JPS63133126A - Method and device for optical branching - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To quickly branch data to an optional place in parallel by transmitting the light through a specific pattern mask to change the amplitude transmittance and photoelectrically converting this light. CONSTITUTION:Two-dimensionally arranged light sources are allowed to emit light by input signals, and the light from light sources is transmitted through a pattern mask 102, which is arranged for one light source and has resolution points whose number is at least square times as large as the number of all light sources, to change the amplitude transmittance, and the intensity of light transmitted through the pattern mask 102 is received by a photodetector, which has resolution points whose number is equal to at least the number of all light sources, and is photoelectrically converted. Thus, input signals are branched to an optional position on the photodetector surface in parallel and independently.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an optical branching method and apparatus necessary for performing high-speed parallel operations using light.

[Prior art and its problems]

Research is progressing on computers that can perform calculations at high speed in order to process large-scale information, but methods that use sequential processing using electrical circuits are already approaching their performance limits. Therefore, supercomputers, array processors, etc.
Research is progressing on parallel processing architectures that execute multiple operations simultaneously. On the other hand, light has spatial expansion,
Because their physical properties do not interfere with each other, operations using light have excellent parallelism.

However, until now there was no way to branch data to an arbitrary location at high speed, and it was not possible to process data at high speed using light.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to provide an optical branching method and device for changing the amplitude transmittance of light and branching data to an arbitrary location.

[Means for solving problems]

The light branching method of the present invention causes a two-dimensionally arranged light source to emit light in response to an input signal, and sets the amplitude transmittance of the light emitted from the light source to at least the number of all the light sources arranged for one light source. The intensity of the light transmitted through the pattern mask is changed by transmitting the light through a pattern mask having two times as many decomposition points, and the intensity of the light transmitted through the pattern mask is received by a photodetector having at least the same number of decomposition points as the total number of light sources and is photoelectrically converted. Accordingly, the input signals are branched in parallel and independently to arbitrary positions on the photodetector surface.

The light branching device of the present invention includes: a plurality of light sources arranged two-dimensionally; a plurality of light source drive means for causing the light sources to emit light in response to an input signal; and at least the light source driving means for causing the light sources to emit light in accordance with an input signal; a light modulating means having a resolution point equal to the square of the number of light sources; a pattern controlling means for changing the amplitude transmission pattern of the light modulating means; and a light detection means having a decomposition point.

[Effect]

As shown in FIG. 2, the light source on the input surface 101 is caused to emit light in accordance with the two-dimensional binary input data, and the position of the opening in the pattern mask 102 is set so that the light is branched to a desired position on the output surface 103. do.

Figure 3 shows input surface 1 of Figure 2 for 2x2 input data.
01. Pattern mask 1o2. It shows the structure of the output surface 103. (a) shows the position of the light source on the input surface 101;
(b) shows the structure of the pattern mask 102, and (c) shows the position of the photodetector on the output surface 103. Light source 1 on input surface 101
1.12.21.22 is a 2x2 grid at the intersection of equally spaced grids.
They are arranged two-dimensionally so that they are lined up in an array. The pattern mask 102 has 16 decomposition points (pattern), which is the square of the number of light sources on the input surface 101 (in this case, 4).
aa, ab, ba+ bb+ aC+ ad.

bc, bd, ca, cb, da, db+C
It has CI cd, dc, and dd. Output surface 10
3 has the same number of decomposition points (detectors) as the number of light sources on the input surface 101 (8 A, AB, BA, BB).

Such an input surface 101. Pattern mask 1o2. When the output surface 103 is arranged so that the distance between the input surface 101 and the pattern mask 102 is 1, and the distance between the pattern mask 102 and the output surface 103 is 2, the pattern mask that uniquely determines the relationship between the input surface and the output surface becomes It definitely exists.

Table 1 shows the opening positions of the pattern mask that determine the relationship between input and output.

Table 1 As shown in Table 1, the relationship between input and output can be determined independently. For example, the light branching from the light source 11 to the detector BB is determined as the only optical path passing through the pattern bb. Therefore, 2×2 input data can be branched into 2×2 output lights in parallel and independently.

