'Beyond human intuition': AI designs chip components 500 times smaller than what engineers could ever imagine

'Beyond human intuition': AI designs chip components 500 times smaller than what engineers could ever imagine

Photonic microchips are around the size of a penny. This close-up shows computer-designed nanostructures, wavelength splitters, mode sorters and mirrors, while the illustrations on the left show how the components could be integrated into photonic circuits. (Image credit: Tony Bi / MPL )Scientists have successfully shrunk three components used in photonic microchips by up to 500 times, leaving considerably more space for other on-chip functional…