JPH0721604B2 - Optical calculator - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an optical arithmetic unit that divides image information into pixels and performs parallel processing.

[Prior art]

Image information has a large amount of information, and an optical arithmetic unit capable of parallel processing has been considered in order to perform the processing at high speed.

For example, the tse computer (Proc IEEE 6
5 No.1 pp.129-138), half adder (Op
t.Eng. 18 NO.5 pp.513 to 517), basic logic circuit using Nd glass laser plate (Appl.Phys.Lett. 37 pp.398). However, all of them are basic logic circuits and require a large number of devices and optical fiber bundles for functional calculation. For this reason, as an actual optical computing unit, the occupied space is large and the cost is high. Moreover, since the versatility of the program is lacking, none of them has been put into practical use.

[Object of the Invention]

An object of the present invention is to provide a highly practical optical computing device capable of parallel processing of an electric input signal and an optical image input and reducing the number of display arrays and light receiving arrays.

[Summary of Invention]

According to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, each pixel is composed of a plurality of light receivers, an arithmetic electric circuit, and a display, and the arithmetic electric circuit is provided with an electric input / output port.
Each pixel is connected to another pixel or an external circuit by an electric input / output port. The function of the arithmetic electric circuit is not only the conventional basic logic circuit, but also performs all logical calculations until the final output is given to the display. For this reason, the light receiver and the display can be suppressed to the necessary minimum, not only the fiber bundle for optical connection is not required, but also the clock signal and the program can be given from the outside.

Multiple receivers accept multiple image inputs simultaneously,
It also enables programming by image input that changes in time series.

These light receivers and arithmetic electric circuits are integrated on a substrate on which a display array is installed. Therefore, the drive device of various conventional active matrix type display devices has a form having both perception (light receiver) and intelligence (operational electric circuit).

〔Example〕

Embodiment 1 Embodiment 1 shows an example of switching AND and OR of two image inputs by an external electric input as an example of a simple image operation.
As shown in Fig. 2, the display consists of a twisted nematic liquid crystal panel and two polarizing plates.
Output light corresponding to D or OR logic is emitted. Third
The figure shows a perspective view of a pixel. Is a liquid crystal driving electrode. Two photodetectors having different wavelength sensitivities, here phototransistors, are installed corresponding to the pixels.
The wavelength selectivity is obtained by the color filter provided on the upper glass. The arithmetic electric circuit is connected to the power supply line and the control bus, and AND and OR by the external electric signal.
Can be switched. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the arithmetic electric circuit used. AND logic, O depending on control signal
R logic is switched. The logic circuit is a TFT using a silicon thin film
It is made of (thin film transistor) and is integrated in the logic circuit part of the pixel. At the same time, a silicon phototransistor is also formed by the same silicon thin film. Is a driving transistor and is a liquid crystal.

In this example, it has been shown that the basic logic of AND and OR can be realized, but the contour can be drawn by removing the color filter and taking the exclusive OR logic of the output of a plurality of phototransistors several pixels apart.

Further, by changing the design of the logic circuit unit, image calculation such as comparator, NOT, averaging of input light, A-D conversion, and differentiation is possible.

Example 2 Example 2 is an example of the present invention that performs wavelength conversion. Briefly, the output of a photodetector having sensitivity to a specific wavelength is used to emit or modulate light of different wavelengths from a display on the same substrate. An infrared light-visible light converter which is an example thereof will be described. The display uses thin film EL (TFEL, thin film electroluminescence),
An Insb photodiode, which is sensitive to infrared light, was adopted for the photodetector. This output is amplified by the electric calculation circuit section and then TFEL
In addition to the drive transistor. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of one pixel. A transparent electrode and TFEL (dielectric layer ZnS: Mn layer, dielectric layer) are laminated on a transparent substrate. Next, an Al electrode, which is a light-shielding electrode, and an arithmetic circuit and a TFEL drive circuit using a Cdse thin film are formed. Next, the photodiode chip is wire-bonded. The infrared sensor can be installed by other means suitable for mass production. Is a power line. FIG. 6 shows a circuit example. In addition to the drive transistor, it is composed of a storage capacitor Cs, a bias AC bus, and an arithmetic circuit.

Further, by using the transistor of the drive circuit section and the storage capacitor 38, it is possible to read the image data being displayed to an external circuit by the same operation as a normal MOS memory.

Example 3 Example 3 shows an example in which electrical input / output is used in addition to optical image input / output. Similar to the first embodiment, a liquid crystal panel driven by a silicon thin film TFT is used as a display, a phototransistor formed of a silicon thin film is used as a photodetector, and an integrated circuit of a silicon thin film formed on the same substrate is used as an arithmetic circuit. FIG. 7 is a block diagram thereof.
The electrical input is the storage memory CSE of each pixel through the input data line and the input timing line during the display data input period.
Written in. Is an electric image input unit. Next, the reading calculation period of the optical image input will be described. Is an optical image input unit of a pixel. The output of the phototransistor is amplified and written in the storage memory Cso. Is a control bus for the optical input section. Next, the two pieces of information are calculated by the ALU (arithmetic circuit unit). Is the ALU control bus,
Transmitting clock and program pulse. Finally, the calculation result is output to the driver transistor and the liquid crystal is driven. This completes one cycle. This timing is shown in FIG. Each unit is operating when it is shaded and dotted. The display displays the calculation result of one cycle before. Since the display uses liquid crystal in this case, the display can be maintained for one cycle. Furthermore, if one cycle is shorter than the human flicker detection time of 30 msec, moving image calculation is possible.

