EVOLUTION OF THE SEED TECHNOLOGY - BISTABLE LOGIC GATES TO OPTOELECTRONIC SMART PIXELS

This paper reviews the recent evolution of quantum-well self-electrooptic effect devices (SEED's) for application in free-space optical switching and computing systems. Requirements of these systems have simulated, first, the development of devices usable in large systems of cascaded devices (the symmetric SEED), second, large two-dimensional arrays of these devices with improved physical performance, third, logically smarter extensions of these devices (logic-SEED's) and fourth, devices integrating electronic transistors with quantum-well modulators and detectors for both reducing the required optical energies and increasing functionality. We summarize this progress and its implications for future developments.