Semiconductor device and operation method thereof

Abstract

An electronic-photonic integrated circuit device for a convolutional neural network performs aspects of analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) or digital-to-analog conversion (DAC) in the photonic integrated circuit. The DAC may be performed using optical modulators. Each optical modulator receives a plurality of electrical input signals collectively representing an input value or kernel weight. The electrical input signals are applied to distinct modulator segments. The modulator segments combine to encode the digital data into a corresponding analog optical signal. The ADC may include splitting the optical output signals and providing distinct degrees of attenuation to each of the signal splits. The signals splits with various attenuation levels are converted into electrical output signals that are compared to a reference voltage to determine a digital encoding. The attenuation levels may be selected so that one reference voltage may be used for all the comparisons.

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