OPTICAL ARITHMETIC UNIT

• Main Authors: MAENO KEIICHI, NAKAGAKI SHINTARO, TAKAHASHI RIYUUSAKU, NEGISHI ICHIRO, SUZUKI TETSUJI, TATSUMI FUJIKO, TAKANASHI RYOYU
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 15.12.1992
• Subjects: DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS, THE OPTICAL OPERATION OF WHICH ISMODIFIED BY CHANGING THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIUM OF THEDEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF THE INTENSITY,COLOUR, PHASE, POLARISATION OR DIRECTION OF LIGHT, e.g.SWITCHING, GATING, MODULATING OR DEMODULATING; FREQUENCY-CHANGING; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICS; PHYSICS; TECHNIQUES OR PROCEDURES FOR THE OPERATION THEREOF

PURPOSE:To provide the simple optical arithmetic unit which performs every logical operation by one light-light converting element. CONSTITUTION:The optical arithmetic unit consists of the light-light converting element which operates so that the intensity of output light increases and decreases repeatedly as a voltage applied to an electrode E2 rises, means (1a, 1b, 3 and L1) which form a composite image by applying at least two independent bright and dark images (A and B) to the light-light converting element, and means (1c, 5, 6 and L3) which read out the composite image formed on the light-light converting element; and the operation point of the optical modulating layer (13) of the light-light converting element corresponding to the input light intensity is moved by varying the voltage applied to the electrode of the light-light converting element and/or the driving frequency, and various logical operations are performed while making the brightness and darkness of the composite image correspond to 1 and 0. Consequently, deterioration in resolution and contrast is made much less than that of a conventional device and the small-sized, lightweight, and inexpensive unit is realized.