Novel Sensing and Detection

Picture a sensor pixel about the size of a red blood cell. Now envision a million of these pixels—a megapixel’s worth—in an array that covers a thumbnail. Take one more mental trip: dive down onto the surface of the semiconductor hosting all of these pixels and marvel at each pixel’s associated tech-mesh of more than 1,000 integrated transistors, which provide each and every pixel with a tiny reprogrammable brain of its own. That is the vision for DARPA’s new Reconfigurable Imaging (ReImagine) program.

State-of-the-art military sensors rely on “active electronics” to detect vibration, light, sound or other signals for situational awareness and to inform tactical planning and action. That means the sensors constantly consume power, with much of that power spent processing what often turns out to be irrelevant data. This power consumption limits sensors’ useful lifetimes to a few weeks or months with even the best batteries and has slowed the development of new sensor technologies and capabilities. The chronic need to service or redeploy power-depleted sensors is not only costly and time-consuming but also increases warfighter exposure to danger.

Dr. Roy (Troy) Olsson III joined DARPA as a program manager in June 2014. His research interests include materials, devices, and architectures that enable low-power processing of wireless and sensor signals, vanishing materials, electronics and structures, and phased array antennas.

Mr. John Kamp joined DARPA as a program manager in 2011. His interests center on innovative approaches to transition DARPA technologies to the acquisition and user communities, programmatic best practices, transition strategies and plans, and program execution.