Photonic computing has the physical ability to surpass electronic capabilities on a grand scale physically as well as economically. In 1994, Cyber Dyne Computer Corp. was formed as a for-profit corporation that purchased our photonic technology. Since then, Cyber Dyne and the Rocky Mountain Research Center (RMRC,) have been engaged in a massive patenting program so as to lock together all of the basic photonic computing technology into a single body of intellectual property, which is now owned by, and is being developed by All Optical Networks, Inc. (AON) the successor to Cyber Dyne. The first ten patents were issued in the name of RMRC, while those following are being issued directly to AON.
Unlike the rest of the industry, our approach doesn't just tweak the same set of technological tools, in an attempt to come up with some slight improvement, for another me-too product. Rather, each of our patents, covers an important cornerstone for an entire photonic technology rather than just a few sporadic inventions, or incremental improvements. Each addresses a separate issue in the progressive development of the photonic revolution to make a unified body of intellectual property capable of supporting a real photonic revolution.
Below is a list of those first ten patents:
U. S. patent 5,093,802. Optical Computing Method Using Interference Fringe Component Regions.
Broad fundamental patent of the basic Photonic Transistor covering the use of optical interference to accomplish basic Boolean switching functions and signal amplification. The photonic transistor imitates electronic transistor functions at light speed. As of this writing, photonic transistors have been produced that switch signals in 1.5 femtoseconds. (10-15 seconds.)
U.S. patent 5,623,366 and 5,644,123. Photonic Signal Processing, Amplification, and Computing Using Special Interference. Fundamental methods patent covering the production of, and all applications of "Special Interference" wherein light is deflected from a destructive interference point to another location. Special interference enables precision control of light. The patent includes 30 electronic-component-imitating photonic circuits. While special interference requires special optics, it performs the Boolean AND function, among others, because it is based on the law of energy conservation rather than the conventional methods of manipulating light using interference.
U. S. patent 5,466,925. Amplitude to Phase Conversion Logic is a fundamental patent covering vector addition of amplitudes as used in interference based optical computing. It includes three light-speed logic devices that have amplitude modulated inputs and phase modulated outputs: the multi-input threshold device, the multi-input Boolean AND, and the multi-input OR. It also covers the NAND having amplitude inputs and outputs.
Amplitude to Phase Conversion Logic is a excellent example of how the most fundamental operations of optics have been incorporated into our intellectual property in order to borden their scope and increase their value. Light beams can carry binary information using phase modulation (binary phase changes between 0 and 180.) just as they are able to carry amplitude modulated information by blinking them on and off. This patent is essentially the direct application of the principle of vector summation of waves for providing a phase modulated output from amplitude (or even phase) modulated inputs.
As in the arrangement described above, optical interference is used to produce an image, such as is produced by a hologram. This time, three or more beams are brought together to produce the interference image. One of the beams is kept on all the time as a bias beam. The other beams are aligned so that they are out-of-phase with the bias beam but in-phase with each other at the location of where vector summation is to take place.
The phase of the output will change suddenly, flipping its phase by 180 degrees whenever the sum of the amplitude modulated inputs is greater than the bias beam. So, how can this be used to produce logic functions? If the amplitude of the bias beam is set greater than the individual input beams then it will require the sum of all inputs in order to overcome the threshold established by the bias and flip the output phase 180 degrees. This logic function is called a ulti-input AND.
Now suppose that the bias level is smaller than any of the single modulated beams. In this case it requires only one...any one, of the modulated inputs to flip the output phase. This is a multi-input Boolean OR. This patented process can have as many inputs as one would like, and as many input/output combinations as one would like by this simple manipulation of vector wave combinations. By combining the two inventions, the scope of photonic computing technology is spreading to cover every practical photonic configuration that uses interference images.
U. S. patent 5,555,126. Dual Phase Amplification with Phase Logic. Fundamental patent covering phase modulated logic that uses conventional interference to produce signal amplification, and information storage on circulating light beams.
U.S. patent 5,726,804. Wavetrain Stabilization and Sorting. A means and method of producing long continuous wavetrains, and very narrow line width laser light from generally less expensive broad-lined lasers including laser diodes. Plus wavetrains can be sorted and distributed as desired.
U.S. patent 5,617,249. Frequency Multiplexed Logic, Amplification, and Energy Beam Control. Fundamental use of multiple frequencies (colors) simultaneously and independently within a single device. For example, a single bistable element that would hold one bit in an electronic equivalent would be able to store a megabyte or more of information using different colors of the visible spectrum. Millions of basic logic interactions ordinarily done one-at-a-time can be accomplished simultaneously using this important invention. This invention enables photonic devices to calculate and store more information, in a single light beam than can be stored in a compariable sized silicon chip... by several orders of magnetude.
U.S. patent 5,691,532. Photonic Heterodyning using an Image Component Separator. Fundamental patent on heterodyning light in a manner similar to the way heterodyning in radio and television is used to select separate frequency channels. Along with the highly selective filter that is included in 5,623,366 the invention enables light waves to be manipulated just like radio waves.
U.S. patent 5,835,246. Addressable Imaging. The operation of optical memory requires quick access and rapid address decoding. This basic patent covers the entire optical mechanism required to produce light speed optical memory, both RAM and ROM.
U.S. patent 5,770,854. Pattern Recogniation Computing. Optical images are essentially just patterns of energy distributions. Such images contain information at different locations within the images, which changes continually as the inputs change. This extremely valuable patent covers the mechanism for producing pattern recognizable images from arbratrary input patterns. Nearly all computing processes are basically some form of pattern recognition. Thus, this patent covers the fundamentals of nearly all optical computing.
It doesn't do any good to build it, if one doesn't own it. Patents determine what it is that one owns. Narrow patents have limited coverage and limited value. Broad patents provide their owners with a government-granted monopoly for nearly 20 years. Many of the above patents are now issuing in country after country all around the world so that the overseas markest can also be opened up to All Optical Networks.
| FAQ | Home | Photonics Menu | Web Hosting India | Previous |