UA Selected for Photonic Data Link Demonstration Program

On Aug. 9, the American Institute of Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics), announced the University of Arizona as the recipient for a new Defense Department Government Directed Project for photonic integrated circuit (PIC) data links for cryongenic focal plane arrays.

The $1,200,000 U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) project, along with an additional $400,000 in matching funds from a team led by the University of Arizona (UA), will support a consortium that includes Sandia National Labs, Raytheon (RTN) and other aerospace firms engaged in FPA technology. The project will encompass the design, fabrication and test of cryogenic PIC-based datalinks for FPA readout and has the potential to strongly advance imaging capabilities for national defense applications. 

"When you consider the rapid pace of growth in both the FPA size and the required data rates, conventional electronic readouts become limited because they are both a heat source and a communication bottleneck," says Dr. Robert Norwood, a Professor of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona, and Principal Investigator for the Program.

For more on this development, see the official press release.