Abstract: An analog computing system with coupled non-linear oscillators can solve complex combinatorial optimization problems using the weighted Ising model. The system is composed of a fully-connected LC oscillator network with low-cost electronic components and compatible with traditional integrated circuit technologies. Each LC oscillator, or node, in the network can be coupled to each other node in the array with a multiply and accumulate crossbar array or optical interconnects. When implemented with four nodes, the system performs with single-run ground state accuracies of 98% on randomized MAX-CUT problem sets with binary weights and 84% with five-bit weight resolutions. The four-node system can obtain solutions within five oscillator cycles with a time-to-solution that scales directly with oscillator frequency. A scaling analysis suggests that larger coupled oscillator networks may be used to solve computationally intensive problems faster and more efficiently than conventional algorithms.

Abstract: An integrated optical beam steering device includes a planar Luneburg lens that collimates beams from different inputs in different directions within the lens plane. It also includes a curved (e.g., semi-circular or arced) grating coupler that diffracts the collimated beams out of the lens plane. The beams can be steered in the plane by controlling the direction along which the lens is illuminated and out of the plane by varying the beam wavelength. Unlike other beam steering devices, this device can operate over an extremely wide field of view—up to 180°—without any aberrations off boresight. In other words, the beam quality is uniform in all directions, unlike with aplanatic lenses, thanks to the circular symmetry of the planar Luneburg lens, which may be composed of subwavelength features. The lens is also robust to misalignment and fabrication imperfections and can be made using standard CMOS processes.

Abstract: Networks of superharmonic injection-locked (SHIL) electronic oscillators can be used to emulate Ising machines for solving difficult computational problems. The oscillators can be simulated or implemented in hardware (e.g., with LC oscillators) and are coupled to each other with links whose connection strengths are weighted according to the problem being solved. The oscillators' phases may be measured with respect to reference signal(s) from one or more reference oscillators, each of which emits a reference signal but does not receive input from any other oscillator. Sparsely connected networks of SHIL oscillators and reference oscillators can be used as Viterbi decoders that do not suffer from the information bottleneck between logic computational blocks and memory in digital computing systems.

Abstract: The accelerometers disclosed herein provide excellent sensitivity, long-term stability, and low SWaP-C through a combination of photonic integrated circuit technology with standard micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Examples of these accelerometers use optical transduction to improve the scale factor of traditional MEMS resonant accelerometers by accurately measuring the resonant frequencies of very small (e.g., about 1 ?m) tethers attached to a large (e.g., about 1 mm) proof mass. Some examples use ring resonators to measure the tether frequencies and some other examples use linear resonators to measure the tether frequencies. Potential commercial applications span a wide range from seismic measurement systems to automotive stability controls to inertial guidance to any other application where chip-scale accelerometers are currently deployed.

Abstract: Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) enable manipulation of light on a chip for telecommunications and information processing. They can be made with silicon and silicon-compatible materials using complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication techniques developed for making electronics. Unfortunately, most light sources are made with III-V and II-VI materials, which are not compatible with silicon CMOS fabrication techniques. As a result, the light source for a PIC is either off-chip or integrated onto the PIC after CMOS fabrication is over. Hybrid integration can be improved by forming a recess in the PIC to receive a III-V or II-VI photonic chip. Mechanical stops formed in or next to the recess during fabrication align the photonic chip vertically to the PIC. Fiducials on the PIC and the photonic chip enable sub-micron lateral alignment. As a result, the photonic chip can be flip-chip bonded to the PIC with sub-micron vertical and lateral alignment precision.

Abstract: An analog computing system with coupled non-linear oscillators can solve complex combinatorial optimization problems using the weighted Ising model. The system is composed of a fully-connected LC oscillator network with low-cost electronic components and compatible with traditional integrated circuit technologies. Each LC oscillator, or node, in the network can be coupled to each other node in the array with a multiply and accumulate crossbar array or optical interconnects. When implemented with four nodes, the system performs with single-run ground state accuracies of 98% on randomized MAX-CUT problem sets with binary weights and 84% with five-bit weight resolutions. The four-node system can obtain solutions within five oscillator cycles with a time-to-solution that scales directly with oscillator frequency. A scaling analysis suggests that larger coupled oscillator networks may be used to solve computationally intensive problems faster and more efficiently than conventional algorithms.

