Synthesis of circuits based on all-optical Mach-Zehnder Interferometers using Binary Decision Diagrams

In this paper, we propose an improved design technique where we use BDDs to construct optical circuits. Rather than generating a single graph for multi-output functions, we consider individual graphs for each output separately which, afterwards are combined to realize the entire function. In our experiments, we find that this approach performs better in comparison to related techniques - a cost improvement of approx. 34% is observed on average. As these optical circuits are mainly designed with MZIs, beam combiners and beam splitters, the use of beam splitters in the circuit degrades the signal quality at the receiver end. To address this concern, in a second phase of our design, we make all the circuits free from splitters. Experimental results for both the design schemes are given and analyzed.