Ultrafast silicon threshold circuitry for chaotic laser time series

Photonic computing has been intensively studied to explore the ultrahigh bandwidth of lightwaves. However, electronic support is indispensable for the post-processing and control of photonic systems owing to the difficulties encountered in all-optical processing. Herein, we demonstrate an ultrafast silicon circuitry capable of conducting thresholding operations on incoming chaotically oscillating high-bandwidth signals. Such circuits are critical elements in ultrafast random-number generators and photonic reinforcement learning that exploit chaotically oscillating time series. The circuit design, including active inductors for bandwidth expansion, and proof-of-principle fabricated device operations are demonstrated using a 180 nm silicon complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor technology node.