Phased arrays with electronic scanning represent a huge future commercial market in the wireless, security and free space optics communications industries. The optoelectronic integration platform being developed here provides a cost effective approach to combine optical and electronic device capabilities from which to generate the components for computer buses, AD converters, optical data links, optical switching matrices, optical routers, optical memories and many more yet to be identified. The integrated approach is the key to reduced cost and improved reliability. NASA applications are focused on the need for combined Rf and optical sensing. Current and future satellites require a multitude of sensors mounted an the satellite external surfaces covering wide bands in the mm wave band and separately in the optical spectrum. Sensing is central to the NASA mission. The POET technology base has great potential to address this sensing with unique ability to collapse the sensors into a single aperture. Simultaneously POET address many internal computational requirements related to on-board communications.
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