Integrated electro-optic digital-to-analog link for efficient computing and arbitrary waveform generation

TL;DR

This paper introduces an integrated electro-optic digital-to-analog link using lithium niobate nanophotonics that enables high-speed waveform generation and conversion, advancing photonic computing and communication technologies.

Contribution

It presents a scalable, high-speed digital-to-analog conversion method in integrated photonics, demonstrating up to 186 Gbit/s information rates with low energy consumption.

Findings

Achieved optical and electronic waveform generation at 186 Gbit/s.

Demonstrated high-fidelity MNIST encoding with low energy per bit.

Enabled ultrabroadband tunable delay and gain for microwave waveform shaping.

Abstract

The rapid growth in artificial intelligence and modern communication systems demands innovative solutions for increased computational power and advanced signaling capabilities. Integrated photonics, leveraging the analog nature of electromagnetic waves at the chip scale, offers a promising complement to approaches based on digital electronics. To fully unlock their potential as analog processors, establishing a common technological base between conventional digital electronic systems and analog photonics is imperative to building next-generation computing and communications hardware. However, the absence of an efficient interface has critically challenged comprehensive demonstrations of analog advantage thus far, with the scalability, speed, and energy consumption as primary bottlenecks. Here, we address this challenge and demonstrate a general electro-optic digital-to-analog link (EO-DiAL) enabled by foundry-based lithium niobate nanophotonics. Using purely digital inputs, we achieve on-demand generation of (i) optical and (ii) electronic waveforms at information rates up to 186 Gbit/s. The former addresses the digital-to-analog electro-optic conversion challenge in photonic computing, showcasing high-fidelity MNIST encoding while consuming 0.058 pJ/bit. The latter enables a pulse-shaping-free microwave arbitrary waveform generation method with ultrabroadband tunable delay and gain. Our results pave the way for efficient and compact digital-to-analog conversion paradigms enabled by integrated photonics and underscore the transformative impact analog photonic hardware may have on various applications, such as computing, optical interconnects, and high-speed ranging.