Abstract

Free space optoelectronic information processing systems are key components of the next generation of computers and communications networks. Currently the “state of the art” for design and analysis of these systems is to use a set of ad-hoc procedures to generate end-to-end system performance estimates based on empirical characterizations of the component devices. This painstaking technique results in rough approximations, which must then be refined by actually prototyping each of the particular systems under consideration. As a result, while many systems have been proposed, few FS-O/E systems have been designed, and fewer still have been built.

© 1997 Optical Society of America