I-Corps: Universal Linear Integrated Photonic Device for Analog Computing

这个I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发集成的通用线性光子设备，用光执行基本的计算操作。本发明实现了对经典和量子光学信息处理应用至关重要的实时矩阵向量乘法。在经典计算中，该器件是开发用于光子自旋模拟器非常规计算、神经形态计算和模拟光子神经网络机器学习的光子芯片的核心。在量子信息处理和量子机器学习中，需要类似的功能来在光子集成电路中执行线性操作，以操纵光的量子态。除了在光学计算方面的应用之外，所提出的组件还可以作为一种通用的多输入多输出设备，用于光子集成电路中的超高速光操作，用于从模拟光信号处理到计量和传感的广泛用途，并涉及电信和激光雷达的应用。这个I-Corps项目是基于光子集成电路的发展，该电路可以和光进行模拟矩阵向量乘法。实现任意线性运算的通用光子器件是经典光学计算和量子光学计算不可缺少的组成部分，同时也是光子集成电路中高级光操作的关键多端口电路。集成光子矩阵乘法器的一个主要限制是，与光的波长相比，它们的特征尺寸相对较大，这阻碍了它们缩放到大量端口。提出的技术引入了一种新的结构来实现紧凑的光子电路，该电路通过波导和移相器两个构建块的密集包装来执行任意线性操作。该计划是开发可扩展且节能的集成光子电路，利用这种结构可以对光进行任意复杂的线性操作。此外，目标是通过结合可调谐移相器开发通用应用的可编程光子电路。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of integrated universal linear photonic devices that perform fundamental computing operations with light. This invention performs real-time matrix-vector multiplication that is essential for classical and quantum optical information processing applications. In classical computing, this device is core for developing photonic chips for unconventional computing with photonic spin simulators, neuromorphic computing, and machine learning with analog photonic neural networks. In quantum information processing and quantum machine learning, a similar functionality is required for performing linear operations in photonic integrated circuits that manipulate quantum states of light. In addition to applications in optical computing, the proposed component may serve as a universal multi-input multi-output device for ultra-high-speed manipulation of light in photonic integrated circuits for a broad spectrum of purposes ranging from analog optical signal processing to metrology and sensing and involve applications in telecommunication and LiDAR.This I-Corps project is based on the development of photonic integrated circuits that perform analog matrix-vector multiplications with light. A universal photonic device that can perform arbitrary linear operations is an indispensable component of classical and quantum optical computing, while it also serves as a critical multiport circuit for advanced manipulation of light in photonic integrated circuits. One of the main limitations of integrated photonic matrix multipliers is their relatively large, compared to the wavelength of light, feature sizes that prevents their scaling to large numbers of ports. The proposed technology introduces a new architecture for realizing compact photonic circuits that perform arbitrary linear operations by dense packing of two building blocks: waveguides and phase shifters. The plan is to develop scalable and energy-efficient integrated photonic circuits that can perform arbitrary complex linear operations with light by utilizing this architecture. In addition, the goal is to develop programmable photonic circuits for general-purpose applications by incorporating tunable phase shifters.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.