sensors are also potential markets for the technology in the future.
The device is part of a market for photonic integrated circuits that tech researcher IDTechEx predicts will expand more than tenfold over the next decade due to demand for AI generation
Major AI companies have also been working to develop transceivers that integrate optical technology into chip packages, and TDK’s technology will be a challenger to this next-generation silicon photonics.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest chipmaker, is working on it, with the goal of achieving production within five years.