Electronics Technology

The Microsystem Induced CAtalysis (MICA) program will develop advanced concepts for microsystem control of biological function. The program will seek hardware demonstrations of molecular catalysts immobilized to microsystem surfaces so that catalyst activity is controlled by physical forces generated by the microsystem. Additionally, the program will seek high-accuracy modeling and simulation of such integrated molecular microsystems. Through these demonstrations, MICA aims to answer three critical questions: (1) how can microsystems be used to actively control molecules? (2) what are the different microsystem physics that can be used to drive catalyst function? and (3) what co-design approaches can be used to integrate the different physics of microsystems and molecules? Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-03.

The Sync program will create systems to defend against uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) entering U.S. harbors and ports. Sync is based on technologies developed in the Mobile Force Protection (MFP) program (budgeted in PE 0602702E, Project TT-04). Today's counter-UUV approaches rely on complex detection and localization methods to find the UUV prior to engagement. The Sync program will look at orthogonal approaches to solving this problem to defeat the UUV prior to detection. Sync will investigate several different approaches to defeat the UUV, starting with modeling and simulation eventually moving to hardware in the loop and pool testing. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602026E, Project EFF-01.

The Highly Accelerated Learning of Vibratory Systems (HALOVS) portfolio investigates the foundational limits and transformative potential of vibratory sensors for positioning and navigation in GPS-denied environments. By leveraging advances in 3D micromachining, material science, and dynamic modeling, HALOVS explores novel architectures and principles through efforts examining ultrafast microsystems, higher-order composite resonators for extra resilience, and chemistries and monolayers for anti-aging kinematics. These efforts aim to address critical challenges in sensor performance, including operating beyond linear regimes to achieve high-velocity motion, leveraging nonlinearities for enhanced resilience to shock and vibration, and extending sensor longevity by addressing drift and aging at the molecular level. The insights and technologies developed within HALOVS promise to redefine the design space and practical limits of vibratory sensors, delivering capabilities essential to national security and global positioning system (GPS)-denied missions. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-03.

The Scalable Analog Neural networks (ScAN) program will increase neural network (NN) inferencing capabilities at the edge and simultaneously reduce the size, weight, and power (SWaP) needed to support inferencing on edge platforms. Currently, sensor outputs are digitized at the edge and then transmitted to the command center for processing. ScAN aims to skip the digitization step and instead perform analog inferencing onboard the edge platform by operating directly on the analog sensor outputs. ScAN objectives are to enable 2000-fold reduction in the power needed for inferencing. ScAN technology will enable intelligence generation at the edge for missions that collect large amounts of sensor data, such as hyper-spectral imaging for unmanned aerial systems. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-03.

The Humboldt program seeks to develop directed energy (DE) devices to produce disruptive effects in electronic systems. The devices have potential for dual-use as sources to characterize the susceptibility of commercial electronics to electromagnetic interference (EMI). Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602026E, Project EFF-01.

The Ultra-Wide BandGap Semiconductors (UWBGS) program will develop and optimize ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) materials and fabrication processes required to enable the next revolution in semiconductor electronics. UWBGS will establish the foundation for the creation of producible and reliable, high performance UWBG devices for a variety of DoD (and commercial) applications. These include but are not limited to: high power radio frequency (RF) switches; high power density RF amplifiers; high RF power protection device; high voltage switches for power electronics; high temperature electronics and deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes and lasers. The program will address the key technical challenges that are limiting the performance of UWBG device. These challenges include realizing high quality UWBG materials, ability to tailor electrical characteristics of UWBG materials; ability to create homo- and heterostructures with abrupt junctions and low defect density; and the realization of ultra-low resistance electrical contacts. UWBGS will fabricate device test structures to quantify the improvements in these areas. To be successful, the program will leverage recent advances in UWBG materials. Prior to FY 2025, this program was funded in PE 0602716E, Project ELT-01. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

The H6 program is developing the first tactical-grade clock. Tactical-grade clocks are ultra-small, low power, fieldable and can maintain the timing needed for DoD-relevant applications in challenging environments. Precise timing in a tactical package will decouple operations from GPS dependence, overcoming a significant operational vulnerability for the warfighter. Precise tactical-grade clocks from H6 will enable increased signal assurance and pervasive communications security in high-jamming regions. Additionally, H6 will enable real-time, physical monitoring and tracking of warfighters and special forces and will play a critical role in search and rescue through the ability to maintain precise time over a long mission duration without having to re-establish external communications. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MQB-01.

