Three-dimensional integral optic threshold elements

A novel 3D optical threshold element and an optical neural network computer (ONNC) with a layer-module architecture are proposed. It is demonstrated that the ONNC may be implemented on a single chip with high volume density by placing the neural network on different planes and by using a third dimension for forming the synaptic electrooptic connection system. Such elements can be programmed by mask control to produce a standard set of Boolean functions in terms of a threshold logic basis and appear well-matched to the parallelism of optics