Program Archives

The Analog Optical Signal Processing (AOSP) program objectives are to significantly enhance the performance of and enable entirely new capabilities/architectures for tactical and strategic radio frequency (RF) systems by expanding the dynamic range (bandwidth and time-bandwidth limits by a factor of 1000 or more) through the introduction of analog optical signal processing components... (more information)

The Advanced Precision Optical Oscillator (APROPOS) program will leverage advances in materials and lasers to develop new precision microwave-stable local oscillators with extremely low phase noise (up to 50 dB better than the current state-of-the-art) at small offsets from microwave carrier frequencies. This capability will enhance performance of radar, electronic warfare and... (more information)

Networks play an important role in the overall functioning of military weapons systems, and WDM technology offers many potentially substantial improvements to the performance of these networks as well as to the host platform. Currently available WDM components and systems are predominantly constructed of... (more information)

The objective of the Embedded Configurable High Performance Processing of Signals (ECHiPPS) program is to demonstrate that novel, reconfigurable integrated circuits (IC) can provide significant advances in performance over what is available today in both programmable and reconfigurable compute intensive IC technology. (more information)

During the last two decades, maturation of monolithic microwave/millimeter wave monolithic integrated circuits (MMIC) technology has been the focus of many DOD efforts enabling many of the current generation of military and commercial RF sensors and communication capabilities. Today's typical MMICs include active devices (field effect transistors (FET) or bipolar... (more information)

The goal of the Micro Electric Space Propulsion program is to fundamentally change how we operate in space by enabling autonomous retaskable highly-maneuverable small satellites. The program will accomplish this by demonstrating a new Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) based colloid and ion thrusters. Through miniaturization, MEMS based thrusters will achieve approximately 2x... (more information)

The Optical Code-Division Multiple Access (O-CDMA) program is developing and demonstrating novel enabling technologies for an advanced O-CDMA network. The optical coding incorporates wavelength, time, and phase dimensions of coding. The program is demonstrating novel optical encoder/decoder hardware technologies, developing... (more information)

The Photonics Technology Access Program (PTAP) is a unique program that provides significant benefits to both industry and universities. Through PTAP, industry obtains access to university research bases, a large pool of graduates who are well versed in the latest technology, and early exposure for prototypes. The universities gain access to pre-commercial devices that they would not normally... (more information)

Power electronics play a critical role in nearly every military and commercial system by providing high quality power from the energy sources to the loads with low parasitic losses. Modern power electronics are often manufactured from the silicon semiconductor material. While silicon-based power electronics are ubiquitous and mature, there are inherent limitations in frequency, voltage, current, and... (more information)

Program Manager: Dr. Steve Pappert

Coherent optical modulation and detection offers the highest degree of flexibility and agility in dynamic mobile networking environments and for meeting future information transfer demands. TACOTA strives to integrate state-of-the-art mixed-signal electronics and DSP technology into advanced coherent optical transmitter and receiver designs. TACOTA will also explore innovative beyond state-of-art approaches in coherent optical frequency (wavelength) translation, with the... (more information)

The goals of the Technology for Efficient, Agile Mixed-Signal Microsystems (TEAM) Program are to develop and demonstrate the technologies for high performance mixed signal systems-on-chip (SoC). Mixed signal SoCs are defined to be integrated circuits that perform digital and analog/Radio Frequency (RF) functions. The TEAM Program is interested in pursuing high performance mixed signal SoCs that enable advanced signal/data conversion with significant processing for challenging military applications. (more information)

The Terahertz Imaging Focal-plane Technology (TIFT) program will demonstrate a large, multi-element detector receiver focal plane arrays that respond to radiation in the THz band (> 0.557 THz). The sensor system will be able to operate effectively at standoff range with a high spatial resolution limited only by beam diffraction. The system developed will be consistent with man-portability. The imaging receiver will produce a two-dimensional (2D) image in which each pixel records the relative intensity of the... (more information)

Program Manager: Dr. Hernyk Temkin

The Young Faculty Award (YFA) program is designed to seek out ideas from non-tenured faculty in order to identify the next generation of researchers working in microsystem technology. The funded researchers will focus on concepts that are innovative, speculative, and high-risk.. (more information)