The ELectronics for G-band ARrays (ELGAR) program is developing the integration technologies needed to create compact, high-performance G-band (220 GHz) array front-end electronics to enable phased array antenna systems for DoD communications and sensing. ELGAR will address the key technical challenges that prevent III-V electronics from realizing high-performance G-band arrays, namely achieving efficient, compact G-band III-V monolithic microwave/millimeter wave integrated circuit power amplifiers (MMIC PAs) with high output power density and achieving low loss off-chip interconnects between adjacent G-band array components. In particular, ELGAR will develop III-V compatible, silicon-like fabrication and integration approaches to enable compact, high-power density, high efficiency G-band MMICs and arrays. The technologies developed will support applications including high data rate communications in size, weight, and power-constrained platforms. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

3D heterogeneously integrated (3DHI) microelectronics will be a key driver of the next wave in electronics performance. However, the nation's current single-event effect (SEE) radiation testing infrastructure lacks the ability to analyze and qualify emerging 3D devices for operation in high radiation environments. To fill this gap, the Advanced Sources for Single-event Effect Radiation Testing (ASSERT) program is developing new source technologies to create charge tracks with deep penetration depths for SEE qualification of 3DHI topologies and packaging, providing the means to selectively probe device topologies to inform engineering design, and generate data to validate developing models and codes and to provide training sets for optimization. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

The Digital RF Battlespace Emulator (DRBE) program is developing a large-scale, interactive, emulated radio frequency (RF) environment, providing the DoD with the capability to cost-effectively evaluate adaptive, intelligent, and spatially distributed next-generation RF systems. DRBE is leveraging advances in massively multi-core computing hardware and high-bandwidth digital cross-connects to emulate realistic RF environments accounting for RF platform movement, signal propagation effects and delays, signal interference, and interactions between RF systems. An electronics architecture supporting the power and latency requirements demanded by these emulation environments does not currently exist. DRBE is pursuing three technical thrust areas: architecture, massively multi-core computing, and scenario modeling. The resulting test environment will allow plug-and-play connections for hundreds of RF systems in a battlespace test. Multi-system exercises will then be quickly executed through many different combat scenarios and variations. DRBE is serving to develop concept of operations (CONOPS), inform battle plans, and fine-tune the performance of both individual and large groups of RF systems. Additional development started in 2024 greatly expands the input/output bandwidth of DRBE to support for much larger RF scenarios. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

The COmpact Front-end Filters at the ElEment-level (COFFEE) program is developing and demonstrating compact, high frequency radio frequency (RF) filter technology without compromising performance, specifically low insertion loss and high-power handling. The new filtering technology will enable interference rejection capability, efficient spectral management, and coexistence with commercial 5G applications. It is projected that COFFEE filter technology will enhance the resilience of military microwave and mm-wave radar and communication systems for DoD spectral dominance into the future. For commercial applications, COFFEE will result in more efficient use of mm-wave frequency allocations for 5G networks. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

The Intelligent Generation of Tools for Security (INGOTS) program is developing techniques to identify, triage, and assess exploitability of chainable vulnerabilities. Today, sophisticated cyber attacks link multiple vulnerabilities together into exploit chains that bypass software and hardware security measures to compromise critical, high-value systems. Accurately understanding risk is critical for both developers and defenders within cyberspace, but the metrics currently in use do not account for the multiple factors that differentiate an innocuous software flaw from a chainable vulnerability. INGOTS is developing semi-automated tools and techniques to characterize and measure the interdependent exploitability of vulnerabilities and a new vulnerability severity metrology that characterizes and measures interdependent exploitability. With the INGOTS vulnerability measurement capability, developers and defenders will improve software and hardware resiliency by rapidly identifying and prioritizing the most dangerous flaws. The INGOTS program is also funded in PE 0602303E, Project IT-03. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Projects MSL-02 and MSL-04.

