The past few years have seen integrated photonic devices beginning to outperform their bulk optics counterparts. Such advances, combined with other advantages such as superior environmental stability and system scalability offered by the solid-state nature of photonic integrated circuits, offer the potential for optical microsystems that not only miniaturize optical technologies, but further achieve functionality that is impossible or impractical at the macroscopic scale. This talk will present case studies of such developments from current DARPA programs, describe opportunities to achieve capability advantages in future precision sensing research program areas, and explore the technical challenges inherent in addressing these opportunities.
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