7.0 LUNCH TIME KEYNOTE SESSION: From Inverse Design to Implementation of Robust and Efficient Photonics for Computing

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Date: Wednesday 21 March 2018
Time: 13:50 - 14:20
Location / Room: Saal 2

Chair:
Ayse Coskun, Boston University, US

It is estimated that nearly 10% of the world electricity is consumed in information processing and computing, including data centers [D.A.B. Miller, Journal of Lightwave Technology, 2017]. It is clear that the exponential growth in use of these technologies is not sustainable unless dramatic changes are made to computing hardware, in order to increase its speed and energy efficiency. Optical interconnects are considered a solution to these obstacles, with potential to reduce energy consumption in on-chip optical interconnects to atto-Joule per bit (aJ/bit), while increasing operating speed beyond 20GHz. However, the state of the art photonics is bulky, inefficient, sensitive to environment, lossy, and its performance is severely degraded in real-world environment as opposed to ideal laboratory conditions, which has prevented from using it in many practical applications, including interconnects. Therefore, it is clear that new approaches for implementing photonics are crucial. We have recently developed a computational approach to inverse-design photonics based on desired performance, with fabrication constraints and structure robustness incorporated in design process. Our approach performs physics guided search through the full parameter space until the optimal solution is reached. Resulting device designs are non-intuitive, but are fabricable using standard techniques, resistant to temperature variations of hundreds of degrees, typical fabrication errors, and they outperform state of the art counterparts by many orders of magnitide in footprint, efficiency and stability. This is completely different from conventional approach to design photonics, which is almost always performed by brute-force or intuition-guided tuning of a few parameters of known structures, until satisfactory performance is achieved, and which almost always leads to sub-optimal designs. Apart from integrated photonics, our approach is also applicable to any other optical and quantum optical devices and systems.

TimeLabelPresentation Title
Authors
13:507.0.2KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Author:
Jelena Vuckovic, Stanford University, US
Abstract
It is estimated that nearly 10% of the world electricity is consumed in information processing and computing, including data centers [D.A.B. Miller, Journal of Lightwave Technology, 2017]. It is clear that the exponential growth in use of these technologies is not sustainable unless dramatic changes are made to computing hardware, in order to increase its speed and energy efficiency. Optical interconnects are considered a solution to these obstacles, with potential to reduce energy consumption in on-chip optical interconnects to atto-Joule per bit (aJ/bit), while increasing operating speed beyond 20GHz. However, the state of the art photonics is bulky, inefficient, sensitive to environment, lossy, and its performance is severely degraded in real-world environment as opposed to ideal laboratory conditions, which has prevented from using it in many practical applications, including interconnects. Therefore, it is clear that new approaches for implementing photonics are crucial. We have recently developed a computational approach to inverse-design photonics based on desired performance, with fabrication constraints and structure robustness incorporated in design process. Our approach performs physics guided search through the full parameter space until the optimal solution is reached. Resulting device designs are non-intuitive, but are fabricable using standard techniques, resistant to temperature variations of hundreds of degrees, typical fabrication errors, and they outperform state of the art counterparts by many orders of magnitide in footprint, efficiency and stability. This is completely different from conventional approach to design photonics, which is almost always performed by brute-force or intuition-guided tuning of a few parameters of known structures, until satisfactory performance is achieved, and which almost always leads to sub-optimal designs. Apart from integrated photonics, our approach is also applicable to any other optical and quantum optical devices and systems.
14:20End of session
16:00Coffee Break in Exhibition Area



Coffee Breaks in the Exhibition Area

On all conference days (Tuesday to Thursday), coffee and tea will be served during the coffee breaks at the below-mentioned times in the exhibition area (Terrace Level of the ICCD).

Lunch Breaks (Großer Saal + Saal 1)

On all conference days (Tuesday to Thursday), a seated lunch (lunch buffet) will be offered in the rooms "Großer Saal" and "Saal 1" (Saal Level of the ICCD) to fully registered conference delegates only. There will be badge control at the entrance to the lunch break area.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

  • Coffee Break 10:30 - 11:30
  • Lunch Break 13:00 - 14:30
  • Awards Presentation and Keynote Lecture in "Saal 2" 13:50 - 14:20
  • Coffee Break 16:00 - 17:00

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

  • Coffee Break 10:00 - 11:00
  • Lunch Break 12:30 - 14:30
  • Awards Presentation and Keynote Lecture in "Saal 2" 13:30 - 14:20
  • Coffee Break 16:00 - 17:00

Thursday, March 22, 2018

  • Coffee Break 10:00 - 11:00
  • Lunch Break 12:30 - 14:00
  • Keynote Lecture in "Saal 2" 13:20 - 13:50
  • Coffee Break 15:30 - 16:00