A SPATIAL LIGHT MODULATOR FOR OPTICAL SIGNAL PROCESSING

OPTICS, DUE TO ITS INHERENT PARALLELISM, HIGH TEMPORAL-SPATIAL BANDWIDTH AND NON-INTERFERING COMMUNICATIONS, HAS THE POTENTIAL OF BREAKING THROUGH THE PERFORMANCE BARRIERS FACED BY CONVENTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND IS THEREFORE A CANDIDATE FOR FUTURE PARALLEL COMPUTERS. ONE OF THE MAIN NEEDS IS EFFICIENT, LOW ENERGY, OPTICAL GATES AND/OR ELECTRO-OPTIC CONVERTORS WHICH CAN BE MANUFACTURED IN LARGE QUANTITIES WITH A REASONABLE PRODUCTION YIELD. WE POINT OUT THAT SUPERCONDUCTING LIGHT SENSORS/SWITCHES REQUIRE ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE LESS ENERGY THAN THE SEMICONDUCTING DEVICES. THE SDIO APPLICATION IS JAMMER NULLING IN NULL STEERING FOR PHASED ARRAY RADAR WHICH REQUIRES THE SOLUTION OF SYSTEMS OF LINEAR EQUATIONS. CURRENT GOAL FOR MILITARY APPLICATIONS IS TO REACH SOLUTION OF SYSTEM OF LINEAR EQUATIONS WITH 10 UNKNOWN IN LESS THAN 2.5 MICROSECONDS. THE PROPOSED SA-SLM ARRAY WILL PROVIDE THE SOLUTION OF THE ABOVE PROPOSED CLASS OF PROBLEMS WITHIN 1.0 MICROSECONDS. THE RESULTS OF THE PHASE I EFFORT, ARE VERY ENCOURAGING: A.THE ANALYTICAL TASKS SHOW THE ORDER OF THE MAGNITUDE ADVANTAGE OF THE SA-SLMS IN THREE IMPORTANT CLASSES OF OPTCAL COMPUTING APPLICATIONS; B. WE FABRICATED AND TESTED 256X256 PIXELS ARRAYS, I.E., INCREASED THE SIZE OF THE ARRAY SIX-FOLD. RECENTLY PRODUCED 256X256 ARRAYS HAVE PARAMETERS THAT ARE TWO TIMES BETTER THAN THE OLDER 100X100 ARRAYS. THE 360X360 ARRAYS ARE BEING PRODUCED AND THE FABRICATION OF 512X512 ARRAYS IS EXPECTED IN FEBRUARY/MARCH; C. THE INDIVIDUAL 100X100 ARRAYS WERE PRODUCED, WHEREAS MASS PRODUCTION OF 50 ARRAYS PER BATCH WAS RECENTLY ACHIEVED.