An integrated optical circuit is one or more circuits composed of solid-state optical components on a semiconductor or dielectric substrate. Components include light sources, optical filters, photodetectors, and thin-film optical waveguides. An example of an integrated optical circuit is an opto-isolator (or opto-coupler) which allows a circuit to interact with another one while remaining electrically buffered from it. A 2005 development^{[citation needed]} solved a quantum noise problem that prevented silicon from being used to generate laser light, permitting new integrated optical circuits to use high-bandwidth laser light generated within the circuit itself as a signal medium. An electrical network is an interconnection of electrical elements such as resistors, inductors, capacitors, and switches. ... A semiconductor is a material with an electrical conductivity that is intermediate between that of an insulator and a conductor. ... A dielectric, or electrical insulator, is a substance that is highly resistant to the flow of electric current and has a relative permittivity greater than unity. ... An opto-isolator integrated circuit Schematic diagram In electronics, an opto-isolator (or optical isolator, optocoupler) is a device that uses a short optical transmission path to transfer a signal between elements of a circuit, typically a transmitter and a receiver, while keeping them electrically isolated — since the signal goes... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... General Name, Symbol, Number silicon, Si, 14 Chemical series metalloids Group, Period, Block 14, 3, p Appearance dark gray, bluish tinge Atomic mass 28. ... Lasers range in size from microscopic diode lasers (top) with numerous applications, to football field sized neodymium glass lasers (bottom) used for inertial confinement fusion, nuclear weapons research and other high energy density physics experiments. ... Bandwidth is a measure of frequency range, measured in hertz, of a function of a frequency variable. ...

This technology is of interest to computing due to;

• Optical transmission speed is 21cm/nanosecond faster than copper.
• A lack of EMI between optical signals, eliminating crosstalk and stray capacitances in computers.