Optoelectronic Reservoir Computing with VCSEL

A new architecture based on multi-mode optical interconnect technology is proposed and described for the realization of a compact time delay opto-electronic reservoir computer. VCSEL and photodiode chip arrays are flip-chip mounted on a polymer waveguide structure containing micro-mirrors. A node is made of a photodiode and a laser connected back-to-back, with an amplified signal. The specifications for this amplifier are investigated and it is found that the cutoff frequency can be lower than the incoming sample rate for signal recovery and chaotic time series prediction tasks. An optical waveguide delay line sample is also presented and characterized experimentally. Results are promising for the realization of a compact platform for reservoir computers that could easily be scaled up to several physical nodes.