Mission Statement
EPICA’s mission is to enable the use of integrated photonics and electronics in communications and sensing applications for spaceborne and aerospace platforms.
The Georgia Institute of Technology has been awarded funding to lead a new Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers Program (IUCRC) in Integrated Photonics. Integrated photonics has become a key enabling technology in many commercial, defense, and scientific applications such as fiber communications, data centers, RF analog links, quantum computing, and communications and sensing. Aerospace and spaceborne applications of integrated photonics present many challenges for researchers resulting from the harsh environment, however, they provide enormous opportunities for increasing performance while reducing size weight and power.
The EPICA IUCRC was first proposed by the faculty of the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC), a center within the Institute for Matter and Systems (IMS) at Georgia Tech. The GEDC is a cross-disciplinary research center focused on the development of high-speed electronic and photonics components and signal processing to achieve revolutionary system performance. With renowned expertise in advanced photonics and highspeed electronics research, more than 15 active faculty and over 100 graduate and undergraduate students, the team is poised for success.
EPICA’s founding recognizes Georgia Tech as the leader in photonic integrated circuits for aerospace and spaceborne applications. EPICA’s establishment will enable the next wave of communications and sensing technologies for a wide variety of platforms by designing solutions for advanced electronic-photonic integrated circuits and systems geared specifically for aerospace applications via validation of the performance and reliability of these systems in harsh environments.
EPICA at Georgia Tech is led by Professor Stephen Ralph, Director of GEDC, and includes research teams from the University of Central Florida and Vanderbilt University. Said Professor Ralph, “The success of the Georgia Electronic Design Center as a recognized leader in high-speed electronics and integrated photonics uniquely positioned Georgia Tech to create and lead the new NSF Center. Working with the teams at the University of Central Florida and Vanderbilt, as well as with the more than 20 semiconductor and photonics industry companies that are joining the center, we will solve the most challenging problems and help provide internet services around the planet, enhance security by enabling robust systems for the DoD and improve environmental sensing of our atmosphere.”
