Foundry fabricated compact slow-light Mach-Zehnder modulator and photodetector for on-chip analog photonic computing.

This work presents a scaling pathway of on-chip analog photonic computing using foundry-fabricated silicon electro-optic (EO) slow-light Mach-Zehnder modulators (SL-MZMs) and compact Ge photodetectors (PDs) to construct a computing unit. Two SL-MZMs with phase shifter (PS) lengths of 500 μm and 150 μm are studied in this work. The bit resolution, nonlinearity, clock frequency, and power consumption of the photonic computing link, including an RF amplifier, on-chip SL-MZM, and a PD, are thoroughly investigated.

Solar-powered shape-changing origami microfliers.

Using wind to disperse microfliers that fall like seeds and leaves can help automate large-scale sensor deployments. Here, we present battery-free microfliers that can change shape in mid-air to vary their dispersal distance. We designed origami microfliers using bistable leaf-out structures and uncovered an important property: A simple change in the shape of these origami structures causes two dramatically different falling behaviors.