[ OPTICAL REVIEW Vol. 8, No. 1 (2001) 18-25 ]
Prototype Demonstration of Discrete Correlation Processor-2 Based on High-Speed Optical Image Steering for Large-Fan-Out Reconfigurable Optical Interconnections
Keiichiro KAGAWA,1 Yusuke OGURA,1 Jun TANIDA1 and Yoshiki ICHIOKA2
1Department of Material and Life Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1, Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871 Japan, 2Nara National College of Technology, 22, Yata-cho, Yamatokoriyama, Nara, 639-1090 Japan
(Received September 25, 2000; Accepted November 4, 2000)
We present a discrete correlation processor-2 (DCP-2), which is an optical processor with reconfigurability of interconnection patterns for large-fan-out optical interconnection systems. To our knowledge, there is no reconfigurable optical processor satisfying the requirements for large fan-outs such as high-speed reconfiguration of interconnection pattern, high optical efficiency, and high contrast ratio, because existing spatial light modulators (SLM's) lack at least one of these features. The DCP-2 architecture fulfills the requirements by using a hybrid configuration composed of a high-speed image steerer and a spatial light modulator, which work in a complementary manner to shorten the setup time of the SLM. We constructed two kinds of prototype demonstrators based on this architecture. In the experiment, reconfiguration speed of the DCP-2 prototype with shift-invariant optical interconnections, in which a liquid crystal SLM cooperated with a two-dimensional acousto-optic beam deflector, was about 26,000 times faster than that of the standalone SLM at the cost of 50% energy loss by the deflector.
Key words : large-fan-out optical interconnection, smart-pixel, vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser, parallel-aligned liquid crystal spatial light modulator, acousto-optic beam deflector, computer-generated hologram filter