The Scalable On-Array Processing (SOAP) program is designed to achieve scalable algorithms and processing architectures to overcome the inherent digital bottlenecks that severely limit today's wideband operation on arbitrarily large elemental digital phased arrays. SOAP aims to reduce the computational complexity of array processing as a function of element count, from exponential to linear scaling. SOAP also seeks to move the processing from physically separated back-end processors to processors integrated into the array, in order to fully process all the information generated at the element level, with no elemental information loss. To achieve these aims, SOAP will design processors that can be distributed within the array, as close to the elements as possible. These processors should be connected and networked in such a way that the data from any element can be processed by any processor. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

Advanced infrared (IR) detectors and thermal imaging systems underpin a vast DoD application space including biochemical detection; infrared Search-and-Track; and terrestrial and space-based Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance. Current IR detectors suffer from numerous limitations including poor sensitivity, poor signal bandwidth, or the need for expensive cryogenic cooling. The Optomechanical Thermal Imaging (OpTIm) program will develop a new modality of low size, weight, and power, room temperature IR detectors capable of quantum-level sensitivity, thereby enabling transformative enhancements to DoD capabilities including, but not limited to, night vision, surveillance, multispectral detection, and remote detection of trace industrial pollutants and greenhouse gases. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

The Quantum Inspired Classical Computing (QuICC) program will implement quantum-inspired algorithms using classical dynamic systems in novel computing architectures for the efficient solving of complex optimization problems. Currently, too much computational energy is required to solve mission-scale optimization problems leading to sub-optimal solutions and excessive computation times. This program will create frameworks for analyzing the computational advantage provided by quantum-inspired algorithms and perform the hardware and algorithm co-design needed to reduce the required energy to optimally solve mission-scale problems. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

The Optimum Processing Technology Inside Memory Arrays (OPTIMA) program aims to realize a high throughput, compact, energy-efficient, and adaptable compute-in-memory (CIM) accelerator that is compatible with very large-scale integration (VLSI) fabrication. Traditional accelerators based on von Neumann architecture have limitations in terms of computational power efficiency and speed. By demonstrating a CIM accelerator with an array of Multiply Accumulate Macros (MAMs) consisting of a large number of Multiply Compute Elements (MCE) to perform the matrix multiply operating within memory elements, the power and speed challenges can be overcome. The program goal is to showcase high-performance CIM accelerator with innovative signal processing circuitry and architectures, with a focus on optimizing both area and power efficiency. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

Many commercial, industrial, and defense systems experience thermal environments that are beyond the performance and survivability of today's physical sensors. The High Operational Temperature Sensors (HOTS) program is developing a high-performance sensor platform for operation at extreme high temperature. The program will be validated by demonstration of a dynamic pressure sensor achieving 1 MHz bandwidth and 90 dB dynamic range with survivability at 800°C for one hour. The mission motivator for HOTS is hypersonic vehicle development but HOTS technology will find application in combustion engine research, superhot rock geothermal energy development, and petrochemical processing. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

Minitherms3D is developing thermal management solutions for the three-dimensional heterogeneous integration (3DHI) of microelectronics to accelerate the growth of compact, high-performance microsystems. 3DHI microsystems are enabling technologies for phased array systems and dense computing for artificial intelligence and machine learning applications. Minitherms3D will reduce the size, weight and power (SWaP) of high-performance 3DHI microsystems by developing novel methods to transfer heat from within the 3D stack to its boundaries, transmit it to a remote location, and reject it to ambient air. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

The Technologies for Heat Removal in Electronics At the Device Scale (THREADS) program is developing technologies to overcome transistor thermal limits to realize robust, high power density transistors that operate near their fundamental electronic limit of radio-frequency (RF) output power. DoD's RF transmitters increasingly use high-power gallium nitride (GaN) wide bandgap (WBG) transistors, which provide a 5X improvement in RF power output compared to the legacy gallium arsenide (GaAs) technology. Achieving high RF power output while maintaining a transistor operating temperature below the nominal maximum reliable operation temperature faces two challenges. The first challenge is reducing thermal resistance within the device. This will be achieved by leveraging recent advances in epitaxial growth processes and phonon bridges to reduce semiconductor material thermal resistance. The second challenge is more efficiently moving heat away from the transistor hot spots. This will be achieved through novel transistor topologies and by leveraging recent advances in the integration of 2D and 3D cooling structures and high thermal conductivity materials, such as diamond, into the transistor. THREADS will demonstrate high efficiency X-band transistors and power amplifier (PA) test vehicles with an output power density of 16X higher than production GaN amplifiers. THREADS technology will enable increased range for radar, communications, and electronic warfare systems. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

