ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents the fundamental theory of incoherent fiber-optic signal processing and coherent integrated-optic signal processing. It presents a framework for the analysis of optical signal processors through the application of the signal-flow graph technique, which is developed as a mathematical tool. The book describes describe the design of new incoherent fiber-optic systolic array processors, which employ the digital multiplication by analog convolution algorithm, for performing real-valued digital matrix multiplications. It describes a programmable Incoherent Newton–Cotes optical integrator processor, which is synthesized using a proposed generalized theory of the Newton–Cotes digital integrators. The book provides a theory of higher-derivative finite impulse response (FIR) optical differentiators developed using a proposed theory of higher-derivative FIR digital differentiators. It also provides a number of principal optical devices required for photonic processing are given.
