Optical digital processor using arrays of symmetric self-electrooptic effect devices.

Four arrays of thirty-two GaAs symmetric self-electrooptic effect devices were optically interconnected to form a looped-pipeline optical digital processor. Several circuits were demonstrated, including two shift registers and a decoder circuit. Clock frequencies of up to 1 MHz were attained. Possible extensions to and limitations of this system are described.

Cascaded operation of arrays of symmetric self-electro-optic effect devices.

Two identical optical modules were used to demonstrate the cascaded operation of 32-element arrays of symmetric self-electro-optic effect devices. The devices had 5 microm x 10 microm optical windows spaced on a square grid with a 20-microm spacing. They were operated as optically interconnected inverters at 1.1 MHz. The optical power was provided by two current modulated laser diodes per array, each with a maximum output power of 9 mW. The operation of the devices as logic gates is optically implemented but not demonstrated.

Integrated-optical array generator.

We demonstrate an optical system that splits one laser beam into an array of N x N equal-intensity beams. It consists of a grating and a diffractive lens, which are integrated on one side of a single planar quartz-glass substrate. The grating and the lens are fabricated with multiple discrete phase levels by using photolithography and thin-film deposition.

Module for optical logic circuits using symmetric self-electrooptic effect devices.

An optical module designed to perform cascadable optical logic using arrays of symmetric self-electrooptic effect devices (S-SEEDs) is described. The operation of an array of 7 x 3 devices with optical windows spaced by 20 microm is demonstrated including both array preset and individual device switching. The issues leading to the design of this optical system are detailed. This work illustrates some of the issues which must be considered when designing systems using small reflecting electrooptic devices such as SEEDs and free-space optics in digital systems.