The Intensity-Squeezed Photonic Integration for Revolutionary Detectors (INSPIRED) program is developing compact, ultra-low-noise optical detectors. Low-noise detection is vital to all optical science and technology, but the quantum nature of light imposes a fundamental quantum limit on a conventional optical detector's noise performance. Recent experiments have demonstrated that exotic quantum states called squeezed light can be harnessed to overcome the quantum limit, albeit from bench-scale apparatuses that ultimately restrict the application of squeezed-light-enhanced detectors to esoteric applications such as gravitational-wave astronomy. The INSPIRED program is leveraging recent advances in chip-scale quantum optics and materials to realize optical detector modules operating well below the quantum noise limit in form factors that enable deployment in applications such as biosensing, navigation, and communications. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

The Space Power Conversion Electronics (SPCE) program seeks to develop highly-efficient, radiation-tolerant point of load (POL) converters for low-earth-orbit satellites. In today's space power systems, power transistors for POL converters have derated operating voltage to maintain radiation tolerance, resulting in decreased POL efficiency and limiting the satellite's available power, capabilities, and battery lifetime. To address this deficiency, SPCE will develop high-performance, radiation-tolerant high voltage switches and compact passives by exploiting advanced wide-bandgap semiconductor advanced material synthesis, novel device architectures, and advanced manufacturing processes. High efficiency and compact radiation tolerant POL will be realized with advanced gate drive/control circuitries and novel 3D heterogeneous integration technology. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

The Additive Manufacturing of MicrosystEms (AMME) program will revolutionize microsystem manufacturing by leveraging selective material synthesis and 3D patterning to enable a new class of microsystems. Additive Manufacturing (AM) has enabled complex single-material geometries that were previously impossible to produce via traditional manufacturing methods. However, microsystem manufacturing has not exploited AM due to fundamental limits of material quality, resolution, and print throughput. The AMME program will use selective material synthesis to create high-quality material precursors that permit simultaneous printing of conductors and insulators with high-resolution and high-volume throughput. Additionally, AMME will focus on commercialization of this technology such that the Department of Defense and intelligence community can quickly adopt the productized system to fabricate novel microsystems. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

Measurement and control of the electromagnetic spectrum is a key area of research for the Department of Defense (DoD). Spectrum dominance requires quick and efficient control of electromagnetic radiation from low frequencies to X-rays. In classical antenna theory, the sensitivity-bandwidth product is fundamentally limited by the physical shape and size of the antenna. This performance degrades significantly as the antenna becomes electrically small, that is, the physical size becomes much smaller than the electromagnetic wavelength of operation. The Macaroni program seeks to develop electrically-small receivers and transmitters with performance that exceeds the current state-of-the-art (SoA). Recent advances in quantum sensors, materials science, electromagnetic shielding, laser technology, resonators, cryogenic systems, and vacuum components have pushed the SoA in sensing technologies. For transmitters, new insights in active antenna technology, control schemes, methods of impedance matching, and strategies for volume filling present new opportunities. Furthermore, recent efforts in piezoelectrics, magnetoelectrics, high-index materials, and multiferroic materials may be leveraged. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MQB-01.

The Faithful Integration Reverse-engineering and Emulation (FIRE) program will develop tools to find and patch vulnerabilities within cyber-physical systems. A cyber-physical system operates in the physical world using hardware sensors to perceive the analog environment, digital software for processing, and actuators to interact with the environment. Cyber-physical vulnerabilities arise from the composition of hardware, software, and physical components where each component may not be vulnerable in-and-of itself. FIRE will develop novel modeling and simulation techniques to help expedite finding and patching vulnerabilities in cyber-physical systems. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

