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. This Program Element also supports innovation and robust transition planning in the technology cycle by working with entrepreneurs to increase the likelihood that DARPA funded technologies take root in the U.S. and provide new capabilities for national defense. Advances in microelectronic device technologies continue to significantly benefit improved weapons effectiveness, intelligence capabilities, and information superiority. The Electronic Technology project supports continued advancement in microelectronics, including electronic and optoelectronic devices, Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS), semiconductor device design and fabrication, and new materials and material structures. Areas of particular emphasis 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. 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. This project pursues electronics performance advancements that exploit new concepts in circuit specialization by the optimization of materials, devices, architectures, and designs to achieve specific circuit function at high performance. Because electronics advancements must simultaneously make progress in performance and secure the foundation on which our digital infrastructure relies, this envisioned electronics specialization will require incorporation of security safeguards. Accordingly, programs within the Beyond Scaling project will reduce 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 also explore alternatives to traditional circuit architectures, for instance by exploiting vertical circuit integration to optimize electronic devices and by incorporating novel materials and new techniques for securing DoD and commercial data and hardware.

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Document Details

Document Type
R2 Budgetary Justification
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2023
Source ID
0602716E_2_0400_PB_2023
Change Summary Explanation
FY 2021: Decrease reflects reprogrammings and SBIR/STTR transfer. FY 2022: Increase reflects a Congressional add for ERI 2.0. FY 2023: FY 2023 funding increase reflects the fact that the FY 2022 President's Budget request did not include out-year funding.
Service Agency Name
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Entities

Organizations

  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Application-Specific Integrated Circuits
  • Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductors
  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Electronics Industry
  • Electronics Laboratories
  • Instruction Set Architecture
  • Integrated Circuits
  • Magnetic Detectors
  • Measurement
  • Modules (Electronics)
  • National Security
  • Readout Integrated Circuits
  • Semiconductor Devices
  • Semiconductors

Readers

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

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Space

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