Intel researchers solved a manufacturing problem that has delayed the development of products that can generate and route light. This breakthrough revolves around combining the two materials most commonly used in computer chips and high-speed optical networks into a “sticky” silicon chip.

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The researchers discovered that the use during manufacturing of an oxygen plasma acts as a “glass glue” that tightly bonds the two materials into one device. Applying a voltage makes the indium phosphide generate light which can then be manipulated by the silicon elements of the hybrid chip. The close mating of the two materials could mean that data can get on and off computer chips far more quickly than it can via conventional connections. The fact that it uses the relatively low-cost manufacturing techniques used to make silicon chips could slash the cost of making components for high-speed telecommunications networks.

Intel said commercial versions of the hybrid chip may not appear until 2010.