R&D: Fast and Energy-Efficient Non-Volatile Silicon Photonic Memory Based on Heterogeneously Integrated Memresonator

Nature Communications has published an article written by Bassem Tossoun, Hewlett Packard Labs, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Santa Barbara, CA, USA , Di Liang, present address: University of Michigan, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, Hewlett Packard Labs, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, Stanley Cheung, Zhuoran Fang, Xia Sheng, Hewlett Packard Labs, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Santa Barbara, CA, USA , John Paul Strachan, present address: PGI-14, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Aachen, Germany, Hewlett Packard Labs, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, and Raymond G. Beausoleil, Hewlett Packard Labs, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.

Abstract: “Recently, interest in programmable photonics integrated circuits has grown as a potential hardware framework for deep neural networks, quantum computing, and field programmable arrays (FPGAs). However, these circuits are constrained by the limited tuning speed and large power consumption of the phase shifters used. In this paper, we introduce the memresonator, a metal-oxide memristor heterogeneously integrated with a microring resonator, as a non-volatile silicon photonic phase shifter. These devices are capable of retention times of 12 hours, switching voltages lower than 5 V, and an endurance of 1000 switching cycles. Also, these memresonators have been switched using 300 ps long voltage pulses with a record low switching energy of 0.15 pJ. Furthermore, these memresonators are fabricated on a heterogeneous III-V-on-Si platform capable of integrating a rich family of active and passive optoelectronic devices directly on-chip to enable in-memory photonic computing and further advance the scalability of integrated photonic processors.“