Microsystems Research Consortium (MRC)
Abstract
The Microsystems Research Consortium (MRC) program is a continuation and expansion of the FCRP industry-government partnership that will combine the expertise and resources from select defense, semiconductor, information systems, and automotive companies with DARPA. For every $3 from industry DARPA will provide $2. This funding will collectively support a well-focused community of the most talented academic research teams around the country to make the discoveries that will comprise microsystems of the future. For industry, the pre-competitive research produced by MRC represents the building blocks upon which they will grow their business to the next level. For government, it will accelerate the time frame from design to production of the new generation of defense systems, providing the high performance devices and applications needed by warfighters in the field. Research in the MRC program is divided into the broad categories of technology discovery and system discovery. Technology discovery efforts will be focused on providing a pipeline of innovative devices and basic discovery. In contrast, the system discovery efforts will focus on integration of existing technologies to provide new capabilities. These include, among many others, producing new opportunities for functionality beyond digital CMOS, and developing anticipatory technology, where systems interact actively with their environment and/or users, adapting their response to execute the most advantageous and effective actions. MRC is unique in that government participates as a partner on an equal ground as industry, with contracting function to pursue its goals directly rather than extracting indirect benefits from subsidizing technology. The program has a definite five year duration, with its leadership turning over periodically.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2013
- Source ID
- 0a279105b17f81b8f11fe37e529e34b9