The heterointerfaces of Al0.3Ga0.7As/GaAs single quantum wells (SQWs) and the characteristics of SQW lasers grown on Si substrates with Al0.5Ga0.5As/Al0.55Ga0.45P intermediate layers (AlGaAs/AlGaP ILs) entirely by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) are reported. The effects of thermal cycle annealing on the crystallinity and the lasing characteristics of GaAs/Si are also reported. By using the AlGaAs/AlGaP ILs, SQWs with a specular surface morphology and a smoother heterointerface can be grown on a Si substrate. Thermal cycle annealing is found to improve the crystallinity of GaAs/Si and to contribute to room-temperature continuous-wave operation of lasers on Si substrates. The combinations of the techniques of AlGaAs/AlGaP ILs and thermal cycle annealing improve the lasing characteristics: an average threshold current density of 1.83 kA/cm2, an average differential quantum efficiency of 52%, an internal quantum efficiency of 83%, an intrinsic mode loss coefficient of 23cm-1, a differential gain coefficient of 1.9cm/A, and a transparency current density of 266 A/cm2, which are superior to those of the two-step-grown laser on a Si substrate. The improvements of the lasing characteristics result from the smooth heterointerfaces of the AlGaAs/AlGaP ILs.

In this paper, we present a new image compression scheme, Projection-VQ, based on reconstruction from vector quantized projections. We can easily deal with the blocks of larger size in Projection-VQ than in conventional VQ schemes, because the dimension of vectors in projection domain is, in general, much smaller than that in the spatial domain. In Projection-VQ, the image can be reconstructed without destroying edge sharpness in the process since the projection data having the edge information are preferentially transmitted. There are several good algorithms of reconstructing an image from projections. However, we use a new modified reconstruction algorithm suitable for a variable bit rate image coding system. We allocate the bits depending on the characteristics of the block images. Our simulation results show that the performances are superior to the ordinary VQ schemes in PSNR, and that the improvement in subjective image quality is substantial.

The VSTEP concept and its practical application in the form of an LED-type pnpn-VSTEP demonstrating low power consumption through electro-photonic operational modes are both shown. Further, with focus primarily on the new laser-mode VSTEP with high-intensity light output and narrow optical beam divergence, the design features such as threshold gain and optical absorptivity, device fabrication, and characteristics are explained. The possibility of ultimate performance based mainly on electrical to optical power conversion efficiency, important from the application viewpoint of optical interconnection, are also discussed. Also, as two examples of functional optical interconnection achieved by VSTEP, serial-to-parallel data conversion and optical self-routing switches are shown. Finally, future opto-electronic technologies to be developed for two-dimensionally integrable surface-type optical semiconductor devices, including the VSTEP, are discussed.

This paper describes the future perspective of automatic telephone interpretation using a multimedia intelligent communication network. The need for language interpretation over a telecommunication system creates a strong drive toward integrating information modalities for voice, image, data, computation and conferencing into modern systems using the capability of language interpretation. An automatic telephone interpretation system will solve the problems of language differences in international human-to-human communication. The future prospective of advanced multimedia language communication will be stated as the versatile application of an integrated intelligent network.

We review the role of optics in interconnects, analog processing, neural networks, and digital computing. The properties of low interference, massively parallel interconnections, and very high data rates promise extremely high performance for optical information processing systems.

We propose Polarization-Shift-Keying (POLSK) homodyne system using phase-diversity receivers and theoretically analyze its bit-error-rate (BER) performance. Since the proposed system uses polarization modulation and homodyne detection, it can cancel the phase noise and is attractive at a high bit-rate transmission. It is found that the receiver sensitivity of the proposed POLSK homodyne system is the same as that of POLSK heterodyne system and is much better than that of DPSK phase-diversity homodyne systems at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). We also cosider theoreically the effect of the fluctuation of state of polarization (SOP) on the BER performance of POLSK homodyne system.

The heterointerfaces of Al0.3Ga0.7As/GaAs single quantum wells (SQWs) and the characteristics of SQW lasers grown on Si substrates with Al0.5Ga0.5As/Al0.55Ga0.45P intermediate layers (AlGaAs/AlGaP ILs) entirely by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) are reported. The effects of thermal cycle annealing on the crystallinity and the lasing characteristics of GaAs/Si are also reported. By using the AlGaAs/AlGaP ILs, SQWs with a specular surface morphology and a smoother heterointerface can be grown on a Si substrate. Thermal cycle annealing is found to improve the crystallinity of GaAs/Si and to contribute to room-temperature continuous-wave operation of lasers on Si substrates. The combinations of the techniques of AlGaAs/AlGaP ILs and thermal cycle annealing improve the lasing characteristics: an average threshold current density of 1.83 kA/cm2, an average differential quantum efficiency of 52%, an internal quantum efficiency of 83%, an intrinsic mode loss coefficient of 23 cm-1, a differential gain coefficient of 1.9 cm/A, and a transparency current density of 266 A/cm2, which are superior to those of the two-step-grown laser on a Si substrate. The improvements of the lasing characteristics result from the smooth heterointerfaces of the AlGaAs/AlGaP ILs.

Transmittance distribution along a horizontal line in LCDs addressed by amorphous silicon TFTs was investigated using measurements and calculations. Nonuniformity of the distribution, in which the transmittance increased with increasing distance from the left edge of the LCD, was observed in a 10 inch diagonal TFT-LCD. The cause of the nonuniformity was attributed to the decrease in voltage drop due to the gate source parasitic capacitance and the increase in gate voltage fall time due to large line resistance, based on the measurements of voltage drops in TFT test elements and calculations considering the decrease in voltage drop. The distribution could be improved by reducing the line resistance and parasitic capacitance in the actual LCD.