HR001118S0020.pdf

HR001118S0020

Microsystems Technology Office Broad Agency Announcement

Millimeter-Wave Digital Arrays (MIDAS)

HR001118S0020

January 23, 2018

Table of Contents

PART I: OVERVIEW INFORMATION

PART II: FULL TEXT OF ANNOUNCEMENT

I. Funding Opportunity Description A. Background B. Program Description C. Program Structure D. Technical Areas E. Schedule/Milestones F. Deliverables G. Government Furnished Equipment/Property/Information H. Intellectual Property

II. Award Information A. General Award Information B. Fundamental Research

III. Eligibility Information A. Eligible Applicants

1. Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and Government Entities

2. Non-U.S. Organizations and/or Individuals B. Organizational Conflicts of Interest C. Cost Sharing/Matching D. Other Eligibility Criteria

1. Collaborative Efforts IV. Application and Submission Information

A. Address to Request Application Package B. Content and Form of Application Submission

1. Full Proposal Format

2. Proprietary Information

3. Security Information

a. Unclassified Submissions

b. Classified Submissions

4. Disclosure of Information and Compliance with Safeguarding Covered Defense

Information Controls

5. Human Research Subjects/Animal Use

6. Approved Cost Accounting System Documentation

7. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. § 749d)/FAR 39.2

8. Grant Abstract

9. Small Business Subcontracting Plan

10. Intellectual Property

a. For Procurement Contracts

b. For All Non-Procurement Contracts

11. Patents

12. System for Award Management (SAM) and Universal Identifier Requirements

13. Funding Restrictions C. Submission Information

1. Submission Dates and Times

a. Full Proposal Due Date

b. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

2. Proposal Submission Information

a. For Proposers Requesting Grants or Cooperative Agreements:

b. For Proposers Requesting Contracts or Other Transaction Agreements

c. Classified Submission Information

3. Other Submission Requirements

V. Application Review Information A. Evaluation Criteria

1. Overall Scientific and Technical Merit

2. Proposer’s Capabilities and/or Related Experience

3. Potential Contribution and Relevance to the DARPA Mission

4. Cost Realism

B. Review and Selection Process

1. Review Process

2. Handling of Source Selection Information

3. Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information (FAPIIS)

VI. Award Administration Information A. Selection Notices

1. Proposals B. Administrative and National Policy Requirements

1. Meeting and Travel Requirements

2. FAR and DFARS Clauses

3. Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) on Non-DoD Information Systems

4. Representations and Certifications

5. Terms and Conditions

C. Reporting D. Electronic Systems

1. Wide Area Work Flow (WAWF)

2. i-Edison

VII. Agency Contacts VIII. Other Information

A. Proposers Day B. Protesting

ATTACHMENT 1: Cost Volume Proposer Checklist ATTACHMENT 2: Proposal Summary Slide Template

PART I: OVERVIEW INFORMATION

Federal Agency Name: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Microsystems Technology Office (MTO)

Funding Opportunity Title: Millimeter-Wave Digital Arrays (MIDAS) Announcement Type: Initial Announcement Funding Opportunity Number: HR001118S0020 Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers (CFDA): 12.910 Research and

Technology Development Dates: (All times listed herein are Eastern Time) o Posting Date: January 23, 2018 o Proposers Day: January 26, 2018 o FAQ Submission Deadline: March 12, 2018 o Proposal Due Date: March 26, 2018 o Estimated period of performance start: July 2018

Concise description of the funding opportunity: DARPA seeks innovative proposals for the development of element-level digital beamforming array technology at millimeter wave frequencies. The primary goal of the program is to develop and demonstrate a tile building block sub-array (>16 elements) that supports scaling to large arrays (100’s-10,000+) in the 18-50 GHz band. It is expected that this will be enabling hardware for multi-function, multi-beam phased array applications and emerging massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) techniques in communication and sensing.

Anticipated Funding Available for Award: It is anticipated that $64.5M of total funding will be awarded across all technical areas, approximately partitioned as follows:

o $30-40M for Technical Area 1 (TA1), two phases, 36 months, 6.3 funding;

o $20-30M for Technical Area 2 (TA2), three phases, 48 months, 6.3 funding.

o <$5M for Technical Area 3 (TA3), two phases, 36 months, 6.1/6.2 funding.

Anticipated individual awards: Multiple awards are anticipated.

Anticipated funding type: See “Anticipated Funding Available for Award” above.

Types of instruments that may be awarded: Procurement contract, grant, cooperative agreement or other transaction.

Agency contact:

o Dr. Timothy M. Hancock, Program Manager BAA Coordinator: HR001118S0020@darpa.mil

DARPA/MTO

ATTN: HR001118S0020

675 North Randolph Street Arlington, VA 22203-2114 mailto:name@darpa.mil

PART II: FULL TEXT OF ANNOUNCEMENT

I. Funding Opportunity Description

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) often selects its research efforts through the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) process. This BAA is being issued, and any resultant selection will be made, using the procedures under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.102(d)(2) and 35.016 and 2 C.F.R. § 200.203. Any negotiations and/or awards will use procedures under FAR 15.4, Contract Pricing. Proposals received as a result of this BAA shall be evaluated in accordance with evaluation criteria specified herein through a scientific review process.

