Ultrafast silicon threshold circuitry for chaotic laser time series

Abstract

Photonic computing has been intensively studied to explore the ultrahigh bandwidth of lightwaves. However, electronic support is indispensable for the post-processing and control of photonic systems owing to the difficulties encountered in all-optical processing. Herein, we demonstrate an ultrafast silicon circuitry capable of conducting thresholding operations on incoming chaotically oscillating high-bandwidth signals. Such circuits are critical elements in ultrafast random-number generators and photonic reinforcement learning that exploit chaotically oscillating time series. The circuit design, including active inductors for bandwidth expansion, and proof-of-principle fabricated device operations are demonstrated using a 180 nm silicon complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor technology node.