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Highly efficient photonic convolver via lossless mode-division fan-in

Author

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  • Shangsen Sun

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology)

  • Shiji Zhang

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology)

  • Bo Wu

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology)

  • Shan Jiang

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology)

  • Baiheng Zhao

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology)

  • Hailong Zhou

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology)

  • Jianji Dong

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology
    Optics Valley Laboratory)

  • Xinliang Zhang

    (Huazhong University of Science and Technology
    Optics Valley Laboratory)

Abstract

Optical neural networks (ONNs) leverage the parallelism and low-energy consumption of photonic signal processing to overcome the limitations of traditional electronic computing. Optics inherently enables fan-in and fan-out without the Resistor-Capacitor (RC) and Inductor-Capacitor (LC) delays of electrical interconnects. However, for single-mode photonic integrated circuits, reciprocity constraints introduce unavoidable loss during beam combining, hindering large-scale on-chip photonic fan-in. To overcome this challenge, we provide a photonic lossless mode-division fan-in solution for the convolution accelerators. Using inverse design, we developed a compact multimode photonic convolution accelerator (0.42 mm2) with ±15 nm fabrication tolerance and 35 nm optical bandwidth, enabling parallel computation across mode and wavelength dimensions. Experimental results in the C-band confirm a 6–7 bit convolution precision, leading to classification accuracies of 95.2% on MNIST and 87.9% on Fashion-MNIST. Moreover, the device offers a theoretical computational density of 125.14 TOPS/mm2, underscoring its potential for scalable and energy-efficient photonic computing accelerators.

Suggested Citation

  • Shangsen Sun & Shiji Zhang & Bo Wu & Shan Jiang & Baiheng Zhao & Hailong Zhou & Jianji Dong & Xinliang Zhang, 2025. "Highly efficient photonic convolver via lossless mode-division fan-in," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-62954-w
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62954-w
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