光学导向逻辑器件是采用光开关网络执行逻辑运算的典型应用，光学网络中每一个开关的状态由施加到该开关的电学布尔信号决定。网络中每一个光开关的操作都是独立于其他光开关的操作，并且操作运算结果以光速在网络中传播。因此，光学导向逻辑器件具有非常高的运行速度，且总延迟非常小。硅基微环谐振器由于其尺寸小、功耗低、与CMOS 工艺兼容等特性成为构建光学导向逻辑器件的理想单元器件。基于硅基微环谐振器的光学导向逻辑器件很容易实现大规模集成和低成本制备,已经提出并实现的基于硅基微环谐振器的光学导向逻辑器件包括“或/或非”、“与/与非”、“异或/同或”、编码器、译码器和半加器等。回顾了本课题组基于硅基微环谐振器实现的光学导向逻辑器件的研究成果和该领域的最新发展。

Directed logic circuit is a paradigm which employs the optical switch network to perform the logical operation. The status of each switch in the optical network is determined by an electrical Boolean signal applied to it. The operation of each switch is independent of the operations of other switches in the network and the operation result propagates in the network at the speed of light. Therefore, the directed logic circuit has a very high operation speed and the overall latency of the logic circuit is very small. Silicon microring resonator is an attractive structure to construct optical directed logic owing to its outstanding performances, such as compact size, ultra-low power consumption and CMOS-compatible process. Therefore, the directed logic based on silicon microring resonators is easy to realize large-scale integration and low-cost manufacture in a CMOSphotonics foundry. Directed logic circuits based on silicon microring switches including OR/NOR, AND/NAND, XOR/XNOR, encoder, decoder and half-adder have been proposed and demonstrated by our research group. Our recent research on directed logic circuits based on silicon microring resonators is reviewed and new development in this topic is introduced.