Albuquerque startup OptiPulse Inc. has developed optics technology that uses proprietary, high-power laser chips to beam wireless data across a new type of network for urban and rural areas at 10 gigabits per second. The Albuquerque Journal reported the technology allows direct download and upload by end users at up to 1 GBPS, or about 100-fold faster than what is considered the typical 10 megabit-per-second speeds provided by most cell towers today.
OptiPulse plans to deploy the technology in late September or October as part of a pilot project with Central New Mexico Community College, said Kyle Lee, CEO for CNM Ingenuity. The technology will be tested in two buildings and surrounding areas on campus.
“This will be the first 10-G wireless network on a college campus that we know of in the U.S.,” Lee said. “It will allow anyone in that area to upload and download at 1 gigabit per second. That’s unheard-of speed.”
OptiPulse’s wireless technology could offer a plug-and-play alternative for high-speed internet at potentially half the cost of fiber optics or expensive cell towers, reported the Journal.
According to OptiPulse founder, President and COO John Joseph, the technology is built on a “vertical cavity surface emitting laser,” or Vixel array platform that allows engineers to grow crystals directly on a semiconductor wafer. The crystals are arranged in ways to produce minuscule cavities with mirrors on the sides. As electricity flows through the cavities, it’s converted into photons and phonons, with electric current creating light each time it pulses through the cavities. That resonates within the cavity to push a powerful circuit of energy out of a small spot.
OptiPulse harnesses those laser pulses to create a high-power light source at what it says is a low cost. It uses multiple chips with hundreds of lasers on each one to simultaneously beam wireless data from one transceiver to another.
The company plans to mount arrays of transceivers, or nodes, throughout cities or communities to beam high-speed internet service back and forth. Per OptiPulse CEO Mathis Shinnick, the company expects to begin commercially selling the system in 2019.
September 17, 2018
