Patent ID: 7394958

Claim:
A method comprising the steps of: a) selecting a logic operation to be performed by an optical circuit; b) designing the optical circuit with one or more all-optical logic gates to perform the logic operation to be performed by the optical circuit; and c) manufacturing the optical circuit by forming the all-optical logic gates with respective nonlinear elements having corresponding optical resonators with intensity-dependent refractive index materials tuned with resonant frequencies to perform respective logic operations to generate optical output signals having respective binary output levels based on the optical input signals, the logic gates configured with separate optical input media to guide respective optical input signals and combining media to receive and combine respective optical input signals from the optical input media to produce respective combined signals, the logic gates further configured with the nonlinear elements situated to block respective outputs of the combining media and to receive respective combined signals from the combining media, the nonlinear elements configured with respective single inputs to receive respective combined signals for subsequent nonlinear discrimination by respective nonlinear elements to produce respective optical output signals, the nonlinear elements further configured with respective single outputs for outputting respective optical output signals, the logic gates further formed with optical output media configured to receive respective optical output signals from respective single outputs of the nonlinear elements and to guide the optical output signals as optical input signals to one or more subsequent logic gates or to the output from the optical circuit, wherein the manufacturing of the optical circuit is performed by forming a photonic crystal to include the nonlinear elements.