Assembly of VCSEL based smart pixel arrays

Several applications of VCSEL-based SPA systems are being developed at the Optoelectronic Computing Systems Center (OCSC). These include a crosspoint switch, an FFT processor and an ATM switch. All of these applications are based on 8/spl times/8 VCSEL and detector arrays forming a bi-directional free space optical interconnect between two planes of processors. Two identical optoelectronic modules are placed at the front and back focal planes of a Fourier transform lens. Each module has 64 smart pixels with optical input (detectors) and output (VCSELs), electrical connections to nearest neighbors and a processing element.