Real Time CMOS Optical Processor for a Shack Hartmann Wav efront Sensor

A real time VLSI optical centroid processor has been d e- veloped as part of a larger Shack -Hartmann wavefront sensor system for applications in adaptive optics. The i m- plementation of the optical centroid detection system was demonstrated successfully using a hardware emulation system. Subsequently, the d esign has been implemented as a CMOS single -chip solution. This has advantages in terms of power consumption, system size and cost. The design of the different components of the system will be discussed along with test results of the fabricated device.