Neuromorphic Silicon Photonics

We report first observations of an integrated analog photonic network, in which connections are configured by microring weight banks, as well as the first use of electro-optic modulators as photonic neurons. A mathematical isomorphism between the silicon photonic circuit and a continuous neural model is demonstrated through dynamical bifurcation analysis. Exploiting this isomorphism, existing neural engineering tools can be adapted to silicon photonic information processing systems. A 49-node silicon photonic neural network programmed using a "neural compiler" is simulated and predicted to outperform a conventional approach 1,960-fold in a toy differential system emulation task. Photonic neural networks leveraging silicon photonic platforms could access new regimes of ultrafast information processing for radio, control, and scientific computing.