Optically Programmable Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) Systems

This report presents the results of research in the use of holographic modules in optoelectronic systems, their applications, and the characterization of polymer materials on which to record volume holograms for these modules. The first chapter makes the case that a direct interface between an optical memory and a chip integrating detectors and logic circuitry can better utilize the high parallelism inherent in holographic modules. Introduced also is the idea of reconfigurable computing and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) as the framework in which to design a hybrid system, the Optically Programmable Gate Array (OPGA), that outperforms its electronic counterpart by reducing its reconfiguration time by three orders of magnitude. The OPGA is the combination of three elements: an addressing device to selectively recall holographic data pages, an optical memory, and an optoelectronic chip. We also present a system that uses holograms to extract spatial and color information (4-D imaging) of a specimen and project it on to a 2-D space on the detector. By multiplexing several holograms many depth slices and color bands can be sent in parallel, making unnecessary the use of sophisticated and time-consuming scanning schemes.
The original document contains color images.