HIGH-THROUGHPUT OPTICAL-IMAGE CROSSBAR SWITCH THAT USES A POINT LIGHT-SOURCE ARRAY

A high-throughput optical image crossbar switch (OPIX) that uses a point light source array as the switching device is constructed. A prototype OPIX is used to create various switching patterns for two-dimensional images. The newly constructed OPIX is suitable for high-speed operation because it uses point light sources instead of an optical shutter array as the switching device. Since it is based on an imaging system, the OPIX has a large space-bandwidth product. The introduction of OPIX to optical image data buses of parallel optical processing systems is particularly significant.