New easy-to-use optical chip can self-configure to perform various functions

Phys.org   October 11, 2023 To enhance the functional versatility of chips researchers in China introduced the concept of reconfiguration into photonic integrated circuits. Inspired by field programmable gate arrays in the electrical domain, they developed programmable photonic chips employing various topologies. However, users still encounter challenges when utilizing these devices, as they need to understand the internal structure and principles of the chip and individually adjust the tunable basic units within the topology network. The researchers employed the quadrilateral topological network based on the on-chip Mach–Zehnder interferometer as a black box to realize a highly self-reconfigurable optical signal processor. By […]