The principle objective of the proposed research program is the development of a noval spatial light modulator that calculates a 3 x 3 kernel convolution on an input image. The spatial light modulator consists of a ferroelectric liquid crystal modulator on top of a CMOS VLSI chip. During Phase I, a comprehensive study of several convolving SLM designs will be performed. The study will examine circuit level details and system level details. A test chip containing sub-circuits of several SLM designs will be designed, fabricated and tested.
Keywords: spatial light modulators, optical processing, image processing, liquid crystals, VLSI
