Microelectromechanical Configuration of an Optically Reconfigurable Gate Array

This paper presents a proposal of a novel optically reconfigurable gate array architecture with a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) mirror array that allows high-speed reconfiguration by exploiting large-bandwidth optical connections between the MEMS mirror array and a programmable gate array. The MEMS mirror array is used as a holographic memory. Four configuration contexts can be programmed electrically and dynamically onto the MEMS mirror array as holographic memory information. The configuration procedure is executed by switching both a laser array and an MEMS mirror array. This experiment demonstrated a four-context 146 ns microelectromechanical configuration for a programmable gate array. Sub-microsecond configuration is attainable.