OSA Seeks Applicants for PIC Incubator
The Optical Society of America (OSA) is seeking applicants to participate in an integrated photonics incubator project 20-22 May that will be staged at OSA headquarters in Washington, DC.
The 'Integrated Photonics in the Mid-IR Incubator' will explore the optical, electrical, and mechanical processes that must be integrated onto a photonic chip to develop an IC-based architecture that will enable new applications.
Applications which would have a large impact in a field of study will be discussed and formulated and the chip based architecture will be developed through in-depth round table discussions. According to event organizers, the processes to realize the applications will be developed and the technologies to enable each process will be discussed. For example, spectroscopic chemical sensing on a chip may require some means of generating light in the mid-IR, whether by frequency combs or quantum cascade lasers, some means to allow the analyte to interact with the light within the detection path, whether by microfluidics or directing the light beam to the analyte, some means of spectrally resolving the signal, some means of detecting the signal as well as processing of the spectral data to determine the analyte.
Another aspect that will be explored is integrated chips with either in-plane and out-of-plane beam steering, that can, for example, transmit laser signals into the atmosphere and detect return signal using LiDAR technologies. Each of these processes may be accomplished by several different technologies and the pros and cons of each technology will be discussed. The potential impact of the chip based architecture vs. traditional means to accomplish the same objective will be discussed.
For more information, visit the OSA website. A limited number of spots have been set aside at this invitation-only meeting for application by interested individuals. The OSA invites such parties to send a brief letter of interest along with a CV to the hosts at osaincubator@osa.org.
