Electrooptic Nonlinear Activation Functions for Vector Matrix Multiplications in Optical Neural Networks
Jonathan George, Rubab Amin, Armin Mehrabian, Jacob B. Khurgin, Tarek El‐Ghazawi, Paul R. Prucnal, Volker J. Sorger · Advanced Photonics 2018 (BGPP, IPR, NP, NOMA, Sensors, Networks, SPPCom, SOF) · 2018
We show how the nonlinear transfer function of electrooptic modulators enables vector matrix multiplications of photonic neural networks. Here the modulators energy-per-bit function and signal-to-noise ratio are critical factors impacting system performance.