Programmable Photonics: An Opportunity for an Accessible Large-Volume PIC Ecosystem

Abstract

We look at the opportunities presented by the new concepts of generic programmable photonic integrated circuits (PIC) to deploy photonics on a larger scale. Programmable PICs consist of waveguide meshes of tunable couplers and phase shifters that can be reconfigured in software to define diverse functions and arbitrary connectivity between the input and output ports. Off-the-shelf programmable PICs can dramatically shorten the development time and deployment costs of new photonic products, as they bypass the design-fabrication cycle of a custom PIC. These chips, which actually consist of an entire technology stack of photonics, electronics packaging and software, can potentially be manufactured cheaper and in larger volumes than application-specific PICs. We look into the technology requirements of these generic programmable PICs and discuss the economy of scale. Finally, we make a qualitative analysis of the possible application spaces where generic programmable PICs can play an enabling role, especially to companies who do not have an in-depth background in PIC technology.

Reversible Switching of Optical Phase Change Materials Using Graphene Microheaters

“…The ability to reconfigure optical devices to adapt to different tasks on-the-fly has been a longsought-after goal with profound impacts on applications including optical communications, [1,2] quantum optics, [3,4] analog computing, [5][6][7][8] active metasurfaces, [9][10][11] device trimming, [12][13][14] and photonic sensing. [15,16] These devices are often implemented using thermo-optic, electro-optic, or all-optical actuation mechanisms, which demand constant power supply to maintain the optical state.…”

Integrated Neuromorphic Photonics: Synapses, Neurons, and Neural Networks

“…Detailed information about principles, architectures, algorithms, development routines, and applications of MZI meshes can be found in these reviews. [ 86,87 ] A fully hardware implementation of the SVD architecture is schematically shown in Figure 4d, where Unit (2) and Unit (4) can implement an arbitrary unitary matrix transformation individually, whereas Unit (3) can implement an arbitrary diagonal matrix transformation. The four MZIs in Unit (1) are used to tune the input power.…”

Programmable Silicon Photonic Integrated Circuits

“…To enable this functionality for the users of the programmable PICs, a software development kit is needed that includes such configuration schemes, so one can develop high-level routines to use programmable PICs to explore new applications [2].…”

“…But today, most of these circuits are designed for a single application: they are application-specific PICs, or ASPICs. That means that a new chip needs to be designed for every new need, which slows down deployment in new applications [2].…”