Abstract

The history of information processing has seen a continuing trend toward ever-smaller devices and systems. Optics, well-suited for long distance communication, is currently the focus of many efforts to revolutionize computer technology, however many obstacles need to be dealt with realistically in order for it to have a chance of succeeding. Heat dissipation has long been thought to be a "fundamental" roadblock to optical computing. For any given architecture, minimization of propagation delay times is essential in the design of fast computers¹. Architectural flexibility and manufacturability are additional issues which could potentially prevent optical computing systems from entering the marketplace. To overcome all of these hurdles it is necessary to develop microoptical systems far smaller² than those generally envisioned in the literature, either in the form of integrated optics¹ or microlenses and arrays. Here we address the latter approach and review some technological progress.

© 1989 Optical Society of America