Silicon Photonic Modulator Neuron

Alexander N. Tait, Thomas Ferreira De Lima, Mitchell A. Nahmias, Heidi B. Miller, Hsuan Tung Peng, Bhavin J. Shastri, Paul R. Prucnal

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

187 Scopus citations

Abstract

There has been recent interest in neuromorphic photonics, a field with the promise to access pivotal and unexplored regimes of machine intelligence. Progress has been made on isolated neurons and analog interconnects; nevertheless, this renewal of interest has yet to produce a demonstration of a silicon photonic neuron capable of interacting with other like neurons. We report a modulator-class photonic neuron fabricated in a conventional silicon photonic process line. We demonstrate the behaviors of transfer-function configurability, fan-in, inhibition, time-resolved pulse processing, and, crucially, autaptic cascadability - a sufficient set of behaviors for a device to act as a neuron participating in a network of like neurons. The silicon photonic modulator neuron constitutes the final piece needed to make photonic neural networks fully integrated on currently available silicon photonic platforms.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number064043
JournalPhysical Review Applied
Volume11
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 18 2019

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Physics and Astronomy(all)

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