ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

The Electronics Technology Program Element is budgeted in the Applied Research Budget Activity because its objective is to develop electronics that make a wide range of military applications possible. The Electronics Technology Project focuses on turning basic advancements into the underpinning technologies required to address critical national security issues and to enable an information-driven warfighter. Advances in microelectronic device technologies continue to significantly benefit improved weapons effectiveness, intelligence capabilities, and information superiority. The Electronic Technology project therefore supports continued advancement in microelectronics, including electronic and optoelectronic devices, Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS), semiconductor device design and fabrication, and new materials and material structures. Particular focuses of this work include reducing the barriers to designing and fabricating custom electronics and exploiting improved manufacturing techniques to provide low-cost, high-performance sensors. Programs in this project will also greatly improve the size, weight, power, and performance characteristics of electronic systems; support positioning, navigation, and timing in GPS-denied environments; and develop sensors more sensitive and robust than today's standards. The Electronic Technology project will also investigate the feasibility, design, and development of powerful devices, including non-silicon-based materials technologies to achieve low-cost, reliable, fast, and secure computing, communication, and storage systems. Rapid design and utilization of these new technologies will be a critical focus of ELT-01, as DoD looks for mechanisms to speed the development and fielding of advanced technologies. This project has six major focus areas: Electronics, Photonics, MicroElectroMechanical Systems, Architectures, Algorithms, and other Electronic Technology research. The Beyond Scaling Technology project recognizes that, within the next decade, the continuous pace of improvements in electronics performance will face the fundamental limits of silicon technology. These limits present a barrier that must be overcome in order for progress to continue. This project will therefore pursue potential electronics performance advancements that do not rely on Moore's Law but instead leverage circuit specialization, to include materials, architectures, and designs intended to suit a specific need. In addition, the Beyond Scaling Technology Project recognizes that the envisioned electronics specialization will require proper security safeguards. Electronics advancements must simultaneously make progress in performance and secure the foundation on which our digital infrastructure relies. Programs within the Beyond Scaling project will look at reducing barriers to making specialized circuits in today's silicon hardware and significantly increase the ease with which DoD can design, deliver, and eventually upgrade critical, customized electronics. Programs will also explore alternatives to traditional circuit architectures, for instance by exploiting vertical circuit integration to optimize electronic devices and by incorporating novel materials, and explore techniques for securing DoD and commercial data and hardware.

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Document Details

Document Type
R2 Budgetary Justification
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2020
Source ID
0602716E_2_0400_PB_2020
Change Summary Explanation
FY 2018: Decrease reflects SBIR/STTR transfer. FY 2019: Increase reflects Congressional adjustments. FY 2020: Increase reflects initiation of the Intelligent Spectroscopic & Temporal Fusion (INSPECT) and Instinctual RF programs in FY 2020.
Service Agency Name
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Entities

Organizations

  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Application-Specific Integrated Circuits
  • Bandwidth
  • Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductors
  • Computer Programming
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Electronics Laboratories
  • Field Programmable Gate Arrays
  • Infrared Detectors
  • Integrated Circuits
  • Microelectromechanical Systems
  • Modules (Electronics)
  • Navigation
  • Radio Frequency
  • Semiconductor Devices
  • Semiconductors
  • Warning Systems

Readers

  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.
  • Military Science and Technology Research and Modernization.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Space

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