Tiny chip may cut AI's growing energy demands

Swinburne spinout Microcomb, a deep technology company, has launched with photonic chip technology designed to address the growing energy demands of data centres.

Building on research published in Nature, Microcomb’s technology uses an optical microcomb — a fingernail-sized chip that turns a single laser colour into a rainbow of laser light to transmit data.

The chip divides this light into many channels, much like turning a single-lane road into a multi-lane data highway.

“Traditional optical transmission uses multiple lasers to generate separate channels for transmitting data,” said Professor David Moss, Swinburne Optical Sciences Centre Director and Microcomb co-founder. “This energy-intensive approach requires significant power to operate the lasers and detectors, while limiting the amount of data each channel can carry.

“We use a laser to send light down a fibre, then we slot in a small microcomb chip which splits the light into multiple channels so the data can be transmitted on these individual layers.”

He said one of Microcomb’s biggest advantages is its small footprint, which could allow the technology to be introduced without large components or major upgrades.

“AI data centres rely on many servers working together as one large computer, which means they need vastly more connections, fibre optics and data movement. All of that requires power,” Moss said.

“The energy required to support this growth is the huge bottleneck we’re up against. We’re reaching a crisis point, and we have to solve it from multiple angles because simply throwing more money and energy at the problem won’t work.

“We are proud to be at the forefront of this technology and look forward to seeing it make a real impact.”

Microcomb brings together Moss, Bill Corcoran from Monash University and Arnan Mitchell from RMIT University, with support from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Optical Microcombs and pre-seed investment from Innovation Victoria.

Innovation Victoria’s University Innovation Platform provided the investment pathway to help translate the company’s technology into a commercial opportunity, with Innovation Victoria investing alongside Swinburne Ventures Limited.

This followed early commercialisation support from Swinburne’s Commercial Innovation team, which helped strengthen the proposition and position the company for investment.

Moss also credits commercialisation support from Swinburne’s Innovation and Enterprise group, led by Vice-President Werner van der Merwe, and initial funding from Swinburne Ventures Limited, with helping transform pioneering research into a commercially viable technology with global market potential.

“It has been incredibly rewarding to support Microcomb’s journey from breakthrough research to real-world impact — something Swinburne is proud to champion,” Van der Merwe said.

“Backing startups and spinouts like Microcomb at an early stage is critical to turning world-class research into real-world solutions, accelerating the path from discovery to impact for industry and the community.”

With incorporation complete and pre-seed financing secured, Microcomb has commenced building a customer-informed demonstrator and is engaging prospective customers and partners across AI infrastructure and photonic communications.

For more information on Microcomb, visit the website.

Image credit: iStock.com/volodyar. Image used for illustrative purposes only.