Photonics-manufacturing accord signed between Mercury Systems and U.S. Navy
NewsNovember 03, 2023
ANDOVER, Mass. Mercury Systems announced that it signed an agreement with the U.S. Navy to develop manufacturing capabilities that would allow commercial photonics chiplets to accelerate edge processing in defense applications.
Under the terms of a $3.9 million, 17-month Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) with Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane Division, Mercury announced that it will be able to access photonics devices developed for the commercial sector by Intel and Ayar Labs. Mercury plans to develop miniaturized and ruggedized packages using photonics chiplets -- which use optical technology to move data through systems such as data centers at speeds in excess of a terabyte per second -- for defense applications to process edge sensor data much faster, enabling faster decision-making in next-generation radar and electronic warfare (EW) systems.
“Breaking the data transfer bottleneck is a critical objective for the RF & Optoelectronics (RF/OE) program,” stated Joshua Hawke, USD(R&E) RF/OE Execution Lead. “This partnership with Mercury will proliferate co-packaged optics within the defense industrial base and accelerate adoption of innovative technology by the warfighter.”
