Hybrid optical-electronic logic gates in complementary metal-oxide semiconductor very-large-scale integration

Photodiodes are integrated into complementary metal-oxide semiconductor very-large-scale integration logic circuits to provide a hybrid interface between parallel-optical and electronic computing formats. This permits direct parallel transfer from an optical processor or storage element to a standard electronic system. The optical input beams may be viewed as control signals or as logical inputs that increase the system complexity and permit direct interaction of the electronic logic circuits with the optical beam states. Applications of the approach include hybrid optical-electronic logic gates, optical control of electronic data paths, and optically reconfigured very-large-scale integration circuits.