DARPA BAAs are posted on the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website, http://www.fbo.gov/, and, as applicable, the Grants.gov website at http://www.grants.gov/. The following information is for those wishing to respond to the BAA.

The Microsystems Technology Office at DARPA seeks innovative proposals that explore the extent to which multi-beam systems can be employed at millimeter wave over extremely wide ranges of frequencies, which necessitates digitization within the array itself. A reduction in size and power of digital transceivers at millimeter wave is expected and will likely involve innovative sampling and frequency conversion schemes to meet the linearity requirements. The primary goal of the program is to develop and demonstrate a tile building block sub-array (>16 elements) that supports scaling to large arrays (100’s-10,000+) in the 18-50 GHz band and does not eliminate spatial degrees of freedom within the sub-array. It is expected that this will be enabling hardware for multi-function, multi-beam phased array applications and emerging massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) techniques in communication and sensing.

A. Background

Directional antennas have been used for over 130 years to increase the effective radiated energy density of a transmitter and increase the sensitivity of a receiver. Only a short time after the use of reflector antennas became common-place, the use of multiple antennas to create an array and achieve directional radiation was reduced to practice. As RF electronics technology matured, methods to dynamically control the phase and amplitude weights of antenna elements emerged to steer an electromagnetic beam. Immediately these arrays offered the unique capability to scan a narrow beam over a wide field of view faster than mechanical steering, quickly finding applications in early ballistic missile defense (BMD). These were passive electronically steered arrays with a single transmitter and receiver for many antenna elements. As transistor technology improved, it became possible to put a transmit amplifier and receive amplifier at every radiating element. This was enabling technology to overcome the high losses associated with the passive array feed. Much of this work was done at lower frequencies in the UHF and L-band where the electronic technology had better performance and led to physically large arrays, which was acceptable for fixed radar installations.

As is well understood in phased-array design, the antenna elements are placed at approximately half-wavelength spacing which was less of a manufacturing challenge for the early arrays at UHF http://www.fbo.gov/ http://www.grants.gov/ and L-band where the spacing could be around 6-12 inches. However, as threats changed and technology adapted, there was a desire to put phased arrays on mobile platforms, first ships and eventually airborne platforms. This required a reduction in the size of the array. However, to maintain a narrow beam width, the frequency had to be increased requiring smaller electronics operating at higher frequency. The 1980s through the 2000s saw the development of much of the enabling advanced electronics that pushed phased array technology up through X- and Ku-band.

Much of the first fifty years of phased array design was dominated by radar applications with less emphasis placed on communications and this was for good reason. The use of directional antennas makes the most sense when you know where to point the beam. In the case of radar, the transmitter and receiver beam is pointed in the direction that you want to sense. However, for communication applications, where to point is less clear because the direction of the other node in the communication link is not always known. Directional antennas are typically only used for communication when the link geometry is known such as for satellite communications and point-to-point links where the geometry is pre-arranged and does not change much.

Enabled by two key technologies, this paradigm is shifting and we are entering a new era where phased-arrays are poised to change how we communicate and network our mobile platforms. The first technology is element level digital phased arrays. Around the late 2000s, a shift toward digital radio technology began and by the 2010s, this was being applied to phased arrays to implement element-level digital beamforming at low frequencies. This is a powerful technology that can not only improve array performance and reduce application development time, but digital beamforming is enabling for emerging multi-beam communications, massive MIMO and directional sensing of the electromagnetic environment. Element level digital beamforming will allow a receiving node to stare in all possible directions with high gain antenna beams and determine when and where there are other nodes that want to join the network and subsequently estimate the optimal adaptive beamformer for communication. This greatly simplifies the networking protocol and mitigates the challenging spatial scan-on-scan problem in networked directional communications that to date we have only addressed with brute force spatial scanning.

A second key enabler is the use of millimeter wave technology. From the 1970s through the 2000s the frequency of operation of phased arrays increased to allow for smaller sizes that enabled the use of arrays on mobile platforms. Platforms have continued to shrink yet much of our phased array technology development is still limited to S- through Ku-band. The lesser used frequencies above 18 GHz present an opportunity to further shrink array technology to reduce size, weight and power (SWaP), but also allow the use of directional antenna systems on small emerging platforms.

The use of higher frequencies also presents a unique trade-off due to the atmospheric scattering and absorption that occurs at millimeter wave frequencies. For applications at short ranges where a high degree of frequency re-use may be desired or for enhanced physical security, larger atmospheric absorption is an advantage allowing the radiated energy to attenuate quickly beyond the desired range. There are many emerging applications in the 18-50 GHz range and while some of the necessary electronic technology exists, achieving good performance and fitting a millimeter wave element level digital transceiver system within a 3-mm lattice spacing or smaller will prove to be challenging. The development of this element-level digital radio technology and demonstration of the packaging and array scaling will be the focus of this program.

