Integrated photonics with programmable non volatile memory
Silicon photonics integrated circuits (Si PIC) with well established active and passive building elements are progressing towards large scale commercialization in optical communications and high speed optical interconnects applications. However, current Si PICs do not have memory capabilities, in particular, the non volatile memory functionality for energy efficient data storage. Here, we propose an electrically programmable, multi level non volatile photonics memory cell (PMC) fabricated by standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible processes. A micro ring resonator (MRR) was built using the PMC to optically read the memory states. Switching energy smaller than 20 pJ was achieved. Additionally, a MRR memory array was employed to demonstrate a four bit memory read capacity. Theoretically, this can be increased up to ~400 times using a 100 nm free spectral range broadband light source. The fundamental concept of this design provides a route to eliminate the von Neumann bottleneck. The energy efficient optical storage can complement on chip optical interconnects for neutral networking, memory input/output interfaces and other computational intensive applications.
Scientific reports