A reconfigurable 2-D optical interconnect system using a liquid crystal spatial light modulator

Describes an implementation of an 8×8 reconfigurable optical interconnection system using a pixellated 2-D spatial light modulator. The interconnect device may be visualised as being part of a processing system consisting of three types of main components a 2-D array of independent optical modulators (e.g. MQW or PLZT devices), a 2-D reconfigurable optical interconnection, and a 2-D array of optical detectors. Such a system would find applications in areas such as digital computing, neural networks, image processing and VLSI interconnection systems