The Ultra-Wide BandGap Semiconductors (UWBGS) program will develop and optimize ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) materials and fabrication processes required to enable the next revolution in semiconductor electronics. UWBGS will establish the foundation for the creation of producible and reliable, high performance UWBG devices for a variety of DoD (and commercial) applications. These include, but are not limited to: high power radio frequency (RF) switches; high power density RF amplifiers; high RF power protection device; high voltage switches for power electronics; high temperature electronics and deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes and lasers. The program will address the key technical challenges that are limiting the performance of UWBG device. These challenges include realizing high quality UWBG materials, ability to tailor electrical characteristics of UWBG materials; ability to create homo- and heterostructures with abrupt junctions and low defect density; and the realization of ultra-low resistance electrical contacts. UWBGS will fabricate device test structures to quantify the improvements in these areas. To be successful, the program will leverage recent advances in UWBG materials. Beginning in FY 2025, this program is funded in PE 0602716E, Project ELT-02.

The Wideband Adaptive RF Protection (WARP) program developed radio-frequency (RF) front-end technology that can protect wideband digital radios against external electromagnetic threats and self-interference through tunable filtering, limiting, and/or signal cancellation. The ability to create tunable and reconfigurable band pass and band stop filters at microwave frequencies was important for implementing transmit/receive modules in next-generation multi-function radios. Another important area of interference mitigation is self-interference. WARP developed the signal cancellation technology that will listen to the transmitted interfering signal and subtract it from the input of the receiver so faint signals near the noise floor can still be detected. Program research provided feedback mechanisms that intelligently corrected these problems. Whether for self-induced interference or external interference jamming, WARP developed intelligent filtering and self-interference cancellation technologies to protect wideband DoD receivers.

The Focal Arrays for Curved Infrared Imagers (FOCII) program has developed curved focal plane arrays for broadband infrared (IR) imagers to enhance battlefield detection and discrimination while maintaining situational awareness. FOCII has leveraged curving strategies for state-of-the-art focal plane arrays combined with advances in designing and manufacturing stress relief features to demonstrate hardware that simultaneously provides maximum resolution and illumination. This program developed novel designs for IR imagers that enable minimal size, weight and cost for size-constrained applications. This enabled new applications in passive seeker technology for missiles, overhead persistent infrared imaging, 360-degree situational awareness, infrared search and track, and long-range targeting.

The Quantum Imaging of Vector Electromagnetic Radiation (QuIVER) program is developing full-tensor magnetic field sensors and will demonstrate them in DoD-relevant applications and concept of operations. In addition to being diagnostically relevant, such sensitive magnetometers could enable future human-machine/brain-machine interfaces. The DoD and industry also use magnetometers for magnetic anomaly detection, which may allow for the discovery of mineral/oil deposits, discovery of old wellheads, or the detection of improvised explosive devices. In addition, magnetometers offer the possibility of magnetic navigation, which may operate in GPS-denied environments. Recent advancements have resulted in the potential to develop highly-sensitive vector magnetometers, which would enable the consequent development of sensitive full-tensor gradient sensors. Such tensors offer more degrees of freedom than their scalar or vector counterparts and potentially provide additional information about the source of the magnetic field.

The Generating RF with Photonics for low Noise (GRYPHON) program will develop compact sources of microwaves and millimeter waves with extremely low phase noise. Compact signal sources used today, such as crystal oscillators, are too noisy to support advanced military radar and communications functions. Conversely, best-in-class oscillators which use optical techniques to synthesize extremely pure microwaves are too large and expensive to deploy on the airborne systems, munitions, and other size-constrained platforms where the DoD requires high-performance capabilities. The GRYPHON program will draw on recent advances in miniature optical components to replicate best-in-class optical frequency synthesis techniques in microchip form factors.

The Fast Event-based Neuromorphic Camera and Electronics (FENCE) program will develop and demonstrate a low latency, low power event-based infrared (IR) camera to enable intelligent sensors for tactical DoD applications. Event-based imagers are an emerging class of sensors with major demonstrated advantages relative to traditional cameras. State-of-the-art visible event-based cameras have been shown to produce over two orders of magnitude less data in optimal conditions relative to traditional framing cameras because they transmit data only from pixels that have changed. This leads directly to two orders of magnitude lower data latency and a commensurate reduction in power consumption. Despite their inherent advantages, existing event-based cameras are not compatible with DoD applications because DoD applications regularly face conditions that are not optimal, where issues such as clutter and noise cause a large percentage of the event-based pixels to change simultaneously. When this happens, today's event-based cameras do not perform significantly better than traditional cameras. FENCE will develop an infrared event-based imager consistent with military requirements. FENCE will develop a four-megapixel asynchronous read-out integrated circuit (ROIC), co-designed with a 3D integrated processor that will intelligently remove noise and clutter to maintain low power and latency operation even when faced with all of the pixels firing simultaneously. If successful, this new class of sensors enabled by FENCE will be capable of responding to fast moving targets and discriminating dim targets in noisy conditions.

