Abstract

In most hybrid optical systems, the sequential conversion of signals on the electrooptic interface devices poses a bottleneck problem, which greatly limits the overall processing speed of the systems. We present a parallel optical full adder. Two optically addressed microchannel spatial light modulators (MSLMs)¹ are tuned in two different operating modes. Therefore, the logical AND and XOR operations can be carried out by the two MSLMs.² A look-ahead carry algorithm is applied in the system with the result that a fully parallel addition operation with carry can be obtained. This architecture provides direct parallel optical writein and readout without interfacing the electronics. Thus the bottleneck problem posed by the electrooptics interfacing can be alleviated. Experimental demonstrations of the binary full adder have been performed. High-speed optical arithmetic operations could be achieved by this architecture.

© 1988 Optical Society of America