B. Program Description

While millimeter wave arrays are an active area of research being pursued by the emerging 5G cellular market, it is expected that this commercial technology alone will not meet the needs of the DoD and therefore a DARPA investment is needed. Commercial 5G applications are primarily solving the “last-mile” problem where consumers are demanding more bandwidth for high throughput applications over relatively short ranges. In these commercial applications, the frequencies are predetermined and allow for a narrow band technology solution. Also, the pointing problem is less challenging because the base stations are not mobile and the mobile user handsets will only use a few antennas elements with broad antenna beams, both of which relax the pointing and mobile user discovery requirements. For these reasons, it is expected that for the foreseeable future, the solution in the emerging 5G market will be analog phased arrays at fixed, narrowband, pre-planned frequency ranges as the technology of choice due to cost and technology maturity.

The Millimeter-Wave Digital Arrays (MIDAS) program intends to develop the digital array technology that will enable next generation DoD millimeter wave systems. It is not uncommon to have DoD platforms separated by 100s of nautical miles with a need to communicate at data rates of a few megabits per second. While the link budget for a communication channel of this nature can be easily mitigated with a larger transmit and receive aperture, the increased antenna gain compounds the challenging pointing problem. This is especially true when considering both platforms are likely moving in three dimensions with unknown orientation. Because of this challenging adaptive beamforming problem, MIDAS will focus on element level digital array hardware as an enabling technology for these multi-beam directional communication applications.

A reduction in the size and power of digital transceivers at millimeter wave is core to this goal and will need to be researched and developed within this program. Areas of expected research will be innovative sampling and frequency conversion schemes with high linearity for receive and transmit, distributed LO/clock generation and synchronization for each element, wideband/efficient transmit/receive amplifiers, radiating apertures and novel manufacturing to realize the integration and packaging all of these components into a scalable tile building block.

The use of analog beamforming techniques that eliminate spatial degrees of freedom at the sub-array level are an evolutionary approach to millimeter wave phased arrays and will be considered non-responsive to this BAA.

C. Program Structure

To bring digital radio technology to millimeter wave arrays, MIDAS will focus on the development of a common tile integrated circuit that will drive a small subarray of at least 4x4 elements. This size is large enough to demonstrate basic array functionality, while being small enough that overall yield of a tile will be acceptably high and require no special processing or material handling. If sized for 50 GHz operation, this tile will be approximately 12 x 12 mm2, well within the size of a typical integrated circuit. Each element will require support for dual-polarization, transmit and receive functionality and through the use of analog, mixed signal or digital tuning be able to support operation over at least 18-50 GHz with a moderate instantaneous bandwidth of about 10% or less.

Figure 1: MIDAS Block Diagram

To support this level of integration, silicon CMOS technology is expected to be a key enabler for the core of the tile implementation. This focus will be Technical Area 1: Wideband Millimeter Wave Digital Tiles. Beyond the development of this core building block in TA1, a full system will require the addition of transmit and receive components such as low-noise amplifiers (LNA), power amplifiers (PA), transmit/receive (T/R) switches and radiating elements while also providing a packaging and thermal management infrastructure and potentially some compute resources for digital beamforming to support demonstrating a >256 element demonstration system by the end of the program. This work will leverage the tile developed by the performer’s team in TA1 and will be Technical Area 2: Wideband Millimeter Wave Apertures. A single proposal may address only TA1 or TA1 and TA2. Stand-alone responses to only TA2 will not be accepted.

Responders to both TA1 and TA2 must meet both sets of technical metrics (see tables below).

Additionally, to address fundamental technical innovation in digital and hybrid beamforming, there will be a third related Technical Area 3: Millimeter Wave Array Fundamentals.

Responses to TA3 are independent from TA1/TA2 and require their own separate proposals.

Figure 2: MIDAS Program Structure

D. Technical Areas

Technical Area 1: Wideband Millimeter Wave Digital Tiles, 36 months.

There are many DoD applications that would benefit from millimeter wave phased arrays. These include a wide variety of short-range, high-data rate and long-range, low-data rate communication links for air-to-air and air-to-ground scenarios. The ability to support legacy commercial and military satellite communication bands to geosynchronous satellites is also important.

Additionally, there is growing interest in the use of Ka- through V-band for low-earth orbit satellite constellations to provide connectivity to ground users. When taken as a whole, there is an incentive to develop a common tile that can support the frequency band of at least 18-50 GHz and bring digital radio technology to the millimeter wave band. While there is a need to support multiple communication bands that cover 18-50 GHz, being able to support multiple widely separated frequency bands simultaneously from the same tile is not a requirement in MIDAS. If an application requires simultaneous multiband support it is expected that time multiplexing or aperture segmentation would be acceptable solutions. For this reason, only a moderate instantaneous fractional bandwidth of approximately 10% or less will be pursued in MIDAS.

Phase 1 – In TA1, the goal of Phase 1 is to develop the architecture, manage the integration complexity, design and ultimately demonstrate a millimeter wave digital transceiver tile successfully (Figure 1). To facilitate this goal, the instantaneous bandwidth is somewhat relaxed to allow considerable effort to be placed on the system design of a scalable architecture that is consistent with the size and power constraints rather than the individual performance of any one component. Narrowband frequency selectivity over nearly a 3:1 bandwidth will likely be an important aspect of the design and a combination of mixing, RF sampling and digital processing may be warranted.