The Waveform Agile Radio-frequency Directed Energy (WARDEN) program aims to extend the range and lethality of high-power microwave (HPM) systems by introducing flexible waveform techniques that use combinations of frequency, amplitude, and pulse-width modulations to significantly improve electromagnetic coupling into complex target enclosures and increase the probability of disruption or damage to internal electronic components and circuits. Applications for HPM systems include counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS), vehicle and vessel disruption, electronic strike, and guided missile defense. Current HPM systems use oscillators to produce electromagnetic radiation. These systems are inherently narrowband and lack the frequency agility to support waveforms to maximize electromagnetic coupling and to optimally exploit electronic system vulnerabilities. Lacking the capability to use optimized waveforms, HPM oscillators have been pushed close to the physical limits of peak power generation. To develop a more efficient, lower power, waveform agile approach, the WARDEN program will develop and demonstrate the first broadband HPM amplifier; create new theory and simulation tools to predict electromagnetic coupling into complex enclosures and the effects on electronics; and develop novel agile waveform techniques capable of reducing the susceptibility threshold of targeted electronics systems to HPM attack.

The Robust Quantum Sensors (RoQS) seeks to bring quantum sensors to DoD platforms. While quantum sensors have demonstrated exceptional laboratory performance in several modalities (magnetic and electric field, acceleration, rotation, and gravity, etc.), their performance degrades once the sensor is placed on moving platforms due to electric and magnetic fields, field gradients, and system vibrations. RoQS seeks to overcome these challenges through innovative physics approaches to quantum sensing. RoQS program aims to develop and demonstrate quantum sensors that inherently resist performance degradation from platform interferers and demonstrate them on a DoD platform. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MQB-01.

While the technical sophistication of radar systems has advanced tremendously since their inception, specifically with the use of digital circuitry that enables fine-tuned control over both waveform generation and received signal processing, the basic principles upon which radar operates have not varied greatly. Some properties of the classical electromagnetic (EM) field have not yet been exploited fully, whether due to past limitations in sensor capabilities or lack of insight into the possible benefits of leveraging the more subtle aspects of the EM field. One of these underutilized properties is the fact that the EM field is a spatiotemporally varying three-dimensional (magnetic or electric) vector field, meaning it has a tensorial nature. The Emon program will investigate the potential utility of constructing radar systems that benefit more completely from the tensorial nature of the EM field. We are particularly interested in looking at waveforms with spatially varying phase fronts. Interrogating an environment with a signal that offers more degrees of freedom in which interaction phenomena can be encoded should enable us to extract not only more information, but more salient information. Radar sensing would then become even more useful than it is currently, providing enhanced insight into target characteristics beyond position and radial velocity. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-03.

The preponderance of evidence shows commercial quantum computers will be a key economic driver in the 21st century. It is plausible these machines will be constructed by commercial companies in the near future. An appropriate hedging strategy is needed to prevent strategic surprise from unanticipated commercial breakthroughs, ensure privileged access to disruptive capability, and maximize U.S. economic benefit. To quantify and reduce this risk, the Quantum Benchmarking initiative (QBI) program will execute an incremental investment plan that rigorously evaluates commercial activities, aggressively develops and tests key prototypes for activities that show credible potential and prepares for full-scale deployment when feasible. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MQB-01.

The Massive Cross Correlation (MAX) program aimed to develop a scalable wideband correlator that can simultaneously achieve the state-of-the-art dynamic range of a digital correlator with the power efficiency enabled by analog electronics. Current correlator implementations use field-programmable gate arrays and general-purpose graphics processing units requiring thousands of watts of power and racks of supporting computer equipment for today's low frequency, low bandwidth applications, which creates challenges for their use in power-constrained platforms and in applications that require high frequency, high bandwidth solutions. The MAX program leveraged advances in analog signal processing and state-of-the-art fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) semiconductor processes to develop proof-of-concept circuits to demonstrate potential pathways to achieving desired improvements.

