The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), through its Microsystems Technology Office (MTO), has released a new program solicitation for Photonic Integrated Circuit Architectures for Scalable System Objectives (PICASSO). This solicitation reflects DARPA’s continued interest in unlocking transformational system-level performance gains by rethinking how emerging technologies are architected, rather than incrementally improved. With PICASSO, DARPA aims to overcome longstanding scalability challenges in photonic integrated circuits to enable breakthroughs in bandwidth, latency, and energy efficiency across computing, sensing, and signal processing applications.
Solicitation Overview: Moving Beyond Component-Level Photonics
PICASSO is designed to catalyze a shift in how the photonics community approaches large-scale system design. While photonic technologies have demonstrated promise in isolated functions such as transceivers and accelerators, DARPA notes that these systems remain dominated by electronics, limiting their overall performance impact. The PICASSO program explicitly seeks to address this gap by prioritizing circuit and system level architectural innovation rather than device-level optimization.
The solicitation emphasizes the need for photonic circuits that can process signals continuously in the optical domain, avoiding repeated optical-to-electrical transduction that erodes latency and efficiency gains. To that end, DARPA is looking for approaches that preserve optical signal integrity, suppress excess noise, and control parasitic interactions across long processing chains. Incremental or evolutionary improvements to existing photonic components are specifically discouraged.
Program Goals and Structure
PICASSO focuses on developing scalable photonic circuit strategies with predictable performance, evaluated at the system level and benchmarked against state-of-the-art electronic solutions. Proposers are expected to identify a compelling application, derive a corresponding system architecture, and demonstrate how their photonic circuit designs materially improve application-relevant figures of merit.
The program is structured around Technical Area 1 (TA1), which is fully solicited under this announcement and executed in two phases:
- Phase 1 (Base Effort) concentrates on circuit-level strategies to preserve signal integrity and mitigate parasitic effects across photonic circuits.
- Phase 2 (Option) focuses on generalizing those strategies to achieve distinct and reusable circuit functionality.
A second technical area focused on applications is described for informational purposes only and is expected to be solicited separately at a later date. Throughout TA1, performers will maintain a continually updated reference system design and deliver photonic circuit designs into a government-designated repository. DARPA places strong emphasis on generalizability, interoperability through defined interface boundary conditions, accessibility and reuse of designs, and long-term technology sustainability.
Key Dates and Deadlines
Prospective proposers should pay close attention to the following milestones (all times Eastern):
- Updated: Proposal Abstract Due: February 9, 2026 (1:00 PM) – Required to be eligible for full proposal submission.
- Updated: Requests for CUI Materials Close: February 9, 2026 (1:00 PM) – Deadline to request Controlled Unclassified Information materials.
- Questions and Intent to Propose Due: February 20, 2026 (5:00 PM) – Final day for submitting questions and notifying DARPA of intent to submit a proposal.
- Full Proposal Due: March 6, 2026 (1:00 PM) – Complete technical and cost proposals due.
- Anticipated Virtual Oral Presentations: March 19–27, 2026 – Selected proposers may be invited to present.
Funding and Award Information
DARPA anticipates making multiple awards under PICASSO, with total program funding of approximately $35 million. Awards are expected to be made using Other Transaction for Prototype (OT-P) agreements under 10 U.S.C. § 4022. The period of performance for TA1 spans two phases of approximately 18 months each, inclusive of base and option efforts. DARPA has identified an expected profit range of 10–11 percent for TA1 efforts and does not require further profit justification within that range.
Why PICASSO Matters for Human Health and Beyond
While PICASSO is rooted in national security priorities, its impact extends well beyond defense applications. Scalable, high-performance photonic systems have the potential to dramatically improve medical imaging, biosensing, and data-intensive healthcare technologies by enabling faster processing, lower power consumption, and reduced latency. By investing in architectures that allow photonics to operate at scale and with predictable behavior, DARPA is laying the groundwork for advances that could ultimately support earlier diagnoses, more responsive monitoring systems, and improved access to high-performance computing for health research.
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