Phase 2 – In TA1 the goal of Phase 2 is to refine the tile design and sharply increase the tile performance. While Phase 1 is expected to be about the architecture choices and front-end components of a transceiver channel, Phase 2 is more about the back-end of the channel. This is mostly reflected in the instantaneous bandwidth and dynamic range, as well as a commensurate increase in beam-bandwidth product, while striving to further reduce the power consumption. The tile developed in TA1 will typically not be used alone but rather combined with multiple copies of the tile. This will be the goal of Phase 2 in TA2. If there are features that will be added to the common tile design to ease data aggregation in TA2 (clock, data sharing, etc.), this should be described in the TA1 portion of the proposal.

The metrics for Phase 1 and Phase 2 of TA1 are listed below in Table 1 with clarifying notes following the table.

TA1 Metric Phase 1 Phase 2 Notes Frequency of operation 18 – 50 GHz 1 Element pitch ≤/2 at high 2 Transmit & receive functionality Yes 3 Polarization Dual 3 Number of elements (2D array) ≥16 4 Noise Figure ≤10 dB 5 Transmit Power ≥0.1 mW/mm2 6 Instantaneous Bandwidth ≥200 MHz ≥2 GHz 7 Receiver IIP3 ≥10 dBm ≥15 dBm 8 Transmitter OIP3 ≥15 dBm ≥20 dBm 8 Beam-bandwidth product ≥400 MHz ≥3.2 GHz 9 Power consumption per channel ≤150 mW ≤100 mW 10

Table 1: TA1: Wideband Millimeter Wave Digital Tiles, Program Metrics

Table 1 Notes:

1) The minimum required frequency band to cover is 18-50 GHz, supporting additional bandwidth below or above this band is also acceptable.

2) It is expected that in a tile configuration, to minimize grating lobes, while meeting the desired scan performance as outlined in TA2, it will be necessary that each dual-polarized element be spaced on grid at a half of a free space wavelength or less at the highest frequency, i.e. ≤3 mm at 50 GHz.

3) It is required to implement two polarization channels on both transmit and receive to support emerging MIMO coding schemes, active polarimetric sensing or polarization calibration over scan angle as well as legacy linear, left and right hand circular polarizations.

4) Number of elements ≥16 corresponds to the minimum number of spatial channels. This implies ≥32 transceiver channels to support dual polarization operation.

5) The noise figure is to be measured de-embedded to the RF pads of the tile integrated circuit.

This will include the noise figure of the entire receive chain from RF to bits and may contain the effects of any switches, amplifiers, mixers, analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), or digital signal processing (DSP) decimation strategies.

6) The transmit power is to be measured de-embedded to the RF pads of the tile integrated circuit. This is specified as a frequency independent number that assumes the radiators will be on a regular grid in an array. For example, if the tile is designed to support 18-50 GHz and the pitch is chosen to be 3 mm, then the power per element would be 0.1 mW/mm2 x 9 mm2 = 0.9 mW or -0.5 dBm. If instead, the design, was chosen to support 18-100 GHz, then the pitch of each element must shrink to 1.5 mm, but the power per element is also reduced by a factor of 4x or 6 dB, making the required power per element only -6.5 dBm, which produces the same power density at all frequencies.

7) Instantaneous bandwidth is the digitized bandwidth after any frequency conversion, sampling, filtering or decimation. This is the bandwidth that will be post/pre-processed by any Rx/Tx beamformer.

8) It is expected the harmonically related intermodulation distortion will be the dominate source of non-linearity for the receiver and transmitter, especially after digital beamforming and therefore the IIP3 and OIP3 is specified for the receiver and transmitter respectively. In the case of both the IIP3 and OIP3, these are in-band measurements.

9) Beam-bandwidth product is chosen to allow a range of potential performance trade-offs depending on the application. At one extreme is 1-2 beams at the full element bandwidth however the other extreme would be to provide many spatial degrees of freedom at a reduced bandwidth for signal search and link acquisition applications. For example, with 16 spatial degrees of freedom and single polarization, 25 MHz of bandwidth per beam should be achievable in Phase 1 with a 400 MHz beam-bandwidth product. Likewise, in Phase 2, 200 MHz of bandwidth should be achievable for 16 beams. Beamforming strategies will be left to performers to propose. Some strategies may warrant DSP hardware intimately integrated within transceivers in the tile building block, while other strategies may be best addressed with package level DSP implemented under TA2 after data is moved off of the tile. The purpose of specifying the beam-bandwidth product is to guide proposers with respect to the required I/O throughput.

10) This is the total power consumption when in transmit or receive mode. It is not expected that a tile will need to transmit and receive simultaneously (STAR), so only the transmitter or receiver will be in use at any given time. If the tile is designed to support 16 elements, or 32 channels, then this number is the total power consumption of the tile (in Tx or Rx mode) divided by 32. This metric should be met in both transmit or receive mode.

