DARPA Funds Photonic Circuits For Scalable Systems

DARPA launched the Photonic Integrated Circuit Architectures for Scalable System Objectives (PICASSO), offering about $35 million to fund research that scales photonic circuits using existing components, with proposals due March 6 and a July program kickoff. The agency seeks circuit-level solutions to overcome optical attenuation and spurious interference limiting circuit depth, targeting predictable performance in 18 months and generalized functionality by 36 months.