The Processor Reconfiguration for Wideband Sensing Systems (PROWESS) program developed concepts for high-throughput streaming-data processors that change their programming at nanosecond timescales to detect novel radiofrequency (RF) signals. Recent advances in application-specific processing arrays, real-time task scheduling, and high-bandwidth input/output enabled the development of new run-time reconfigurable array (RTRA) processors capable of reprogramming themselves as new signals are received. PROWESS investigated and designed RTRA processors and receiver integration approaches that could enhance the performance of tactical RF sensors in congested spectrum.

The Low Temperature Logic Technology (LTLT) program exploited the unique device and material performance characteristics of state-of-the-art silicon transistors at cryogenic temperatures. Current silicon transistors were performance and power limited when operating at room temperature or higher. This program removed these limitations through modifying the design of existing silicon transistors to optimize their performance at cryogenic temperatures. The resulting devices are compatible with current complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication process flows and offer significant increases in performance and power efficiency over room temperature devices. Basic research for this program was funded within PE 0601101E, Project ES-02.

Next Generation Microelectronics Manufacturing (NGMM) creates new software design tools to enable the development of novel three-dimensional heterogeneous integration (3DHI) microsystems and associated test vehicles with the NGMM program. This program addresses deficiencies in the capabilities and flexibility of current electronic design automation (EDA) workflows and simulation tools by establishing and refining the NGMM EDA capability, 3D assembly design kit (3D-ADK), and designs for devices and test vehicles. The design tools developed will be validated through design challenges. These design challenges provide the opportunity to explore approaches that will improve and accelerate the adoption of 3DHI standardized chip-to-chip interfaces and package optimization. Leading-edge chip designs will be fabricated, and subsequently integrated into 3DHI designs in multi-project demonstration runs. Additional research related to this effort is funded within PE 0603739E, Project MT-16. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

The Data Privacy in Virtual Environments (DPRIVE) program will make secure processing on untrusted hardware feasible through the development of new hardware accelerators that allow the data to remain encrypted at all times, even during processing. The hardware developed under DPRIVE will accelerate several fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) schemes more than three orders of magnitude over commodity processors. The program plans to provide strong privacy protections at the tactical edge with no more than one order of magnitude penalty in computation time, and to enable very strong privacy at the enterprise level with no more than three orders of magnitude penalty compared to the corresponding unencrypted processing on commodity processors. The program will enable the development and deployment of these hardware accelerators to edge computing devices where power and time are a premium, as well as to enterprise computing facilities where the amount and sensitivity of the data requires increased protection.

The Lasers for Universal Microscale Optical Systems (LUMOS) program is integrating high-performance light sources into silicon integrated photonics enabling compact, rugged, high-performance systems for positioning, navigation, communications, 3D imaging, and quantum technologies. Silicon photonics today enable microscale integration of complex optical systems, but the platforms lack of optical gain precludes the creation of lasers and amplifiers through foundry processes. LUMOS will deliver the missing capability to provide compact optical sources at wavelengths from the visible to the infrared and will create a universal manufacturing platform that builds upon the current photonics ecosystem. To drive innovation and maintain DoD access to leading-edge deployable photonic solutions, LUMOS will establish a technology pathway connecting government, academic, commercial, and defense users of integrated photonics, and will provide multi-project wafer runs through an open-access foundry.

The Quantum Augmented Network (QuANET) program is developing quantum-augmented networks that add novel security and covertness properties inherent in quantum communications to classical, non-quantum, network infrastructures that currently trade security against interoperability. Today, all digital communication paradigms use a network stack that consists of a layered set of software protocols. The higher layers are closer to applications on computers and servers, commonly called nodes, while the bottom layers are closer to the physical implementation, i.e., network cables. State-of-the-art networks commonly rely on security at the top layers of the stack, assuming this security also mitigates potential attacks on lower layers. Unfortunately, advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks are defeating many existing state-of-the-art capabilities and increasing cyber defense costs to U.S. commercial and government entities. The QuANET program seeks to augment existing software infrastructure and network protocols with quantum properties to mitigate attack vectors. QuANET will develop the hardware, protocols, and software tools required to operationalize quantum communications for sensitive missions and critical infrastructure and demonstrate these capabilities in an operational, quantum-augmented network. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MQB-01.