There are many aspects of an RF system design that are far too complex to fully specify in this solicitation. The specifications in Table 1 are intended to guide the proposers and bound the design problem. A successful proposal will present a plausible analysis of a proposed architecture that addresses the subtle aspects of the design to include, but are not limited to, out-of-band spurious emissions on transmit, out-of-band response on receive, mixer/ADC/DAC image management, phase-noise, phase coherence between elements, phase coherence between tiles, phase coherence between receive and transmit, phase repeatability or calibration upon startup, switching time between receive and transmit and any potential calibration or built-in self-test schemes.

Technical Area 2: Wideband Millimeter Wave Apertures, 48 Months.

The work to be done under TA1 is only part of the challenge of implementing a fully functional and compact millimeter wave array for DoD applications. Lower noise figure and higher transmit power, beyond the performance metrics of the common tile in TA1 will be required along with a compelling integration strategy and this will be the focus of TA2. TA2 will develop the necessary wideband T/R components (HPA, LNA, switch, etc.) along with the radiating aperture and packaging strategy (Figure 1). It is expected that this will only be achievable with the use of SiGe, InP, GaN or comparable technology married to the common tile design through a combination of heterogeneous integration and/or co-packaging.

A common tile architecture using a single piece of silicon is very reasonable for TA1 where yield is high and there may be a need to share signals between elements. However, for the T/R components it is recognized that a single semiconductor chip to support 16 elements of dual polarized signal path may not be feasible when considering chip size, yield, thermal management, cost or other material handling and packaging constraints. The conceptually simplest approach of chip stacking or wafer/chip scale integration is of strong interest but may not be feasible. Hybrid approaches that use a combination of tile and brick strategies to solve this challenging packaging and integration problem should all be considered.

Phase 1 – There are three goals in Phase 1 of TA2 that a successful proposal will bring together,

1) the electromagnetic design of a wideband radiating element and array, 2) wideband T/R components and 3) a packaging strategy that integrates the radiator, T/R components, thermal management and the silicon tile developed in TA1. It is expected that in Phase 1, the tile from TA1 may not be sufficiently mature for integration in TA2. Therefore, a successful proposal will outline a compelling testing and/or simulation strategy to verify Phase 1 performance without a tile from TA1. It is expected that at the end of Phase 1, the noise figure and transmit power will be measured to include all packaging losses and antenna inefficiencies that may include measuring single elements, and/or using fixed passive beamforming test structures to verify array performance.

Phase 2 – The focus of Phase 2 will be to further improve the T/R component performance by reducing the system noise figure and increasing the transmit power. Also, it is expected that at least 4 tiles from TA1 will be integrated with a TA2 aperture to demonstrate a larger array. This will be the first demonstration of tiling the TA1 tile with TA2 T/R components and aperture and will be an important milestone. The details of data aggregation between the tiles should be addressed as part of TA2. If there are features that will be included in the tile design in TA1 to simplify data aggregation and/or synchronization, this should be described in the TA1 portion of the proposal.

Phase 3 – This is the only technical area that will advance to a Phase 3. This is explicitly because Phase 3 is not about further performance improvement or chip design, but rather about scaling the size of the array to an operationally relevant demonstration size. In addition to increasing the size by 4x beyond Phase 2, it is expected that there will be significant time investment in the requisite firmware and software to enable a compelling demonstration of multi-beam transmit and receive capability in the context of a performer defined communication or remote sensing demonstration.

The metrics for Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 of TA2 are listed below in Table 2 with clarifying notes following the table.

TA2 Metric Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Notes Frequency of operation 18 – 50 GHz 1 Element pitch ≤/2 at high 2 Transmit & receive functionality Yes 3 Polarization Dual 3 Scan Performance 70 4 Number of elements (2D array) ≥16 ≥64 ≥256 5 System noise figure ≤6 dB ≤4 dB ≤4 dB 6 Transmit Power ≥2 mW/mm2 ≥5 mW/mm2 ≥5 mW/mm2 7 Target Power Amplifier Efficiency ≥35% ≥45% ≥45% 8

Table 2: TA2: Wideband Millimeter Wave Apertures, Program Metrics

Table 2 Notes:

1) The minimum required frequency band to cover is 18-50 GHz, supporting additional bandwidth below or above this band is also acceptable.

2) It is expected that in a tile configuration, to minimize grating lobes while meeting the desired scan performance as outlined in TA2, it will be necessary that each dual-polarized transceiver element will need to be spaced on grid at a half of a free space wavelength or less at the highest frequency, i.e. ≤3 mm at 50 GHz.

3) It is required to implement two polarization channels on both transmit and receive to support emerging MIMO coding schemes, active polarimetric sensing or polarization calibration over scan angle as well as legacy linear, left and right hand circular polarizations.

4) A scan performance of 70 is desired that is free of grating lobes and scan blindness in the horizontal, vertical and diagonal scan planes.

