Patent · US Expired

Programmable optical logic devices operable by measuring the ratio of optical data signal power to optical reference threshold power

US4904858A · kind A · utility

8Cited by
4References
14Claims
0Family size

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Key dates

Filing dateMay 31, 1989
Grant dateFeb 27, 1990
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 31, 2009

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH03K19/14
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Combinatorial (Boolean ) logical functions are provided in a programmable optical logic device by combining a symmetric self-electrooptic effect device (S-SEED) with a logic control element for optically programming the S-SEED to initiate logic operations in a predetermined mode. A predetermined reference threshold optical signal is applied to one input of the S-SEED while first and second optical data signals are jointly applied to another input of the S-SEED to permit the desired combinatorial logic operation to be performed on the optical data signals by the optical logic device. As such, the programmable optical logic device is said to perform threshold logic operations. Logic operations which may be programmed into the optical logic device include AND, OR and NOT functions. A single optical signal is provided as output from each optical logic device. In one embodiment of the invention, a first threshold optical signal is utilized to perform AND logic operation whereas a second threshold optical signal is employed for performing OR logic operation. Exclusive-OR operation is provided by performing both AND and OR logic operations in parallel on the same data signals with separat…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.