Photonic time-delayed reservoir computing based on series coupled microring resonators with high memory capacity

TL;DR

This paper introduces a compact, high-memory-capacity photonic reservoir computing system using series-coupled silicon microring resonators, enabling scalable on-chip time-delayed computation with performance comparable to larger, less scalable systems.

Contribution

It proposes a novel configuration of linear and nonlinear microring resonators for efficient, high-memory photonic reservoir computing, reducing system size while maintaining performance.

Findings

Achieves high memory capacity with a compact design

Performs comparably to traditional feedback waveguide systems on chaotic prediction tasks

Significantly reduces system footprint by three orders of magnitude

Abstract

On-chip microring resonators (MRRs) have been proposed to construct the time-delayed reservoir computing (RC), which offers promising configurations available for computation with high scalability, high-density computing, and easy fabrication. A single MRR, however, is inadequate to supply enough memory for the computational task with diverse memory requirements. Large memory needs are met by the MRR with optical feedback waveguide, but at the expense of its large footprint. In the structure, the ultra-long optical feedback waveguide substantially limits the scalable photonic RC integrated designs. In this paper, a time-delayed RC is proposed by utilizing a silicon-based nonlinear MRR in conjunction with an array of linear MRRs. These linear MRRs possess a high quality factor, providing sufficient memory capacity for the entire system. We quantitatively analyze and assess the proposed RC structure's performance on three classical tasks with diverse memory requirements, i.e., the Narma 10, Mackey-Glass, and Santa Fe chaotic timeseries prediction tasks. The proposed system exhibits comparable performance to the MRR with an ultra-long optical feedback waveguide-based system when it comes to handling the Narma 10 task, which requires a significant memory capacity. Nevertheless, the overall length of these linear MRRs is significantly smaller, by three orders of magnitude, compared to the ultra-long feedback waveguide in the MRR with optical feedback waveguide-based system. The compactness of this structure has significant implications for the scalability and seamless integration of photonic RC.