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Optoelectronics industry rich with possibilities

Air Force, education and industry leaders are shaping a proposal for the region’s role.

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer 6:15 AM Monday, June 15, 2009

DAYTON — Current and former Air Force research leaders, university counterparts and industry officials are discussing how the region’s companies could support the high-tech field of optoelectronics for military and commercial customers.

Representatives of government, the universities and businesses hope to shape a part of the optoelectronics industry that could grow in the Dayton region to create jobs and support Wright-Patterson Air Force Base’s technology needs, said Paul McManamon, who has helped lead the discussion during the past few months. He retired in May 2008 as chief scientist of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s sensors directorate at Wright-Patterson.

Optoelectronics technology supports lasers, detectors to detect the laser light signal, and devices to modulate laser beams. Motion sensors and digital cameras contain optoelectronic devices.

The technology has commercial and military applications, particularly as onboard electronics for unmanned military aircraft.

“Defining the framework for it is what we’re in the process of doing now,” Larrell Walters, head of sensor technology at the University of Dayton Research Institute and director of the UD-led Institute for Development and Commercialization of Advanced Sensors Technology, said of the local discussions.

“This could be building little chips, and things like that, that would go into systems that IDCAST is making,” McManamon said Wednesday, June 3.

Others involved in the discussions include the Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright State University, Dayton Development Coalition and Wright Brothers Institute, led by Les McFawn, who retired in January 2008 as the AFRL’s executive director. The universities can supply a flow of interested students as well as research expertise, McManamon said.

“We’re looking at what part of the industry we could capture here,” said Jim Leftwich, the development coalition’s president and chief executive officer.

State Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, alerted community leaders to business interest in regional development of optoelectronics expertise, Leftwich said.

A July 8-9 workshop is scheduled at Wright Brothers Institute, just outside Wright-Patterson’s Area B, for discussions with regional companies, McManamon said.

He and others hope to meet after that with Joe Sciabica, current AFRL executive director, then develop a proposal to present to the Ohio Department of Development to request state technology funding support, McManamon said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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