5) Number of elements ≥16 in Phase 1 corresponds to the minimum number of spatial channels and is chosen to align with the performance metrics in TA1. It is expected that in Phase 1, the focus will be on T/R component development, antenna design and packaging strategies. As the program progresses, Phase 2 is expected to double the size in two dimensions and integrate 4 tiles from TA1. Phase 2 will also address how the tiles will interact with each other, for example clock distribution, data aggregation, beamforming/networking approach, etc. For Phase 3, TA2 will demonstrate scalability and use 16 tiles to implement a ≥256 element array and refine any necessary firmware or software to implement a successful multi-beam demonstration that takes advantage of the element level digital beamforming at millimeter wave frequencies with a strong path toward technology transition.

6) In Phase 1, the noise figure is to be measured assuming the simulated performance of the tile implementation from TA1. This should include any interconnect loss, or any degradation due to antenna efficiency. In Phase 2 and Phase 3, these should be complete antenna to bits measured results.

7) The transmit power is to be characterized to include interconnect losses and antenna efficiency and shall be measured with the transmit amplifier in saturation. This is specified as a frequency independent number that assumes the radiators will be on a regular grid in an array. For example, if the tile is designed to support 18-50 GHz then the pitch is chosen to be 3-mm, then the power per element would be 5 mW/mm2 x 9 mm2 = 45 mW or 16.5 dBm. If instead, the design, was chosen to support 18-100 GHz, then the pitch of each element must shrink to 1.5 mm, but the power per element is also reduced by a factor of 4x or 6 dB, making the required power per element only 10.5 dBm, which produces the same power density at all frequencies.

8) The target efficiency at the end of the program is chosen such that the power amplifier consumes the same amount of power as a transmit or receive channel in Phase 2 of TA1.

Note that 45 mW / 0.45 = 100 mW. This is specifically so that neither the tile power consumption nor the PA power consumption grossly dominate the total system power consumption. This is a very aggressive goal when considering the wide bandwidth, interconnect losses and antenna efficiency but is something that should be strived for in the design.

Technical Area 3: Millimeter Wave Array Fundamentals, 36 Months.

The work to be done under TA1 and TA2 is intended to develop the next generation of millimeter wave arrays for insertion into DoD systems. However, it is recognized that there may be fundamental technical innovation that applies to millimeter wave array technology but does not directly align with meeting all of the metrics in TA1 or TA2. TA3 should be considered completely separate from TA1 and TA2 and requires its own proposal. If a performer wishes to propose to TA3 and other Technical Areas, this must be done with two separate proposals.

While TA1 and TA2 are large and will develop a complete array solution, TA3 is much smaller and is not expected to develop a complete array. TA3 is expected to support individual performers or small teams to explore innovative concepts that will focus on what will likely be the most challenging aspects of TA1/TA2. Examples of TA3 fundamentals are ultra-low power wide-band data converters, potential hybrid combinations of mixing and sub-sampling transceiver architectures, tunable and frequency selective RF front-ends and streaming digital beamforming processing. A successful proposal will describe the substantial innovation in the context of the broader goals of the program and clearly identify an aspect of the TA1/TA2 metrics that will be the focus of the proposed TA3 work.

E. Schedule/Milestones

MIDAS is a 48-month program consisting of three phases. Phase 1 (base) will be 18 months in duration and focus on the development of the architecture and core technology to meet the goals in TA1/TA2. Phase 2 (option) will also be 18 months and will improve upon the performance metrics of the digital tile in TA1 while TA2 will bring together multiple tiles to form a larger array.

Phase 3 (option) will be 12 months and will only be for TA2 performers where the focus will be on further scaling and a system demonstration. TA3 will also be awarded as an 18-month Phase 1 (base) and 18-month Phase 2 (option).

Figure 3: MIDAS Program Schedule

Program kickoff and review sessions are mandatory and represent and opportunity to interact with the Government on planned work, specifics of the technical approach, and any technical or programmatic items of concern. The end of phase reviews will be scheduled approximately two months before the end of the corresponding program phase. In addition to the review sessions, there will be:

For TA1 and TA1/TA2 performers only, a preliminary project design review (PDR) approximately four months after the kickoff date. The review will be held between the Performer and the Government to review in detail the MIDAS approach and to discuss any potential risks to meeting program metrics going forward. To this end, it is expected that the Performer will have completed necessary diligence in validating the considered approach, such as simulations, operational environments, assumptions, and risks/mitigation strategies for completing all phases of the program.

For TA1 and TA1/TA2 performers only, a detailed mid-phase project review (CDR) to be held approximately nine months after the kickoff date as part of a program wide meeting. It is expected that any issues arising from earlier reviews will be resolved in sufficient detail by the mid-phase review to proceed to construction of hardware and demonstration of Phase 1 metrics.

Technical reports and teleconferences bi-monthly.

Monthly financial reports.

Occasional site visits by Government staff.

F. Deliverables

For all technical areas, expected deliverables include bi-monthly technical and monthly financial update reports. Upon the completion of each phase, Performers in all technical areas must provide to the Government reports covering, a) a description of the MIDAS system, b) component lab and field test results, and c) charts and explanations of how well the system meets, exceeds, or falls short of specified program goals (as described in this BAA). Additionally, TA1 and TA2 will require hardware deliverables aligned to the technical goals of the program as defined below in Table 3. Sufficient documentation and support for testing at a government lab (AFRL, etc.) is expected.