Abstract: An integrated optical beam steering device includes a planar Luneburg lens that collimates beams from different inputs in different directions within the lens plane. It also includes a curved (e.g., semi-circular or arced) grating coupler that diffracts the collimated beams out of the lens plane. The beams can be steered in the plane by controlling the direction along which the lens is illuminated and out of the plane by varying the beam wavelength. Unlike other beam steering devices, this device can operate over an extremely wide field of view—up to 180°—without any aberrations off boresight. In other words, the beam quality is uniform in all directions, unlike with aplanatic lenses, thanks to the circular symmetry of the planar Luneburg lens, which may be composed of subwavelength features. The lens is also robust to misalignment and fabrication imperfections and can be made using standard CMOS processes.

Abstract: An integrated optical beam steering device includes a planar Luneburg lens that collimates beams from different inputs in different directions within the lens plane. It also includes a curved (e.g., semi-circular or arced) grating coupler that diffracts the collimated beams out of the lens plane. The beams can be steered in the plane by controlling the direction along which the lens is illuminated and out of the plane by varying the beam wavelength. Unlike other beam steering devices, this device can operate over an extremely wide field of view—up to 180°—without any aberrations off boresight. In other words, the beam quality is uniform in all directions, unlike with aplanatic lenses, thanks to the circular symmetry of the planar Luneburg lens, which may be composed of subwavelength features. The lens is also robust to misalignment and fabrication imperfections and can be made using standard CMOS processes.

Abstract: Networks of superharmonic injection-locked (SHIL) electronic oscillators can be used to emulate Ising machines for solving difficult computational problems. The oscillators can be simulated or implemented in hardware (e.g., with LC oscillators) and are coupled to each other with links whose connection strengths are weighted according to the problem being solved. The oscillators' phases may be measured with respect to reference signal(s) from one or more reference oscillators, each of which emits a reference signal but does not receive input from any other oscillator. Sparsely connected networks of SHIL oscillators and reference oscillators can be used as Viterbi decoders that do not suffer from the information bottleneck between logic computational blocks and memory in digital computing systems.

Abstract: An integrated optical beam steering device includes a planar Luneburg lens that collimates beams from different inputs in different directions within the lens plane. It also includes a curved (e.g., semi-circular or arced) grating coupler that diffracts the collimated beams out of the lens plane. The beams can be steered in the plane by controlling the direction along which the lens is illuminated and out of the plane by varying the beam wavelength. Unlike other beam steering devices, this device can operate over an extremely wide field of view—up to 180°—without any aberrations off boresight. In other words, the beam quality is uniform in all directions, unlike with aplanatic lenses, thanks to the circular symmetry of the planar Luneburg lens, which may be composed of subwavelength features. The lens is also robust to misalignment and fabrication imperfections and can be made using standard CMOS processes.

Abstract: Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) enable manipulation of light on a chip for telecommunications and information processing. They can be made with silicon and silicon-compatible materials using complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication techniques developed for making electronics. Unfortunately, most light sources are made with III-V and II-VI materials, which are not compatible with silicon CMOS fabrication techniques. As a result, the light source for a PIC is either off-chip or integrated onto the PIC after CMOS fabrication is over. Hybrid integration can be improved by forming a recess in the PIC to receive a III-V or II-VI photonic chip. Mechanical stops formed in or next to the recess during fabrication align the photonic chip vertically to the PIC. Fiducials on the PIC and the photonic chip enable sub-micron lateral alignment. As a result, the photonic chip can be flip-chip bonded to the PIC with sub-micron vertical and lateral alignment precision.

Abstract: An accelerometer may comprise a proof mass, a first tether mechanically coupled to the side of the proof mass and to an anchor, and a ring resonator integrated with the tether to form a sensing tether. The ring resonator and the tether may be configured such that a strain sustained by the sensing tether causes a change of a resonance condition of the ring resonator. The accelerometer may comprise a wavelength locking loop configured to adaptively maintain a center frequency of the light energy at a resonant frequency of the sensing element, and a scale factor calibrator configured to stabilize a scale factor associated with the accelerometer. The accelerometer may further include a detection processor configured to receive the detection signal and produce an acceleration signal therefrom. The acceleration signal may correspond to an amount of change of the resonance condition with respect to a reference resonance condition.

