This Project is about photons and electrons in Information Technology. It aims at developing devices, interconnects and architectures for digital optical signal processing. The project is structured in two parts : Part I is an extension of the present activities of the Applied Physics Department. Semiconductor devices for Optical Computing and Photonic Switching will further be developed both in IV and III-V technology, with special attention for optical logic planes, one of the building blocks of any digital parallel optical computer. Other devices have applications in LIDAR and satellite communication, and sensing. Improved Semiconductor and glass based Fresnel lenslet arrays and polarization based DOE's will be realized and used as interconnection hardware, together with GRIN lenses. Finally, an important part of our endeavours will be devoted to the construction and testing of an original Single Instruction Multiple Data machine, an All Purpose Optical Computer combining Array Logic and Image Processing in one System (APOCALIPS) Part II has more visionary ambitions, both from the point of view of the devices and computing schemes. Fast quantum device circuits for analogue to digital conversion, medium infra red modulators based on effective mass switching, and integration of optical thyristor pairs with VLSI technology will be studied. In alternative computing schemes we will explore the possibility, both theoretically and experimentally, of using thyristors arrays for the optical implementation of cellular automata and neural (and maybe fuzzy) nets. Finally, we intend to use our know-how in early-vision systems and micro-optics as a first step on the road towards biomorphic photonic processors.

Runtime: 1994 - 1999