APL Materials (Sep 2019)

Behavioral modeling of integrated phase-change photonic devices for neuromorphic computing applications

  • Santiago G.-C. Carrillo,
  • Emanuele Gemo,
  • Xuan Li,
  • Nathan Youngblood,
  • Andrew Katumba,
  • Peter Bienstman,
  • Wolfram Pernice,
  • Harish Bhaskaran,
  • C. David Wright

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5111840
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 9
pp. 091113 – 091113-7

Abstract

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The combination of phase-change materials and integrated photonics has led to the development of new forms of all-optical devices, including photonic memories, arithmetic and logic processors, and synaptic and neuronal mimics. Such devices can be readily fabricated into photonic integrated circuits, so potentially delivering large-scale all-optical arithmetic-logic units and neuromorphic processing chips. To facilitate in the design and optimization of such large-scale systems, and to aid in the understanding of device and system performance, fast yet accurate computer models are needed. Here, we describe the development of a behavioral modeling tool that meets such requirements, being capable of essentially instantaneous modeling of the write, erase, and readout performance of various integrated phase-change photonic devices, including those for synaptic and neuronal mimics.