Self-Configuring and Reconfigurable Silicon Photonic Signal Processor

• DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.9b01673
• Publication Date: 2020-02-05T18:07:37Z
• Authors: Hailong Zhou; Yuhe Zhao; Xu Wang; Dingshan Gao; Jianji Dong; Xinliang Zhang
• Keywords: Signal Processing (eess.SP); 0103 physical sciences; FOS: Electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; FOS: Physical sciences; Electrical Engineering and Systems Science - Signal Processing; 01 natural sciences; Physics - Optics; Optics (physics.optics)

Photonic signal processing is essential in the optical communication and optical computing. Numerous photonic signal processors have been proposed, but most of them exhibit limited reconfigurability and automaticity. A feature of fully automatic implementation and intelligent response is highly desirable for the multipurpose photonic signal processors. Here, we report and experimentally demonstrate a fully self-learning and reconfigurable photonic signal processor based on an optical neural network chip. The proposed photonic signal processor is capable of performing various functions including multichannel optical switching, optical multiple-input-multiple-output descrambler and tunable optical filter. All the functions are achieved by complete self-learning. Our demonstration suggests great potential for chip-scale fully programmable optical signal processing with artificial intelligence.