An optical holographic system for parallel to serial and serial to parallel conversion of optical data

摘要

A serial-to-parallel and parallel-to-serial conversion apparatus and method are disclosed to convert optical pulse data into temporally multiplexed ultra-fast optical pulses, and vice versa, using Fourier holographic transform techniques. In a first embodiment, optical pattern data is converted from a serial temporal-domain optical input signal to an output signal having parallel bits by recording a spectral hologram of the pulse data and reading it out with a continuous-wave (cw) laser. In a second embodiment, signals representing input bits in parallel may be optically multiplexed in the time domain, so that a single optical fiber may carry such signals without the electronic processing necessary in conventional switching multiplexers.