What is a photonic chip? Will it replace electronic chips in the future?

As the name suggests, a photonic chip is a chip that uses light as a medium to transmit information using light waves (electromagnetic waves).

Photonic chips also sound quite cutting-edge, a bit at the top of the technology within the flavor ~ but in fact photonic chips and electronic chips, as early as in the 1980s has been born, although it is the electronic chip's twin brother, photonic chips in fact than the electronic chip has a higher talent.

Compared with the general sense of the chip using electronic transmission of information, with the "light" transmission of information photonic chip, theoretically, the information transmission speed will be faster, the propagation distance is also farther, the degree of attenuation is also lower, and do not have to worry about the chip heat and other issues, it seems that photon chip seems to be a more optimal choice than the electronic chip.

But in fact, in the growth process of these two brothers, it seems that the "talent" of the electronic chip but the development of the smoother, in the support of many factors even more than the "talent tree" point full of photonics chip is more eye-catching.

It all starts with the basic component of the chip -- the transistor (MOSFET or FinFET). A transistor is an electrically controlled switch that can easily generate another signal with one or more voltage signals, thus forming a myriad of analog and digital circuits. Electric transistor technology has matured, but the photonic chip is like the protagonist of a martial arts novel has not yet found the stage of the world, "photonic switch" always encountered a variety of problems, either the wavelength of the output signal is always longer than the input wavelength, it is difficult to control the next switch in the line; or optical switch design size can only be maintained in the The design size of optical switches can only be maintained at the micrometer level, and high-speed transmission can only be realized at the cost of size.

Scientists have also been trying to help photonic chips in the hope of making replaceable phototransistors that can fulfill the function of electrical transistors, but are still at a loss.

The photonic chip is now in a pinch: Is it true that all geniuses are lonely? Gave me such a good talent, but no use for it, please can I swap lives with my brother Electron Chip?

After that, with the development of chip design theory, as well as EDA-based, IP-based chip design methodology, the electronic chip can be said to be "as long as the money is in place, there is no can not do, only can not think of".

Even now, what we see is still the Internet information first light as a medium along the fiber-optic network spread to every home, and then converted to electrical signals into the router or computer. It's not that we don't use photonic chips, but it's more efficient to use electronic chips

Electric transistors, with their ability to shrink as the process advances, have taken a very cost-effective "Moore's Law" path, whereas phototransistors have struggled because of wavelength limitations.

However, in recent years, as the chip process has approached its physical limits, some chip makers have redefined the process in order to increase their own selling points, and the industry's debate about whether Moore's Law is coming to an end has not stopped, so it seems that the potential of the electronic chip has almost been drained.

Now that luck is on the side of the photonic chip, the long-lurking photonic chip has begun to rejoice within itself.

In 2016, a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) created the first optical system that effectively replaces electrical transistors with optical interferometers as the basic matrix computing unit in hardware, and develops a series of algorithms that effectively reduces the amount of deep-learning calculations and adapts them to photonic chips without sacrificing performance.

This result was published in 2017 with the cover of the top journal Nature Photonics, and it is from this time onwards, photonic chips once again into everyone's field of vision, seen as a possible continuation of Moore's Law.

The OptoCompiler combines mature, specialized photonic technology with industry-leading simulation and physical verification tools to provide a complete end-to-end design, verification, and sign-off solution for photonic chips. (As long as I advertise fast enough, you won't be able to find it.)

Currently, photonic chips are mainly used for fiber-optic communications, chemical, biological or spectral sensors, metrology, classical and quantum information processing, and other specific applications, and are able to be applied to a wide variety of application scenarios of programmable photonic chips, which, despite the slow development, will have a great impact in the future in the field of artificial intelligence such as self-driving, security monitoring and voice recognition. The programmable photonic chip can be used in a wide variety of application scenarios.

Despite the photonic chip's "extraordinary talent," the "light transistor" that should be used to perform with it has limited the photonic chip's play. On the contrary, the electronic chip, by virtue of the "right place, right time" later on. Fortunately, they have found their own suitable positioning, not staged the brothers love each other to kill the sadistic scene. For example, photonic chips are more suitable for carrying linear computing and data networks, and electronic chips and the existing market environment and software links with better compatibility, in the future, they will continue to optoelectronic hybrid chips in the form of market harmony **** existence.