Abstract

This research presents an optical/digital hybrid ANN which demonstrates a "photonic advantage" in intermediate classification accuracy over pure electronic ANNs with the same power and latency. The optical encoder uses incoherent light which is suitable for operation in ambient light with no additional optical power needed. Further research is needed to explore its efficiency in more complicated datasets, training algorithms, and nonlinear activation in the optical domain.

© 2023 The Author(s)