Abstract: The accelerometers disclosed herein provide excellent sensitivity, long-term stability, and low SWaP-C through a combination of photonic integrated circuit technology with standard micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Examples of these accelerometers use optical transduction to improve the scale factor of traditional MEMS resonant accelerometers by accurately measuring the resonant frequencies of very small (e.g., about 1 ?m) tethers attached to a large (e.g., about 1 mm) proof mass. Some examples use ring resonators to measure the tether frequencies and some other examples use linear resonators to measure the tether frequencies. Potential commercial applications span a wide range from seismic measurement systems to automotive stability controls to inertial guidance to any other application where chip-scale accelerometers are currently deployed.

Abstract: An accelerometer may comprise a proof mass, a first tether mechanically coupled to the side of the proof mass and to an anchor, and a ring resonator integrated with the tether to form a sensing tether. The ring resonator and the tether may be configured such that a strain sustained by the sensing tether causes a change of a resonance condition of the ring resonator. The accelerometer may comprise a wavelength locking loop configured to adaptively maintain a center frequency of the light energy at a resonant frequency of the sensing element, and a scale factor calibrator configured to stabilize a scale factor associated with the accelerometer. The accelerometer may further include a detection processor configured to receive the detection signal and produce an acceleration signal therefrom. The acceleration signal may correspond to an amount of change of the resonance condition with respect to a reference resonance condition.

Abstract: The accelerometers disclosed herein provide excellent sensitivity, long-term stability, and low SWaP-C through a combination of photonic integrated circuit technology with standard micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Examples of these accelerometers use optical transduction to improve the scale factor of traditional MEMS resonant accelerometers by accurately measuring the resonant frequencies of very small (e.g., about 1 ?m) tethers attached to a large (e.g., about 1 mm) proof mass. Some examples use ring resonators to measure the tether frequencies and some other examples use linear resonators to measure the tether frequencies. Potential commercial applications span a wide range from seismic measurement systems to automotive stability controls to inertial guidance to any other application where chip-scale accelerometers are currently deployed.

Abstract: The accelerometers disclosed herein provide excellent sensitivity, long-term stability, and low SWaP-C through a combination of photonic integrated circuit technology with standard micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Examples of these accelerometers use optical transduction to improve the scale factor of traditional MEMS resonant accelerometers by accurately measuring the resonant frequencies of very small (e.g., about 1 ?m) tethers attached to a large (e.g., about 1 mm) proof mass. Some examples use ring resonators to measure the tether frequencies and some other examples use linear resonators to measure the tether frequencies. Potential commercial applications span a wide range from seismic measurement systems to automotive stability controls to inertial guidance to any other application where chip-scale accelerometers are currently deployed.

Abstract: An accelerometer may comprise a proof mass, a first tether mechanically coupled to the side of the proof mass and to an anchor, and a ring resonator integrated with the tether to form a sensing tether. The ring resonator and the tether may be configured such that a strain sustained by the sensing tether causes a change of a resonance condition of the ring resonator. The accelerometer may comprise a wavelength locking loop configured to adaptively maintain a center frequency of the light energy at a resonant frequency of the sensing element, and a scale factor calibrator configured to stabilize a scale factor associated with the accelerometer. The accelerometer may further include a detection processor configured to receive the detection signal and produce an acceleration signal therefrom. The acceleration signal may correspond to an amount of change of the resonance condition with respect to a reference resonance condition.

Abstract: The accelerometers disclosed herein provide excellent sensitivity, long-term stability, and low SWaP-C through a combination of photonic integrated circuit technology with standard micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Examples of these accelerometers use optical transduction to improve the scale factor of traditional MEMS resonant accelerometers by accurately measuring the resonant frequencies of very small (e.g., about 1 ?m) tethers attached to a large (e.g., about 1 mm) proof mass. Some examples use ring resonators to measure the tether frequencies and some other examples use linear resonators to measure the tether frequencies. Potential commercial applications span a wide range from seismic measurement systems to automotive stability controls to inertial guidance to any other application where chip-scale accelerometers are currently deployed.

Abstract: The accelerometers disclosed herein provide excellent sensitivity, long-term stability, and low SWaP-C through a combination of photonic integrated circuit technology with standard micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Examples of these accelerometers use optical transduction to improve the scale factor of traditional MEMS resonant accelerometers by accurately measuring the resonant frequencies of very small (e.g., about 1 ?m) tethers attached to a large (e.g., about 1 mm) proof mass. Some examples use ring resonators to measure the tether frequencies and some other examples use linear resonators to measure the tether frequencies. Potential commercial applications span a wide range from seismic measurement systems to automotive stability controls to inertial guidance to any other application where chip-scale accelerometers are currently deployed.