Effects of Device Characteristics on the Performance of Optical Neural Networks

Abstract

An optical neuron architecture model incorporating optical devices is given. From the fabrication point of view the permissible density of neurons in the network with light Emitting Diode (LED) and Laser as transmitter are evaluated. For this model an optical feed-forward neural network is simulated and trained using the back propagation algorithm. Further, it has also been demonstrated that optoelectronic neural networks using either LED or laser, can learn and function satisfactorily even in the presence of non-ideal network characteristics such as optical cross-talk, optoelectronic device performance variations and nonlinear response of optoelectronic output devices. While cross talk up to about 60% is acceptable both during learning and recalling process, the performance of the model is practically independent of device behaviour.

Indexing terms:

• Optical neural netoworks

Additional information

Notes on contributors

R Ramachandran

R Ramachandran, (b 1947) received his BSc (1968) in Physics from University of Madras, Graduate degree in Telecommunications from IETE (1975), and ME (Communication Systems) (1985) from Anna University, Madras. He has an experience of 20 years in the field of Telecommunication in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India (1969–1989). In 1989 he joined the academic faculty (Electronics and Communication Engineering) of Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, Sriperumbudur, Tamilnadu. He is a Professor there since 1996. He was Head of the Department of Electronics and Telecommunication till 1998 and at present heading the Department of Information Technology. He is also working towards his PhD degree at Anna University in “Neural Networks”. He is a Life Fellow member in IETE and Life member in the Optical Society of India.

N Gunasekaran

N Gunasekaran, born in 1948 in India, received his BSc (Physics) degree (1968), DMIT (Electronics) degree (1971), ME (Applied Electronics) Degree (1973) and PhD in Microwave Engineering in the University of Madras. After working for a short period in Electronics Industry, he joined the teaching faculty in Electronics and Communication department, College of Engineering, Anna University, Chennai, India in 1974 and continued till date. Presently he is one of senior Professor in the Electronics Department. He has about 40 research/Conference papers to his credit. He had visited USA, UK, Germany and Srilanka on various academic activities. He conducted more than 50 short term courses. He carried out a number of Government funded projects in Anna University. He received awards at National level and State level.

His current fields of interest are Electromagnetic theory, Antennas, Satellite Communication, Fiber Optical Communication.

Dr N Gunasekaran is member of IEEE, Fellow of IETE and Broadcast Engineers Society of India, Life Member of IE, ISTE and OSI.