PICO-SECOND OPTICAL HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION FOR NEURAL NETWORK SYSTEMS

ACOUSTO-OPTIC (AO) BRAGG CELLS OFFER THE ADVANTAGES OF RELATIVELY LOW POWER CONSUMPTION AND THE ABILITY TO PRODUCE MULTIPLE OUTPUT OPTICAL BEAMS OF VARYING INTENSITY FOR ONE BEAM ENTERING THE SYSTEM. THE MAJOR DISADVANTAGE OF THEAO DEVICE IS ITS ACOUSTIC WAVEFORM PROPAGATION DELAY, WHICH SETS A FUNDAMENTAL LIMIT ON DEVICE SPEED. ELECTRO-OPTIC (EO) DEVICES, ON THE OTHER HAND, OFFER AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE GREATER SPEED (30 GHZ), BUT REQUIRE HIGHER POWER AND CAN ONLYADJUST THE INTENSITY OF THE OUTPUT BEAM. IN THIS STUDY, A CONCEPT FOR COMBINING THE ADVANTAGES OF EACH DEVICE INTO AN ACOUSTO-ELECTRO-OPTIC (AEO) DEVICE FOR USE IN A NEURAL NETWORK SYSTEM WILL BE INVESTIGATED. THE COMBINATION OF AO AND EO TECHNOLOGIES IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCEA DEVICE CAPABLE OF 30 GHZ MODULATION OF MULTIPLE BEAMS WITHMODEST POWER CONSUMPTION. SUCCESSFUL DEMONSTRATION OF THIS TECHNOLOGY WOULD PROVIDE PICO-SECOND, OPTIC-ELECTRONIC DEVICES FOR MILITARY AND COMMERCIAL NEURAL NETWORK APPLICATIONS.