4 × 4 bit Programmable Optical Memory Array With Digital Addressing Using Micro-Ring Resonators

Abstract

The development of photonic integrated circuit (PIC) based computing systems requires efficient optical memory units, which can be challenging to implement due to the need for precise routing of optical signals. To address this challenge, we propose a $4\times 4$ bit photonic non-volatile memory array system using micro ring resonators for fast and flexible memory addressing. The system uses phase change material (PCM) as a memory unit and implements wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) techniques to access memory cells through active and passive filtering by micro-ring resonators. Results show a system access speed of 30 Gbps with 50Mbps for erasing and 1.6Mbps for writing with accurate memory unit routing. This demonstration shows the potential for developing photonic non-volatile memory storage with reconfigurable memory addressing, which could facilitate the development of advanced PIC-based computing systems.

Keywords

• Optical memory
• phase change material
• wavelength division multiplexing
• memory access
• decoder