Integrated photonic fractional convolution accelerator

Abstract

An integrated photonic circuit architecture to perform a modified-convolution operation based on the discrete fractional Fourier transform (DFrFT) is introduced. This is accomplished by utilizing two nonuniformly coupled waveguide lattices with equally spaced eigenmode spectra, the lengths of which are chosen so that the DFrFT and its inverse operations are achieved. A programmable modulator array is interlaced so that the required fractional convolution operation is performed. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed architecture can effectively perform smoothing and edge detection tasks even for noisy input signals, which is further verified by electromagnetic wave simulations. Notably, mild lattice defects do not jeopardize the architecture performance, showing its resilience to manufacturing errors.