Hybrid optical computing: High accuracy, high data rate, electro-optical architecture

Lightweight and pocket sized, the optical signal processor can perform a myriad of complicated processing operations. Its success is primarily due to the profound diffraction phenomena of coherent light. The essential merit of an optical signal processor is its capability to process a signal in complex amplitude, parallelism, large capacity, high speed and diversified wavelength. Several processing operations have proven to be more efficient with optical techniques than with their electronic counterparts. These operations are: Fourier transforms, convolutions, correlation operations and spectrum analysis. The major advantages of an electronic computer is its flexibility, programmability and easy accessability. (Optical signal processors are very inflexible compared with electronic computers.) The question is, “Can we exploit the efficient operation of optics and the flexibility of electronics to come up with a realistic electro-optical (EO) architecture that meets our computational needs?” The answer to this question is, “yes.”