The M-STUDIO program will realize a universal defect-free heterogeneous integration methodology, informed by emerging nano-scale material growth with surface free-energy driven defect termination and non-thermal-equilibrium synthesis, to achieve defect-free multi-layer heterogeneous materials with nanometer dimensions and atomically sharp interfaces. Specifically, M-STUDIO program will achieve: (1) Material synthesis with one heterogeneous interface: a semiconductor layer on lattice mismatch substrate with a total thickness 10 nm (> 100x reduction from the state-of-the-art (SOA)) and with 103/cm2 defect density, and (2) demonstrate the synthesis scalability with multiple heterogeneous interfaces: multiple 10 nm heterogenous semiconductor layers on lattice mismatch substrate with atomically sharp transition. In addition, M-STUDIO integration technology is compatible with leading edge and future advanced node semiconductor manufacturing process. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

The Machine Learning and Optimization-guided Compilers for Heterogeneous Architectures (MOCHA) program will develop a new generation of compiler technology that uses machine learning to automatically generate and optimize compilers that realize the full potential of heterogenous architectures. The ending of Dennard scaling, which has limited the increase of clock speeds of digital circuits, has led to computing architectures that include a variety of co-processors and accelerators that enable high performance in specific domains. Traditional compilers, which are the software that turns source code into machine instructions, do a poor job of optimizing code for heterogenous ensembles of processing units and accelerators, and a portion of the potential benefit of accelerators is lost. Extending compilers to handle heterogeneity is at present a manual task that is both time consuming and error prone, limiting the ability to upgrade mission-critical systems in a timely manner. MOCHA will apply machine learning techniques to the problems of compiler adaptation and extension by semi-automatically generating the main components of compilers for heterogeneous architectures. The use of machine learning will reduce human effort and development time while improving the quality of the machine code emitted by the compiler in terms of measures, such as performance, memory size, and power consumption. If successful, MOCHA will speed production of the compilers needed to capitalize on emerging specialized processor hardware in heterogeneous computing architectures for high performance military systems. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

DARPA s Supply Chain and Logistics in Electronic Technology program is developing the technologies to help ensure a robust and secure domestic supply chain for advanced microsystems. This includes the design, assembly, packaging, and testing technologies for advanced microsystems that exploits and extends beyond commercial activities. It takes advantage of innovations in photonics, optics, materials, and advanced three-dimensional heterogeneous integration (3DHI) for the highest performance electronics technology. In doing so, the program is working to revolutionize domestic industry and enable safe and reliable access to disruptive technology.

The Heterogeneous Adaptively Produced Photonic Interfaces (HAPPI) program aims to revolutionize information transmission within microsystems by achieving a 1000x increase in connectivity density through advanced photonic solutions. The program focuses on developing three-dimensional optical routing capabilities both within and between chips, enabling unprecedented levels of information movement and processing throughout integrated systems. This includes the potential to interface with both electronics and other optical elements, enhancing the flexibility and reach of the system. HAPPI's advancements will enable large-scale photonic circuits with thousands of components unlocking new microsystem architectures for applications such as signal processing, free-space communications, remote sensing, digital computing, and atomic sensing. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.

Efficient, high-speed scientific computing architectures are a ubiquitous requirement for applications including modeling of complex physical systems, advanced device designs, and multiscale computations of dynamical phenomena such as climate models or turbulence. Current state-of-the-art computing systems requires prohibitive amounts of energy and time to perform such calculations. The NanoWatt Platforms for Sensing, Analysis, and Computation (NaPSAC) program aims to develop a novel computational architecture for massively parallel, ultralow power "in-memory" computation. NaPSAC-based computing architectures can potentially yield transformative impact by enabling beyond-state-of-the-art computational speed and accuracy. Applications of immediate relevance to the DoD include simulations of turbulent flows, multiscale electromagnetic simulations of plasma dynamics, advanced semiconductor device design, and the modeling of high-performance materials. Beginning in FY 2026, this program will be funded in PE 0602025E, Project MSL-02.