Foundational Strategic Technologies and Systems

Normal radios operate in kilohertz (kHz) and megahertz (MHz) frequencies, bandwidths corresponding to electromagnetic oscillations in the thousands and millions of cycles per second ranges, respectively. Upping the ante, cell phones and radar systems operate in the billions of cycles per second range—that is, gigahertz (GHz) frequencies. But no one has managed to push radiofrequency technology into the trillions of cycles per second, or Terahertz (THz), range. With the Terahertz (THz) Electronics Program, however, DARPA has begun to make it possible.

Open the hood of just about any electronic gadget and you probably will find one or more printed circuit boards (PCBs)—most often in a leaf green color—studded with processing, memory, data-relaying, graphics, and other types of chips and components, all interconnected with a labyrinth of finely embossed wiring. By challenging the technology community to integrate the collective functions hosted by an entire PCB onto a device the size of a single chip, DARPA’s newest program is making a bid to usher in a fresh dimension of technology miniaturization.

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 sponsoring a Proposers Day to provide information to potential proposers on the objectives of an anticipated Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the Common Heterogeneous Integration and IP Reuse Strategies (CHIPS) program. The Proposers Day will be held on September 21, 2016, from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM EDT at the Westin Tysons Corner in Falls Church, VA.

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.