Abstract

The interconnections among processors and memories in advanced parallel processing systems suffer wiring congestion and undesired electromagnetic effects. Multi-processor systems for real time processing especially require high speed and large fan-out interconnections. To overcome these problems, free space optical interconnections are considered to be a promising [1]. To use spatial parallelism, which is one of the inherent characteristics in free-space optics, to its best advantage, many array devices such as laser diode, micro lens, and detector arrays, are being actively researched[2],[3]. As for switching in free-space optics, many switching networks using spatial light modulators have been proposed[4],[5]. However, these devices limit the switching speed of such networks to the microsecond order. Besides, driving the devices requires particular control circuits and interconnections.

© 1991 Optical Society of America