Electricity over Glass

by Anna Basanskaya IEEE Spectrum, October 2005 Running a live wire into a passenger jet's fuel tank seems like a bad idea. Still, sensors that monitor fuel tanks have to run on electricity, soaircraft makers previously had little choice. But what if power could bedelivered over optical fiber instead of copper wire, without fear of shortcircuits and sparks? As it happens, laser and optics company JDS UniphaseCorporation has acquired a small Silicon Valley firm with the technology todo just that. Read more