Claims
- 1. A system for converting input signal information in the form of light radiation into corresponding electrical information; said system including a large scale integrated circuit semiconductor device having a surface which is exposed for receipt of incident radiation, said large scale integrated circuit semiconductor device comprising a plurality of discrete devices, and whereby application of radiation greater than a given intensity to said discrete devices places said discrete devices in the same given logic state; a source of light radiation; means for spatially modulating said source of radiation; optical means for directing said source of radiation towards and focusing radiation from said source, after modulation, onto said exposed surface of said semiconductor device so that said discrete devices are placed in a logic state dependent upon the intensity of the radiant energy within said modulated radiation which is applied thereto; and electrical readout means for reading out the logic state of each of said discrete devices after being exposed to said radiation which reading out also causes the erasing of said logic states stored in said devices.
- 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the semiconductor device is selected from the group consisting of random access memories, read only memories and programmable read only memories.
- 3. The system of claim 1, which includes a second semiconductor device identical to said semiconductor device, a beam splitter means for directing the said modulated radiation of said modulating means toward the surfaces of both said semiconductor devices, and light attenuating means for attenuating the light intensity applied to said second semiconductor device, whereby corresponding individual devices in said second semiconductor device which vary in logic state from those of said semiconductor device indicate changes in gray shades within said modulated image.
- 4. The method of writing information into a large scale integrated circuit device, having a semiconductor wafer, comprising the steps of: exposing the surface of the semiconductor wafer of said device so that incident light radiation can produce the effect of a gate voltage for each individual discrete device of the large scale integrated circuit device; spatially modulating light for writing said discrete devices; applying said spatially modulated light to said wafer surface to produce a pattern of states in said individual discrete devices which corresponds to the intensity distribution in the spatially modulated light; and thereafter electrically reading out said pattern of states.
- 5. The method of claim 4 which includes the further step of exposing the surface of a second semiconductor wafer which is identical to said semiconductor wafer to said spatially modulated light which is attenuated and electrically reading out the pattern of states in said second semiconductor wafer and comparing them to said pattern of states in said semiconductor wafer to determine gray shades in said spatially modulated light.
GOVERNMENTAL INTEREST
The invention described herein may be manufactured, used and licensed by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.
US Referenced Citations (2)
Number |
Name |
Date |
Kind |
3925767 |
Witteles et al. |
Dec 1975 |
|
4362805 |
Landsman |
Dec 1982 |
|