It is also possible to provide a period for outputting display information of each pixel, for example, a voltage applied to the liquid crystal within one cycle. Thereby, the display data, that is, the calculation result can be electrically output to the outside. The transistor shown in FIG. 7 constitutes a memory cell together with the liquid crystal, and outputs information by the word line and the sense line. This operation is dynamic MOS
This can be done like memory.

The application range of this embodiment is wide, and the present invention can be applied to calculation between electrical image information and optical image, for example, matching, detection of mismatch, touch input for display information, partial erasing, partial rewriting, and the like. Also store and output optical information processing results,
For example, it is also applied to the Fourier-transformed data transmission by holography.

In this embodiment, the description has been given on the case of the array form in which a large number of pixels are arranged on the same substrate, but it can also be applied to an ultra-large display in which pixels of several cm square are arranged to form an image.

Fourth Embodiment A fourth embodiment shows an example in which an optical flip-flop or an image storage device is configured by feedback by an arithmetic circuit. The photodetector, arithmetic circuit, and display are formed in an array on the same silicon substrate. FIG. 9 shows a perspective view of one pixel.
The photodetector is a silicon planar photodiode,
The arithmetic circuit is a flip-flop circuit integrated on a silicon substrate, and the display is a Ga chip-bonded on the substrate.
P light emitting diode. Is a power supply line and is an arithmetic circuit control bus. This signal changes from "1" to "0"
Holds the light input when inverted to. When the optical input and the control signal are exchanged, the holding of the display signal (control signal) can be controlled by the optical input.
In this case, it is necessary to add Cs of the second embodiment for accumulating the display signal.

In addition, multiple photodetectors are installed in each pixel,
It is also possible to perform accumulation, inversion, and the like by using light having different wavelengths and only by inputting light.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to configure a light-weight flat plate type optical calculator, and to input a plurality of optical images to perform various image calculations (wavelength conversion, image storage, coincidence detection,
It is possible to realize an optical calculator capable of performing contour drawing, differentiation, Fourier transform, comparator, etc.).

Further, since electrical input / output is possible, an electrical image can be input in addition to the optical image, and both can be combined for calculation. The operation function of an electrical image and an optical image is very effective in the field of CT (Computer Tomography) and remote sensing, which synthesize a plane image from a two-dimensional image electrical signal.

Further, since the electric logic circuit is arranged in each pixel, the image information can be processed in time series. That is, it is possible to perform processing based on a program, and it is an epoch-making thing that has never existed before.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows the concept of the present invention and shows a functional portion for one pixel. FIG. 2 shows an example of image calculation. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of one pixel of an example using a liquid crystal and a TFT. FIG. 4 shows an example of the arithmetic circuit. FIG. 5 shows one pixel in the case of a wavelength converter using TFEL. FIG. 6 is an example of the circuit used in FIG. FIG. 7 is a circuit example of an optical arithmetic unit capable of optical image input and electric input / output. FIG. 8 shows the operation timing of each unit. FIG. 9 is a perspective view of one pixel of an image storage device using LEDs. FIG. 10 is an example of the circuit used in FIG.

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. An optical arithmetic unit having a light receiving array, an arithmetic array, and a display array for performing optical image information processing in parallel,
An optical arithmetic unit characterized in that image information is calculated by an electric circuit arranged in each pixel. 2. The optical arithmetic unit according to claim 1, wherein the electric circuit for arithmetic operation comprises an electric image information input / output device. 3. The optical calculator according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the light receiving array has a plurality of light receivers in a unit pixel. 4. The optical arithmetic unit according to claim 1, wherein said light receiving array is composed of a plurality of types of light receiving devices having central sensitivities at different wavelengths. 5. The optical arithmetic unit according to claim 1, wherein the light receiving array is composed of a plurality of types of light receivers having central sensitivities for different polarizations. 6. The optical arithmetic unit according to claim 1, wherein the display array is a device for displaying by an electro-optical effect of liquid crystal. 7. The optical arithmetic unit according to claim 1, wherein the display array comprises light emitting diodes. 8. The optical arithmetic unit according to claim 1, wherein the display array is an EL (electroluminescence) device. 9. The display array according to claim 1, further comprising an optical filter for blocking input light.
The optical calculator according to the item. 10. The optical arithmetic unit according to claim 1, wherein the arithmetic array is composed of a TFT (thin film transistor). 11. A pixel according to claim 1, wherein each pixel forming the light receiving array, the arithmetic array, and the display array comprises a unit light receiver, a unit calculator, and a unit display. The optical calculator described.