Fundamental building blocks for a compact optoelectronic neural network processor

The focus of this thesis is interconnects within the Compact Optoelectronic Neural Network Processor. The goal of the Compact Optoelectronic Neural Network Processor Project (CONNPP) is to build a small, rugged neural network co-processing unit. This processor will be optimized for solving various signal processing problems such as image segmentation or facial recognition. These represent a class of problems for which the traditional logic-based architectures are not optimized. The CONNPP utilizes the processing power of traditional electronic integrated circuits along with the communications benefits of optoelectronic interconnects to provide a three-dimensionally scalable architecture. The topic of interconnects includes both optoelectronic interconnects between processing planes as well as wire based interconnects within the processing planes. The optoelectronic inter-plane interconnects allow the CONNPP to achieve 3-dimensional scalablility. These interconnects employ an array of holograms designed and fabricated using an analytic model that has been developed. This analytic model takes into account reading and writing the hologram at different wavelengths as well as non-idealities of the optoelectronic devices being used. The analytic model was tested and showed agreement with experiment to within 10% of the calculated values. The photodetectors used for the testing of this system have been designed within standard process technologies using a lateral PiN structure and a novel lateral BJT structure. In addition, highly-linear transimpedance amplifiers were designed to condition the signal from the photodetector for further processing.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Ruedlinger, Benjamin Franklin, 1976-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Cardinal Warde.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/29621

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/29621