Raytheon joins DARPA PICASSO program for photonic circuits

Raytheon has won a phase one contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop photonic circuits that process signals entirely with light, the company said on Nov. 3. The work falls under DARPA's PICASSO program, short for Photonic Integrated Circuit Architectures for Scalable System Objectives. Raytheon, an RTX business, did not disclose the value of the award or a delivery schedule. The company's Advanced Technology team will design and demonstrate the circuits, and software firm Synopsys will provide design and simulation tools for the work. Photonic circuits move data as light, which can be faster and more efficient than electrical signals. Current designs still have to convert light back into electricity at key points to clean up and process the signal, and each conversion eats into those advantages. Raytheon says that keeping the processing in the optical domain preserves signal strength and quality even as circuits shrink and grow more complex. The company says the result would help military operators detect threats sooner, react faster, and keep better situational awareness in contested environments. It did not name a specific weapon, sensor, or platform that would use the technology. "This program recognizes a fundamental shift in how processing can be achieved," said Colin Whelan, president of Advanced Technology at Raytheon. "By moving critical processing entirely into the optical domain, we can enable significantly faster response times for a broad range of applications." DARPA launched PICASSO early this year to move photonics research from individual components to complete circuits and systems. The agency says the program aims to lay the groundwork for very large-scale photonic integration, the optical equivalent of packing more and more transistors onto a chip, and to limit noise, back-reflections, and other effects that degrade signals over long processing chains. Anna Tauke-Pedretti of DARPA's Multi X Office manages the program. The solicitation described two 18-month phases. In the first, teams develop circuit-level methods to protect signal integrity and suppress reflections, leakage, and crosstalk. In the second, they apply those methods to build circuits with specific functions, and DARPA will down-select between phases. DARPA planned to award several agreements worth up to $35 million each, Washington Technology reported when the solicitation opened, and it said it strongly prefers U.S.-based manufacturing. DARPA has listed computing, analog signal processing, and sensing as target areas for the program. A separate solicitation, still to come, will cover circuit designs for specific government uses. Photonics has drawn other defense investment in recent years, including a U.S. Navy effort in which Mercury was selected to advance photonics chiplets. Raytheon has also worked with DARPA on high-speed weapons, completing a design review for a new hypersonic weapon with the agency, and it is developing a tethered drone system for ship defense.