Apparatus and methods for optical neural network

US10768659B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology · US

Inventors

• Jacques Johannes Carolan · Cambridge, US
• Mihika Prabhu · Cambridge, US
• Scott A. Skirlo · Boston, US
• Yichen Shen · Hangzhou City, CN
• Marin Soljacic · Belmont, US
• Nicholas C. Harris · Menlo Park, US
• Dirk Robert Englund · San Diego, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 12, 2019
• Grant date: Sep 8, 2020
• Expiry date: Feb 12, 2039

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G02F2203/15
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

An optical neural network is constructed based on photonic integrated circuits to perform neuromorphic computing. In the optical neural network, matrix multiplication is implemented using one or more optical interference units, which can apply an arbitrary weighting matrix multiplication to an array of input optical signals. Nonlinear activation is realized by an optical nonlinearity unit, which can be based on nonlinear optical effects, such as saturable absorption. These calculations are implemented optically, thereby resulting in high calculation speeds and low power consumption in the optical neural network.