Report urges U.S. effort to recapture optics lead

Additional recommendations

• Calling the technology key to the future economy, the committee recommends "the federal government develop an integrated initiative in photonics (similar in many respects to the National Nanotechnology Initiative) that seeks to bring together academic, industrial, and government researchers, managers, and policy makers to develop a more integrated approach to managing industrial and government photonics R&D spending and related investments."

This national photonics initiative would be "a collaborative effort to improve the collection and reporting of R&D and economic data on the optics and photonics sector, including the development of a set of North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes that cover photonics; the collection of data on employment, output, and privately funded R&D in photonics; and the reporting of federal photonics-related R&D investment for all federal agencies and programs."

• Noting that there has been a factor-of-100 increase in bandwidth in recent decades, the report recommends a government-industry partnership to invent technologies to maintain that growth rate, especially with an eye toward solutions tightly integrating optics with electronics. "The U.S. government, and specifically the Department of Defense, should strive toward harmonizing optics with silicon-based electronics to provide a new, readily accessible and usable, integrated electronics and optics platform."
• While acknowledging the challenges, the committee recommends that the U.S. power grid achieve "parity"--in which no power source is more expensive than another. Photonics can provide renewable solar energy, while solid-state lighting can help reduce the overall need for energy used for lighting. 
• The report also calls on the defense industry to fund optical technologies to deliver laser communications and laser weapons as part of an improved national security. "Practical application for these purposes would require the deployment of low- cost platforms supporting long dwell times," the report said.

EE Times earlier this year profiled engineer and entrepreneur Ganesh Gopalakrishnan who has been acting a self-described "squeaky wheel" to raise the alarm about the competitive challenges facing the U.S. photonics and optics industries.

Gopalakrishnan, who is executive technical director at the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association, estimates that about 200,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in North America over the last ten years. (Canadian telecom equipment makers like bankrupt Nortel Networks once accounted for about 40 percent of North American optoelectronics component manufacturing prior to the telecom decline.)

Initial reaction was, not surprisingly, positive.

“This report will serve as a vital tool in making the case for sustained investments in and adoption of optical science and technology worldwide, as it provides specific illustrations of the technological and economic value of optics and photonics in a variety of sectors,” said Gregory Quarles, public policy committee chair of The Optical Society. OSA is hosting an Aug. 21 webinar to discuss the report's recommendations.

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