|
Frontiers
Joint Venture With Japanese to Further Optics Applications
January 1996
For 30 years, the computer industry has relied
on the silicon chip, which has doubled in power every two years. Yet nothing
can be subdivided forever, and many experts believe that the powerhouse
of the future will be optics.
NSF is helping to promote advances in optoelectronic technology and its application
to computing through an international venture called the Joint Optoelectronics
Project (JOP). NSF and the U.S. Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) have
agreed to contribute $1.2 million to the JOP. With this funding, JOP will encourage
collaboration between research communities in the U.S. and Japan with the objective
of bringing state-of-the-art optoelectronic devices to market.
Deborah Crawford, Program Director in NSF's Division of Electrical and Communication
Systems, is a technical representative on the JOP board. According to Crawford,
the JOP provides a model for cooperative research between the United States and
Japan, both of which are highly competitive in this field. It gives the two countries
the opportunity to work together to explore new applications for the technology
at a reasonable cost to users. "Optoelectronics has the potential to have a significant
impact," she says, "and we haven't yet exploited all of that potential."
The JOP began in January 1995 as a way to hasten the commercial adoption of newly
developed optical and optoelectronic devices by systems researchers in both countries.
The project brings researchers together for major international conferences and
exhibits, and it gives both users and suppliers access to up-to-date data, via
the Internet.
The United States and Japan both have agents, called brokers, which act as liaisons
between the two countries' research communities. The Optoelectronics Industry
Technology Development Association is the broker for Japan. For the United States,
the broker is the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association, in partnership
with George Mason University, the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation,
and the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California.
The broker's main responsibility is to connect the suppliers of optoelectronic
devices, such as lasers, with users who will develop new applications for these
devices by incorporating them into systems. Ravi Athale, co-principal investigator
at George Mason University, explains that in the past, it has been difficult
for suppliers and users to work together efficiently to develop state-of-the-art
optoelectronic devices because the device developers would throw an idea up for
consideration, and the system developers would simply use it or discard it.
"The two groups got into a vicious cycle, a mutual waiting game," he says. "The
philosophy behind the JOP is to break the cycle and bring the two communities
together."
Prepared by Cary Lee Hanes, a technician in NSF's Division of Contracts,
Policy, and Oversight.
|
