In the future, telecommunication providers could use APDs to amplify long-distance phone calls, said Mike Morse, principal engineer in the photonics technology lab at Intel. Telephone signals are converted to optical signals that go through fiber in the ground, and APDs could sit in exchanges to amplify those signals.

However, the chips are not ready for implementation as additional research is needed, Morse said.

"This is still in development so we still have a lot of learning to do. I can’t predict how all of that will play out," he said.

Intel's research results is expected to be published in the Nature Photonics journal on Sunday. The company is working with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Numonyx, University of California at Santa Barbara and University of Virginia on this research.

Many companies, including Sun and IBM are involved in silicon photonics research. Earlier this year, Sun received a US$44 million contract from DARPA to boost computing performance by enabling chip communication using lasers over silicon and to reduce power consumption by placing chips close to each other. IBM is also trying to speed up data transfers between chip cores through silicon photonics research.