The integration of silicon photonics (SiPh) and phase change materials (PCMs) has created a unique opportunity to realize adaptable and reconfigurable photonic systems. In particular, the nonvolatile programmability in PCMs has made them a promising candidate for implementing optical memory systems. In this paper, we describe the design of an optical memory cell based on PCMs while exploring the design space of the cell in terms of PCM material choice (e.g., GST, GSST, Sb2Se3), cell bit capacity, latency, and power consumption. Leveraging this design-space exploration for the design of efficient optical memory cells, we present the design and implementation of an optical memory array and explore its scalability and power consumption when using different optical memory cells. We also identify performance bottlenecks that need to be alleviated to further scale optical memory arrays with competitive latency and energy consumption, compared to their electronic counterparts.

翻译：硅光子学（SiPh）与相变材料（PCM）的融合为实现自适应可重构光子学系统创造了独特机遇。特别是相变材料的非易失可编程特性，使其成为实现光学存储系统的理想候选方案。本文描述了基于相变材料的光存储单元设计，系统探索了存储单元在设计空间中的相变材料选择（如GST、GSST、Sb2Se3）、存储单元位容量、延迟和功耗等参数。基于此设计空间探索实现高效光学存储单元，我们提出了光学存储器阵列的设计与实现方案，并研究了采用不同光存储单元时的可扩展性与功耗特性。同时，我们识别出需进一步优化的性能瓶颈，以实现与电子存储阵列相比具有竞争力的延迟和能耗水平，推动光学存储阵列的规模化发展。