Light-Operated Computer Chip Implements All 5 Basic Logic Operations Without Electricity

The demand for next-generation computers that can quickly calculate and process a lot of information is rapidly increasing. A logic device is a circuit that obtains an output value by applying one or more logic inputs to certain logic operation (AND, OR, etc.). A logic circuit can be made by combining a plurality of electronic transistors.

GIST (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, President Kiseon Kim) School of Materials Science and Engineering Professor Gun Young Jung’s research team along with Dr. Yusin Pak’s research team at the Sensor System Research Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, President Seok-Jin Yoon) developed technology for optical-logic devices that operate with light using organic and inorganic perovskite* materials.

The research team focused on optical-logic devices that use light with low physical energy loss as an input signal. For this purpose, organic and inorganic perovskite that absorbs light to generate electricity was used. They succeeded in developing a stacked perovskite optical-logic device in which two types of perovskite thin films with different light absorption spectra are stacked like a sandwich.

It has been proven that the desired binary logic operation is possible by inputting two lights of different wavelengths and intensities. Optical-logic devices using light operate only with light energy without electricity, raising expectations for the development of power-free optical computer processor chips. Logic operation is an operation applied to one or two binary numbers and refers to a system that derives a result value according to a set rule.

Existing logic devices can only perform one logic operation, but the perovskite optical-logic device developed by the research team can perform and implement five different basic logic operations with one device: AND, OR, NAND, NOR, and NOT.

Read the full article in Opli here.

David Shiller

David Shiller is the Publisher of LightNOW, and Senior Business Development Consultant at Capacity Consulting, a North American consulting firm providing business development services to advanced lighting manufacturers. The ALA awarded David the Pillar of the Industry Award. David has been co-chair of the ALA’s Engineering Committee since 2010. David established MaxLite’s OEM component sales into a multi-million dollar division. He invented GU24 lamps while leading ENERGY STAR lighting programs for the US EPA. David has been published in leading lighting publications, including LD+A, enLIGHTenment Magazine, LEDs Magazine, and more.

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