To: Frequently Asked Questions on Patents
What is Photonic Computing?
What is "Photonic"?
"Photonic" comes from "photon" which is the smallest unit of light
just as an electron is the smallest unit of electricity. "Photon"
comes from "photo" as in "Kodak moment!"
Why use laser light instead of electricity?
What is the main economic advantages of light
computers?
Why do people want to buy faster light
computers?
What is a photonic transistor?
How do light beams carry digital information between photonic
transistors?
Photonic Computing is digital computing in imitation of
conventional electronic computing only using laser light instead
of electricity, and holograms instead of silicon
computer chips.
Uninhibited light travels thousands of times faster than electrons
in computer chips, therefore it is capable of computing thousands
of times faster than electronic computing. Therefore, light
computers will compute thousand of times faster than any electronic
computer can ever achieve due to the physical limitation
differences between light and electricity.
Faster computers sell better than slow ones. Light computers will
easily out-race any possible electronic computer. Also, light
computers will be made of inexpensive plastic and glass that are
easy to manufacture, whereas the sand from which electronic
computer chips are made requires very expensive refining.
Software technologies have outstripped the ability of hardware to
keep up. There exist many highly sophisticated programs that must
run on today's supercomputers, and even then they run too slowly.
Weather prediction, speech & speech recognition, high resolution
graphic and special effects are only a few of the many applications
for super-speed computers.
A transistor is a switch that is turned on and off by signals from
other switches. They perform logic, store information and are the
work horses of digital computing. Photonic transistors use light to
perform the switching functions that are performed by electronic
transistors in conventional computers.
Light beams are like very short radio waves. Binary (digital)
information is carried like an AM radio station when the beam
blinks on and off. It is carried like an FM station when the beam
switches back and forth between two or more colors. Just as there
are able to be many radio stations in one band, light beams can
carry many independent signals.
What is "bandwidth?"
Bandwidth refers to the amount of information that can be
transmitted simultaneously through a given device. An AM radio has
a narrow bandwidth that allows for only a hundred or so stations.
A twisted pair of copper telephone wires has difficulty carrying
more than one simultaneous phone conversation. A single beam of
light can carry all of the worlds telephone, television, and radio
stations at the same time! Whereas a single digital electronic
signal in an electronic computer can carry only one bit (on or off)
at any given instant, a light beam that only uses the visible part
of the spectrum can carry 35 billion independent bits at that same
instant, one for each color channel.
What makes the beams blink on and off? to carry digital Just as the organization of electronic transistors produces self- controlled, self-modulating electronic computers, the organization of photonic transistors, in imitation of the electronics, produces self-modulating, self-controlled light computers.
What impact is expected on the telephone
industry?
Optical fibers have been replacing copper wire for many years now.
Whereas light works much better for transmitting many phone calls,
each fiber has an electronic bottleneck on each end. In order to
expand the functional bandwidth of a full telephone system up to
the capacity of the glass fiber already installed, photonic
transistors will be used to interconnect the fibers, route calls,
and interconnect optical components. Each fiber will then be able
to carry as many phone conversations as an entire phone company can
today.
What impact is expected on the electronics
industry?
Historically, the electronics industry has been in a constant state
of change. Every few years, the new replaces the old. However,
their manufacturing technology is now pressing the electron to its
physical limits, which means that there is a physical limit on how
much improvement is possible. Photonics is simply the next logical
upgrade. As photonic transistor products replace electronic
products, the industry will convert to the new and improved just as
they have always done. It's a matter of economic survival. Many
people loved the old vacuum tubes, but the industry switch to
transistors anyway.
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To: Frequently Asked Questions on Photonic Computing
What is a patent?
A patent is a government-granted monopoly on an invention for up to
20 years. Ownership of a patent gives its owner the legal right to
control the making, selling or using of the
invention.
What are patent claims?
While the specification of a patent teaches ones skilled in the art how to make and implement
the invention, the claims are the legal definition of the exact processes (methods) and machines
(means) that are entitled to patent protection.
How are patents enforced?
Patents are enforced in civil court. An infringement suit can be
filed against anyone who uses, makes, or sells a patented device or
process without the owner's permission.
Can someone make some small improvement and get a patent of
their own?
Certainly. The question is, is the improvement sufficiently
valuable so that someone is willing to pay to have it. Secondly,
having the improvement patent does not grant the new inventor any
rights over the previous one. He still cannot make, sell, or use
the original without permission, no matter how good his
improvement. However, the improvement must be "novel." That is it
must not be available on the market or described in a printed
publication. It must be new. Even if an inventor publishes an
article describing it in detail, he has only one year to file his
patent application. Old things cannot be patented.
Can't one find a way around a patent?
The more basic an original patent is, the more difficult it is to
find some other way of doing it. If one had a patent on "nuts and
bolts," someone else could patent a rivet. But if one had a patent
on "fasteners," then he would own rivets too.
Don't we use patented items all the time without
permission?
Not really. Most patented products are produced for sale. By
purchasing the item the inventor usually grants you the right to
use it. However, when Sam Morse invented the telegraph, buying
telegraph equipment from him would not entitle you to send
telegraph messages without his permission. Ones had to pay for each
telegram...they had to pay for the use of the invention.
How can someone make, sell, or use a patented process or
device?
One must gain the written permission from the owner of
a patent in order to be able to make, sell, or use (see above question)
a patented item. Manufacturers usually obtain a license for technology,
while sales outlets usually purchase the item from licensed manufacturers, or
directly from the owner.
What is a license for technology?
A license is a written contract with a patent owner that grants the
licensee certain spelled-out rights in relation to patented
technology. AON is making certain licenses available so that
the benefits of its technology can be enjoyed by others.