The case where the input data is 2x2 has been described above, but in the case of 4x4, for example, as shown in Figure 4, the input screen 2
01 has 4×4 light sources, pattern mask 202 has 16
x 16 patterns, the output surface 203 has 4×4 detectors, the input surface 201 and the pattern mask 202
The pattern mask 202 and the output surface 20
3 is set to 4, the input surface 201. Pattern mask 202. By arranging the output surface 203, the relationship between human power and output can be determined independently. Therefore, 4×4
input data can be branched into 4×4 output lights in parallel and independently.

Generally, if the input data is nXn, the pattern is n2
×n2, and the distance between the human surface and the pattern mask is 1,
The distance between the pattern mask and the output surface is set to n7. In this way, nxn input data can be branched in parallel and independently into nxn output lights.

Note that when the input data is nXn, it is clear that the present invention can be implemented as long as the number of patterns in the pattern mask is at least n2×n2 and the number of detectors on the output surface is small (nXn in both cases).

〔Example〕

The present invention will be explained in detail below.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a light branching device that implements the light branching method of the present invention. In this embodiment, the configurations of the input surface, pattern mask, and output surface correspond to those shown in FIG. Therefore, the same reference numerals as in FIG. 3 are used for corresponding elements.

This optical branching device consists of two
It consists of an array light source 1 consisting of two diverging light sources, such as LEDs, which can be modulated at high speed, and a circuit that applies voltage to each diverging light source, and controls input data that causes the diverging light sources to blink. A driving device 4, a spatial light modulator 2, such as a liquid crystal TV, having 4×4 decomposition points that transmit the diverging light emitted from the array light a1, and a spatial light modulator 2, such as a liquid crystal TV, so that the emitted light is branched into desired output light. , a control device 5 that controls the position of the aperture of the spatial light modulator 2, a detector array 3 such as a 2×2 two-dimensional CCD that receives the light transmitted through the spatial light modulator 2, and It is composed of an A/D converter 6 that binarizes the output and outputs it.

Next, the operation of this optical branching device is as follows: The light from the diverging light source 11 passes through the pattern bb of the spatial light modulator 2 and is detected 1iiBB.
The case where the branch is branched to is explained below. The driving device 4 turns on the diverging light sources 11 of the array light source 1 . Divergent light emitted from the diverging light source 11 passes through the spatial light modulator 2. At this time, the control device 5 controls the position of the aperture of the spatial light modulator 2 so that the emitted light is not branched into the desired output light BB of the detector array 3. That is, spatial light modulator 2
Pattern bb is an opening. This results in pattern bb
The light transmittance at patterns aa, ab, and ba is changed to 0. The light transmitted through the pattern bb is received by the photodetector BH of the detector array 3, and is digitized by the A/D converter 6 and converted into two-digit data.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As detailed above, data can be parallelized by using the optical branching method and optical branching device of the present invention.

You can quickly branch to any location.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the optical branching device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the principle of the optical branching method of the present invention, and Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the principle of the optical branching method of the invention.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the input surface, pattern mask, and output surface. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the optical path of the optical branching device. 1...Array light source 2...Spatial light modulator 3...Detector array 4...Drive device 5...Control device 6...A /D Konhak 101, 201...Input surface 102.202...Pattern mask 103.203
・Output surface

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A two-dimensionally arranged light source is caused to emit light by an input signal, and the amplitude transmittance of the light emitted from the light source is divided into at least the square of the number of all light sources arranged for one light source. The intensity of the light transmitted through the pattern mask is received and photoelectrically converted by a photodetector having at least the same number of decomposition points as the total number of light sources. An optical branching method characterized by branching signals in parallel and independently to arbitrary positions on the photodetector surface. (2) a plurality of light sources arranged two-dimensionally; a plurality of light source driving means for causing the light sources to emit light in response to an input signal; and at least two of the number of light sources for changing the amplitude transmittance of the light emitted from the light sources; a light modulating means having a multiplication point of decomposition; a pattern control means for changing the amplitude transmission pattern of the light modulating means; and a light having the same decomposition point as at least the light source that receives the light after passing through the light modulating means. An optical branching device comprising: a detection means.