Towards silicon photonic neural networks for artificial intelligence

Brain-inspired photonic neural networks for artificial intelligence have attracted renewed interest. For many computational tasks, such as image recognition, speech processing and deep learning, photonic neural networks have the potential to increase the computing speed and energy efficiency on the orders of magnitude compared with digital electronics. Silicon Photonics, which combines the advantages of electronics and photonics, brings hope for the large-scale photonic neural network integration. This paper walks through the basic concept of artificial neural networks and focuses on the key devices which construct the silicon photonic neuromorphic systems. We review some recent important progress in silicon photonic neural networks, which include multilayer artificial neural networks and brain-like neuromorphic systems, for artificial intelligence. A prototype of silicon photonic artificial intelligence processor for ultra-fast neural network computing is also proposed. We hope this paper gives a detailed overview and a deeper understanding of this emerging field.