On-chip CMOS-compatible optical signal processor.

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Optical Computing
• Integrated Circuits

Background:

• High-performance computing demands efficient hardware for complex calculations.
• Optical signal processing offers potential advantages in speed and energy efficiency over electronic methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and demonstrate an optical signal processor capable of matrix-vector multiplication.
• To assess the computational performance of the developed optical processor.

Main Methods:

• The processor utilizes a laser-modulator array, multiplexer, splitter, microring modulator matrix, and photodetector array.
• Matrix-vector multiplication is performed optically, leveraging photonic components.

Main Results:

• The optical signal processor achieved 8 × 10⁷ multiplications and accumulations (MACs) per second.
• The system operated at a clock frequency of 10 MHz, demonstrating significant computational throughput.

Conclusions:

• The demonstrated optical signal processor successfully performs matrix-vector multiplication.
• Future monolithic integration on a chip, enabled by silicon photonics, is expected to yield efficient high-performance computing systems.