Novel Sensing and Detection

Find a way to replace a large, heavy and expensive technology with an equivalent one that’s a lot smaller, lighter and cheaper and you have a shot at turning a boutique technology into a world changer. Think of the room-sized computers of the 1940s that now are outpowered by the run-of-the-mill central processing unit in laptop computers. Or the miniaturized GPS components that contribute geolocation smartness in cell phones. DARPA program manager Joshua Conway has another shrinking act in mind: packing the light-catching powers of bulky lens-filled telescopes onto flat, semiconductor wafers that are saucer-sized or smaller, featherweight and cheap to make.

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.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) is hosting a Proposers Day to provide information to potential proposers on the objectives that will be specified in an anticipated Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) of the Modular Optical Apertures Building Blocks (MOABB) program. The MOAB program aims to develop advanced technologies that could catalyze the creation of ultracompact light detection and ranging (LIDAR) systems.

The Precise Robust Inertial Guidance for Munitions (PRIGM) program is developing inertial sensor technologies to enable positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) in GPS-denied environments. PRIGM comprises two focus areas: development of a navigation-grade inertial measurement unit (NGIMU) based on micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) platforms, and basic research of advanced inertial micro sensor (AIMS) technologies for future gun-hard, high-bandwidth, high-dynamic-range, GPS-free navigation.

Dr. David Shaver is a Program Manager in the Strategic Technology Office. Prior to that he served as Chief Scientist for the Air Dominance Initiative, deputy director of the Microsystems Technology Office (MTO), and as a program manager in MTO.