
A tailored silicon nanopattern coupled to a semitransparent gold mirror can solve a complex mathematic equation with light.
Image credit: Ella Maru studio.
Researchers at AMOLF, University of Pennsylvania, and City University of New York (CUNY) created a nanostructured surface capable of solving equations using light. This discovery opens exciting new opportunities in the field of analog processing based on optical metasurfaces. AMOLF PhD student Andrea Cordaro and his co-authors publish their findings in Nature Nanotechnology on January 12th 2023.
The world’s ever-growing needs for efficient computing have been driving researchers from diverse research fields to explore alternatives to the current digital computing paradigm. “The processing speed and energy efficiency of standard electronics have become limiting factors for novel disruptive applications entering our everyday life, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, and many more, says Andrea Cordaro. “In this context, analog computing has resurfaced and regained significant attention as a complementary route to traditional architectures.”
Computing at the speed of light
Optical analog processing refers to the use of light to perform analog computations, as opposed to traditional electronic methods which use electricity. One major benefit of using light to perform specific computing tasks is that it can operate at much higher speeds than electronic methods, as the computation is performed at the speed of light traveling through very thin nanostructured surfaces called metasurfaces. In addition, optical analog processing can be more energy efficient than electronic methods, since it does not generate heat in the same way that electronic circuits do. This makes it well-suited for use in high-performance computing applications where speed and energy efficiency are important.
“In self-driving cars, for example, image detection and processing take up a lot of computing time”, Cordaro says.
“In an earlier paper we have shown that it is possible to use an optical metasurface for very fast edge detection in an input image. Detecting the edges of objects – like cars, people etc. – is the first step in image processing in many applications. Performing this step optically can save processing time and energy.”
Matrix inversions in a jiffy
Cordaro and his colleagues realized that they could also use metasurfaces to perform other mathematical operations. “One of the most frequent class of problems popping up in many fields, including engineering, science, and economics are so-called ‘linear inverse problems’. These typically involve matrix inversions, which are rather slow mathematical operations”, he says.
The team of researchers developed a thin dielectric nanostructure, called a metagrating, and incorporated a semi-transparent mirror into the sample to continuously send back the signal to the nanostructures, each time multiplied by the metagrating scattering matrix.
“We use a special optimization technique to design the unit cell of the nanostructured array, or metagrating, that can perform the desired matrix multiplication”, says Cordaro. “Each mathematical problem requires a specific design for the metagrating, but in theory one could engineer a surface with multiple parallel gratings to solve several integral equations in parallel.”
These results demonstrate the possibility of solving complex mathematical problems and a generic matrix inversion at speeds that are far beyond those of the typical digital computing methods. Indeed, the solution converges in about 349 fs (i.e., less than one thousand-millionth of a second), orders of magnitude faster than the clock speed of a conventional processor.
Cordaro: “We have shown a powerful new alliance between nanotechnology and analog computing that could pave the way for hybrid optical and electronic computing circuitry. Developing our ideas further, will result in solving problems of enhanced complexity at speed and efficiencies that were previously unthinkable.”
Original Article: Mathematics at the speed of light
More from: AMOLF | University of Pennsylvania | City University of New York
The Latest Updates from Bing News
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Hybrid optical and electronic computing circuitry
- electronic computer
We welcome feedback: you can select the flag against a sentence to report it. Only when the electronic computer was invented could the calculations be done fast enough, and the first computer weather ...
- Hybrid transistors set stage for integration of biology and microelectronics
A breath sensor includes hybrid biological-silicon transistors that alter their electronic ... could imagine creating circuits that make use of information that is not represented by the discrete ...
- Hybrid transistors set stage for integration of biology and microelectronics
But what if you could make these fundamental electronic ... creating circuits that make use of information that is not represented by the discrete binary levels used in digital computing, but ...
- Advances in Optical Computing
Keywords: Optical computing, Quantum computing, Quantum optics, Integrated optics, Integrated photonics, Optical accelerators, Machine Learning, Artificial intelligence Important Note: All ...
- The Best Point-and-Shoot Cameras for 2023
The Fujifilm X100V uses an APS-C image sensor and includes a hybrid optical-electronic viewfinder (Credit: Jim Fisher) If you're a luxury shopper, you can go full-frame.
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Optical analog processing
- Photonic chips can calculate optimal shape of light for next-gen wireless systems
Optical wireless may no longer have any obstacles. A study by Politecnico di Milano, conducted together with Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, the University of Glasgow and Stanford University, and ...
- Light-Speed Calculations: New Photonic Chips Are Changing Wireless Communication
A new breakthrough in optical wireless technology features photonic chips that efficiently shape light for improved data transmission, pivotal for the advancement of future wireless networks and ...
- Why future supercomputing requires optics
But optical technology also has the opportunity to go beyond being just a convenient pipe for ultrafast data transmission, and actually perform data processing. Given that the basic computing ...
- SiliconIntervention delivers quantum effect breakthrough in analog circuit design
Developed together with the University of British Columbia under a Canadian government sponsored MITACS program ...
- China's AI Analog Chip Claimed To Be 3000X Faster Than Nvidia's A100 GPU
As a result of this optical processing system, there are fewer energy requirements and electrons wasted in thermal dissipation. Getting rid of the high energy and latency cost of ADCs (Analog-to ...