Technical Area Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 MIDAS TA1 3 copies of tile 3 copies of tile N/A

MIDAS TA2 1 copy of aperture prototype (TA1 tile not necessarily included)

1 copy of integrated TA1/TA2 aperture

1 copy of scaled aperture

MIDAS TA3 Not required N/A

Table 3: Hardware Deliverables

G. Government Furnished Equipment/Property/Information

No Government Furnished Equipment, Property, or Information will be provided.

H. Intellectual Property

Any use of proposer-defined intellectual property (patents, proprietary information, etc.) should be clearly marked as such within the proposal. Include all proprietary claims to the results, prototypes, intellectual property, or systems supporting the effort and/or necessary for the use of the research, results, and/or prototype. If there are no proprietary claims, this should be stated. For forms to be completed regarding intellectual property, see Section IV.B.10.

II. Award Information

A. General Award Information

Multiple awards are anticipated. The amount of resources made available under this BAA will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds.

The Government reserves the right to select for negotiation all, some, one, or none of the proposals received in response to this solicitation, and to make awards without discussions with proposers.

The Government also reserves the right to conduct discussions if it is later determined to be necessary. If warranted, portions of resulting awards may be segregated into pre-priced options.

Additionally, DARPA reserves the right to accept proposals in their entirety or to select only portions of proposals for award. In the event that DARPA desires to award only portions of a proposal, negotiations may be opened with that proposer. The Government reserves the right to fund proposals in phases with options for continued work at the end of one or more of the phases, as applicable.

Awards under this BAA will be made to proposers on the basis of the evaluation criteria listed below (see section labeled “Application Review Information,” Sec. V.), and program balance to provide overall value to the Government. The Government reserves the right to request any additional, necessary documentation once it makes the award instrument determination. Such additional information may include but is not limited to Representations and Certifications (see Section VI.B.4., “Representations and Certifications”). The Government reserves the right to remove proposers from award consideration should the parties fail to reach agreement on award terms, conditions and cost/price within a reasonable time or the proposer fails to timely provide requested additional information. Proposals identified for negotiation may result in a procurement contract, grant, cooperative agreement, or other transaction, depending upon the nature of the work proposed, the required degree of interaction between parties, whether or not the research is classified as Fundamental Research, and other factors.

Proposers looking for innovative, commercial-like contractual arrangements are encouraged to consider requesting Other Transactions. To understand the flexibility and options associated with Other Transactions, consult http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/contract-management#OtherTransactions.

In all cases, the Government contracting officer shall have sole discretion to select award instrument type, regardless of instrument type proposed, and to negotiate all instrument terms and conditions with selectees. DARPA will apply publication or other restrictions, as necessary, if it determines that the research resulting from the proposed effort will present a high likelihood of disclosing performance characteristics of military systems or manufacturing technologies that are unique and critical to defense. Any award resulting from such a determination will include a requirement for DARPA permission before publishing any information or results on the program.

For more information on publication restrictions, see the section below on Fundamental Research.

B. Fundamental Research

It is DoD policy that the publication of products of fundamental research will remain unrestricted to the maximum extent possible. National Security Decision Directive (NSDD) 189 defines fundamental research as follows:

‘Fundamental research’ means basic and applied research in science and engineering, the results of which ordinarily are published and shared broadly within the scientific community, as distinguished from proprietary research and from industrial development, design, production, and product utilization, the results of which ordinarily are restricted for proprietary or national security reasons.

As of the date of publication of this BAA, the Government expects that program goals as described herein may be met by proposers intending to perform fundamental research (primarily TA3) and proposers not intending to perform fundamental research or the proposed research may present a high likelihood of disclosing performance characteristics of military systems or manufacturing technologies that are unique and critical to defense. Based on the nature of the performer and the nature of the work, the Government anticipates that some awards will include restrictions on the resultant research that will require the awardee to seek DARPA permission before publishing any information or results relative to the program.

Proposers should indicate in their proposal whether they believe the scope of the research included in their proposal is fundamental or not. While proposers should clearly explain the intended results of their research, the Government shall have sole discretion to select award instrument type and to negotiate all instrument terms and conditions with selectees. Appropriate clauses will be included in resultant awards for non-fundamental research to prescribe publication requirements and other http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/contract-management#OtherTransactions restrictions, as appropriate. This clause can be found at http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/additional-baa.

For certain research projects, it may be possible that although the research being performed by the awardee is restricted research, a subawardee may be conducting fundamental research. In those cases, it is the awardee’s responsibility to explain in their proposal why its subawardee’s effort is fundamental research

III. Eligibility Information

A. Eligible Applicants

All responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit a proposal that shall be considered by DARPA.

1. Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and Government Entities

a) FFRDCs

FFRDCs are subject to applicable direct competition limitations and cannot propose to this BAA in any capacity unless they meet the following conditions: (1) FFRDCs must clearly demonstrate that the proposed work is not otherwise available from the private sector. (2) FFRDCs must provide a letter on official letterhead from their sponsoring organization citing the specific authority establishing their eligibility to propose to Government solicitations and compete with industry, and their compliance with the associated FFRDC sponsor agreement’s terms and conditions. This information is required for FFRDCs proposing to be awardees or subawardees.

b) Government Entities

Government Entities (e.g., Government/National laboratories, military educational institutions, etc.) are subject to applicable direct competition limitations. Government entities must clearly demonstrate that the work is not otherwise available from the private sector and provide written documentation citing the specific statutory authority and contractual authority, if relevant, establishing their ability to propose to Government solicitations.

c) Authority and Eligibility

At the present time, DARPA does not consider 15 U.S.C. § 3710a to be sufficient legal authority to show eligibility. While 10 U.S.C.§ 2539b may be the appropriate statutory starting point for some entities, specific supporting regulatory guidance, together with evidence of agency approval, will still be required to fully establish eligibility. DARPA will consider FFRDC and Government entity eligibility submissions on a case-by-case basis; however, the burden to prove eligibility for all team members rests solely with the proposer.

http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/additional-baa

2. Non-U.S. Organizations and/or Individuals

Non-U.S. organizations and/or individuals may participate to the extent that such participants comply with any necessary nondisclosure agreements, security regulations, export control laws, and other governing statutes applicable under the circumstances.

B. Organizational Conflicts of Interest

FAR 9.5 Requirements In accordance with FAR 9.5, proposers are required to identify and disclose all facts relevant to potential OCIs involving the proposer’s organization and any proposed team member (subawardee, consultant). Under this Section, the proposer is responsible for providing this disclosure with each proposal submitted to the BAA. The disclosure must include the proposer’s, and as applicable, proposed team member’s OCI mitigation plan. The OCI mitigation plan must include a description of the actions the proposer has taken, or intends to take, to prevent the existence of conflicting roles that might bias the proposer’s judgment and to prevent the proposer from having unfair competitive advantage. The OCI mitigation plan will specifically discuss the disclosed OCI in the context of each of the OCI limitations outlined in FAR 9.505-1 through FAR 9.505-4.

Agency Supplemental OCI Policy In addition, DARPA has a supplemental OCI policy that prohibits contractors/performers from concurrently providing Scientific Engineering Technical Assistance (SETA), Advisory and Assistance Services (A&AS) or similar support services and being a technical performer.

Therefore, as part of the FAR 9.5 disclosure requirement above, a proposer must affirm whether the proposer or any proposed team member (subawardee, consultant) is providing SETA, A&AS, or similar support to any DARPA office(s) under: (a) a current award or subaward; or (b) a past award or subaward that ended within one calendar year prior to the proposal’s submission date.

If SETA, A&AS, or similar support is being or was provided to any DARPA office(s), the proposal must include:

The name of the DARPA office receiving the support;

The prime contract number;

Identification of proposed team member (subawardee, consultant) providing the support; and An OCI mitigation plan in accordance with FAR 9.5.

Government Procedures In accordance with FAR 9.503, 9.504 and 9.506, the Government will evaluate OCI mitigation plans to avoid, neutralize or mitigate potential OCI issues before award and to determine whether it is in the Government’s interest to grant a waiver. The Government will only evaluate OCI mitigation plans for proposals that are determined selectable under the BAA evaluation criteria and funding availability.

The Government may require proposers to provide additional information to assist the Government in evaluating the proposer’s OCI mitigation plan.

If the Government determines that a proposer failed to fully disclose an OCI; or failed to provide the affirmation of DARPA support as described above; or failed to reasonably provide additional information requested by the Government to assist in evaluating the proposer’s OCI mitigation plan, the Government may reject the proposal and withdraw it from consideration for award.

C. Cost Sharing/Matching

Cost sharing is not required; however, it will be carefully considered where there is an applicable statutory condition relating to the selected funding instrument. Cost sharing is encouraged where there is a reasonable probability of a potential commercial application related to the proposed research and development effort.

For more information on potential cost sharing requirements for Other Transactions for Prototype, see http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/contract-management#OtherTransactions.

D. Other Eligibility Criteria

1. Collaborative Efforts

Collaborative efforts/teaming are strongly encouraged. As the program emphasizes multidisciplinary approaches, a successful proposal must demonstrate sufficient expertise in all requisite technical specialties. At a minimum, excellent credentials must be demonstrated in:

RF system design, RF and mixed-signal circuit design in advanced CMOS processes.

RF transmit and receive component development in compound semiconductor processes.

Advanced packaging and manufacturing techniques to include electromagnetic design of wideband antenna arrays and thermal design considerations.

Phased-array testing and calibration experience.

Additional areas of expertise may be required depending on the specifics of the proposed technical approach. In all cases, complete and self-sufficient teams are required to support the full scope of the effort, since partial solutions will not be accepted for TA1 or TA1/TA2 proposals.

IV. Application and Submission Information

PROPOSERS ARE CAUTIONED THAT EVALUATION RATINGS MAY BE LOWERED

AND/OR PROPOSALS REJECTED IF PROPOSAL PREPARATION (PROPOSAL FORMAT,

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