SBIR-STTR Award

Aurrion and Lockheed Martin will create an optical thresholding component that can be monolithically integrated in a silicon-substrate-based photonic integrated circuit (PIC) platform. The ultimate goal is to realize PICs that can contain these nonlinear components in the same chip with other active (e.g. lasers, modulators, detectors) and passive (e.g. filters, delay lines, routing waveguides) components. The key innovations are in the concepts to enable the nonlinear effects on the established III-V-Silicon heterogeneous integration platform.

Benefit:
Aurrion will work with Lockheed Martin to demonstrate an all optical thresholder device using integrated silicon photonics. These components could be integrated with other optical components on a single platform to create fast, low power, compact and environmentally robust Optical Analog to Digital Converters (OADCs), an enabling technology for a scalable optical sensor network.

Keywords:
Oadc, Sensor Network, Silicon Photonics, Thresholder

The proposed Phase II effort is a two year program focused on demonstrating both the feasibility of an integrated semiconductor optical thresholder and its ability to enable a high frequency Optical Analog to Digital Converter (OADC). Such OADCs would dramatically enhance capability in multiple Air Force platforms.

Benefit:
The integrated optical thresholder technology would permit processing of the RF spectrum at the antenna and allow lighter data cables to be used in the platform. These benefits would be realized by many platforms, like the F-35.

Keywords:
Optics, Nonlinear Optics, Photonics, Silicon Photonics