The National Science Foundation (NSF) is investing in a number of research institutes designed to advance quantum technologies in four broad areas: computation, communication, sensing and simulation. The institutes will foster multidisciplinary approaches to specific scientific, technological, educational, and workforce development goals in quantum technology, which could revolutionize computer and information systems.
microelectronics
July 1, 2019
The fight to secure microelectronic chips is becoming as basic as the chip itself. With chips facing a myriad of threats throughout their life cycle, experts are incorporating security measures into the development of the chip from the foundry to assembly. Other approaches safeguard against threats that could appear as the chip moves through the supply chain. The bottom line for microelectronics security is that necessary measures cannot wait until the device is in the hands of the user.
July 1, 2019
Nanosized robots capable of crawling around on a person’s brain or underneath the skin may sound like a nightmare to some, but researchers suggest the mini machines could serve medical purposes such as gathering data on the brain or the spinal column.
July 1, 2019
The colossal reliance on semiconductor chips by the military and commercial industry reaches across weapons, machines and systems that perform key defense and national security functions. And while the Defense Department and the industry use secure chips, they are expensive and hard to design. To remedy that, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA, is looking to automatically include defense mechanisms into the design of microchips. The agency is creating tools to manage the supply chain custody throughout the life cycle of a microchip and increase the availability and economics of secure microelectronics.
July 1, 2019
As semiconductor manufacturers aim to produce devices at the 5-nanometer node, the ability to find tiny defects created inadvertently during the fabrication process becomes harder. In addition, there is a growing need to verify that a chip was built as specified and doesn’t contain a malicious agent. Harnessing optical methods for semiconductor wafer inspection is one way to effectively look for anomalies, says Lynford Goddard, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
May 22, 2019
IBM Global Business Services, Reston, Virginia (HQ0727-19-D-4000), is being awarded a $275,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. The purpose of this contract is to enable “trusted” manufacturing flows in the Trusted Foundry Access II contractor’s fabrication facilities; to enable a wide-range of associated leading-edge semiconductor technologies and services; and to create a trusted supply chain with the contractor, fully certified and accredited, to deliver classified and trusted mask and wafer fabrication within an “open” commercial environment. This program provides the additional layer of security to the commercial environment that permits government access to advanced technology manufacturing capabilities for t
February 14, 2019
Nimbis Services Inc.,* Oro Valley, Arizona, has been awarded a ceiling increase of $49,500,000 to their indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract with cost-plus-fixed-fee task orders for research and development. The Trusted Silicon Stratus contract’s objective is to achieve an initial operational capability of a novel microelectronics life-cycle verification ecosystem implemented to enhance microelectronics supply chain risk management. Work will be performed in Columbus, Ohio. There are two orders currently on this IDIQ. The first task order (FA8650-18-F-1605) is expected to be complete by July 30, 2021, and the second task order (FA8650-18-F-1656) is expected to be completed by November 30, 2021.
October 1, 2018
The director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Steven Walker, pictures the future battlefield as a mosaic of lower-cost, less complex systems linked together in a vast number of ways to create desired, interwoven effects tailored to any scenario. The agency, known as DARPA, is standing up a new program office and investing in an array of technologies, from artificial intelligence to robotics to systems for hypersonic flight and space, to make that picture a reality.
January 18, 2017
RF Integration, Billerica, Massachusetts (HQ0727-18-D-SB01); Alpha Research & Technology, Desert Microelectronics Associates, and MicroNet Solutions Inc JV, El Dorado Hills, California (HQ0727-18-D-SB02); and Teledevices, Duluth, Georgia (HQ0727-18-D-SB03), are each being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ), multiple award engineering services contract for the Advanced Technology Support Program IV (ATSP4) small business (SB).
October 3, 2013
Microelectronics Advanced Research Corp. (MARCO), Durham, N.C., has been awarded a $15,549,979 transaction for the Semiconductor Technology Advanced Research Network (STARnet). STARnet is a nationwide network of multi-university research centers that seeks to keep the U. S. Department of Defense and U.S. semiconductor and defense systems firms at the forefront of the global microelectronics revolution. These centers are focused on discovering solutions to the intractable problems that are forecast to lie in the future of integrated circuit progress and to lay the foundations for microsystems innovations once the improvements associated with Moore's Law are exhausted.
