Prototype Demonstration of Discrete Correlation Processor-2 Based on High-Speed Optical Image Steering for Large-Fan-Out Reconfigurable Optical Interconnections

Abstract

We present a discrete correlation processor-2 (DCP-2), which is an optical processor with reconfigurability of interconnection patterns for large-fan-out optical interconnection systems. To our knowledge, there is no reconfigurable optical processor satisfying the requirements for large fan-outs such as high-speed reconfiguration of interconnection pattern, high optical efficiency, and high contrast ratio, because existing spatial light modulators (SLM#x0027;s) lack at least one of these features. The DCP-2 architecture fulfills the requirements by using a hybrid configuration composed of a high-speed image steerer and a spatial light modulator, which work in a complementary manner to shorten the setup time of the SLM. We constructed two kinds of prototype demonstrators based on this architecture. In the experiment, reconfiguration speed of the DCP-2 prototype with shift-invariant optical interconnections, in which a liquid crystal SLM cooperated with a two-dimensional acousto-optic beam deflector, was about 26,000 times faster than that of the standalone SLM at the cost of 50#x0025; energy loss by the deflector.