# A silicon photonic modulator neuron

## TL;DR

This paper reports the development of a silicon photonic modulator neuron capable of network interactions, demonstrating key neuron behaviors, and enabling fully integrated photonic neural networks on existing silicon platforms.

## Contribution

It introduces the first silicon photonic neuron with behaviors like transfer function configurability, fan-in, inhibition, and cascadability, advancing neuromorphic photonics.

## Key findings

- Demonstrated transfer function configurability
- Achieved fan-in and inhibition behaviors
- Proved autaptic cascadability of the neuron

## Abstract

There has been a recently renewed interest in neuromorphic photonics, a field promising to access pivotal and unexplored regimes of machine intelligence. Progress has been made on isolated neurons and analog interconnects; nevertheless, this renewal has yet to produce a demonstration of a silicon photonic neuron capable of interacting with other like neurons. We report a modulator-class photonic neuron fabricated in a conventional silicon photonic process line. We demonstrate behaviors of transfer function configurability, fan-in, inhibition, time-resolved processing, and, crucially, autaptic cascadability -- a sufficient set of behaviors for a device to act as a neuron participating in a network of like neurons. The silicon photonic modulator neuron constitutes the final piece needed to make photonic neural networks fully integrated on currently available silicon photonic platforms.