Press Releases

Santa Barbara – Today, Rep. Salud Carbajal (CA-24) announced that the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) will receive $4.4 million in funding from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program, which provides funding to breakthrough technologies that have the potential to develop into new industries.

The funds will be disbursed to UCSB’s Intelligent Reduction of Energy through Photonic Integration for Datacenters (INTREPID). The program works to increase the speed and energy efficiency of communications technology, transitioning to the use of photons to transmit information in place of metal interconnects, which are currently in place. In April, Rep. Carbajal and his colleagues wrote to Energy Secretary Perry, to release the ARPA-e funds, which were previously being withheld by DOE.

“The Central Coast has lead the way in developing cutting edge technologies and this ARPA-e funding will help solidify its place in the growing technology industry,” Rep. Carbajal said. “This federal support boosts these promising technologies coming out of UCSB’s INTREPID program and is crucial to getting these innovations out of the lab and into the marketplace where they will help lower costs and improve efficiency. I’m proud that this project currently unfolding right here on the Central Coast will hopefully one day transform America’s communication technology.”

Background:

The INTREPID team plans to develop and demonstrate a technology platform that integrates efficient photonic interfaces directly into chip “packages.” By designing and packaging photonic components in tandem, the UCSB team hopes to create highly efficient interconnects that allow for flatter network hierarchies needing fewer energy-sapping layers thanks to significantly higher bandwidth.

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