Microsystems Technology Office-Wide

Added: January 16, 2007 Modified: November 29, 2007Track Changes Amendment No. 06: The purpose of this amendment is to change the primary technical point of contact from Dr. John Zolper to Dr. Dean Collins. Questions pertaining to this BAA, to include requests to communicate directly with the technical point of contact, shall continue to be directed to baa07-18@darpa.mil.

Added: January 16, 2007 Modified: November 28, 2007Track Changes This modification corrects the Response date listed in Modification 04.

Added: January 16, 2007 Modified: November 26, 2007Track Changes MTO Office-Wide BAA 07-18: Amendment No. 4

DARPA Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) No. 07-18, Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) Office-wide BAA is hereby amended to add Advanced Photonic Switch (APS) as an additional (first round) research topic area. With the exception of the APS-specific guidance/requirements provided by this amendment, all DARPA BAA 07-18 guidance/requirements (through Amendment No. 3) shall remain unchanged.



The Advanced Photonic Switch effort seeks to develop advanced, high performance on-chip photonic switching devices for communications networks. It is envisioned that these switching devices will benefit low power, high bandwidth, low latency, photonic communications networks, thereby benefiting a broad array of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) problems and the larger US National interest.



This amendment solicits inputs for on-chip photonic switching devices that are fabricated in a CMOS-compatible process and that maximize switching speed while simultaneously minimizing device power dissipation, transmission losses, area, and sensitivity to ambient temperature variations. The basic building block 1x2 photonic switch can be a spectrally broad-band switch capable of simultaneously switching multiple, high bit-rate wavelength channels spanning, for example, the communications C-band near 1550 nm, or a wavelength-selective switch in the same spectral region. DARPA MTO is especially interested in validated designs that can be scaled to complex MxN switches.



In addition, DARPA MTO is interested in understanding the fundamental limits to the performance of such switches and in demonstrating switch performance approaching these fundamental limits, and also in exploring novel physical mechanisms that may extend these fundamental limits beyond our current understanding.



Proposals of greatest interest will clearly define aggressive quantitative performance goals, for example, switching time 40 Gb/s, total power dissipation 30 nm, and tolerance to thermal variations over plus/minus 10 C. Component designs that achieve or exceed these goals are expected to optimize the overall performance of the photonic switch.



Proposals must clearly define an aggressive timeline and milestones for fabricating the proposed photonic switches and experimentally validate specified performance goals. The first phase of the effort should concentrate on demonstrating aggressive performance goals for the building block-switch that optimize the overall switch performance, and on a validated design for a complex, on-chip MxN switch for optical networks. A period of performance of 18-months is expected for Phase 1 however, in accordance with the evaluation criteria, proposals with a more aggressive period of performance are encouraged. An optional second phase demonstrating the complex MxN switch may also be proposed. Proposals from individuals or small teams addressing these issues are encouraged. Proposed research and development (R&D) should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in switching device physics, design and fabrication. Specifically excluded is R&D that primarily results in incremental or evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.



Abstracts are not required or requested for this amendment. To be considered for funding, full proposals must be submitted by 4:00 PM EST on January 10, 2008.

BAA07-18, Amendment No. 4 will remain open through 4:00 PM EST on January 10, 2008 (45 days) to allow proposers to address the specific Advanced Photonic Switch (APS) topic area discussed herein. Proposals responding to the APS topic area received after the 45 day period has expired may not be evaluated.



Dr. Jag Shah, Jag.Shah@darpa.mil, is the primary technical POC for this amendment.

Added: January 16, 2007 Modified: October 19, 2007Track Changes Amendment 3:

The purpose of this modification is to incorporate the following language into this solicitation:



(For Proposers Submitting to an Electronic Business Application such as the TFIMS BAA Tool (Not Submitting Hard Copies/CD-ROM)):



All proposals submitted electronically by means of an Electronic Business Application Tool or proposal submission web site (not including Grants.gov) must be encrypted using Winzip or PKZip with 256-bit AES encryption. Only one zipped/encrypted file will be accepted per proposal and proposals not zipped/encrypted will be rejected by DARPA. An encryption password form must be completed and emailed to (insert THE APPROPRIATE BAA MAILBOX) at the time of proposal submission. See https://www.tfims.darpa.mil/baa/ for the encryption password form.



Note the word ?PASSWORD? must appear in the subject line of the above email and there are minimum security requirements for establishing the encryption password. Failure to provide the encryption password may result in the proposal not being evaluated. For further information and instructions on how to zip and encrypt proposal files, see https://www.tfims.darpa.mil/baa/.



A Revised BAA has been attached.

Added: January 16, 2007 Modified: October 17, 2007Track Changes BAA 07-18 Amendment 2

NOTE: BAA07-18 Amendment 2 will remain open for 60 days after this amendment is published to allow proposers to address the specific Complex System Architectures (CSA) topic area. Proposals responding to the CSA topic received after the 60 days may not be evaluated.



The Complex System Architectures (CSA) effort seeks to exploit how an understanding of the architecture of complex systems can be applied to benefit a broad array of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) problems and the larger US National interest. A particular area of interest to MTO is identification of the optimal architectures needed to design complex Microsystems. MTO would like to utilize the techniques and strategies employed by various technical disciplines (mathematics, biology, network design, systems engineering, electrical engineering, etc) in developing these architectures to create the most effective future Microsystems technologies. Ideally a measurable system, widely applicable across all domains, would allow for future technological systems to be optimized for factors such as efficiency, power, and robustness.



Engineering complicated technologies requires tradeoffs to be made in order to maximize efficiency for a given application. These compromises often result in a system useful within a small scope and lacking in robustness. Many natural ("non-engineered") complex systems tend to be remarkably efficient and robust, often exploiting adaptive elements to self-correct or re-optimize. These natural systems are often highly interconnected and may be highly dependent on diverse states of the various parts of the system. MTO is interested in identifying fundamental principles found in the architectures of natural systems and applying them to engineered Microsystems technologies.



To this end, the goal of CSA is to formalize design, development, and testing methodologies that can concurrently shorten system development cycles while increasing overall confidence and robustness of system performance. While theoretical investigations are intended as an integral part of the CSA program, it is also expected that studies develop computer simulations and/or hardware test beds to prove out the conclusions developed in such investigations.



This amendment solicits inputs for short-term (3-6 month, 1 to 2 man year) studies to further define the underpinnings of CSA and define opportunities for future MTO program initiatives. Potential areas of interest include:



Ultra-low power system-on-chip design



Multi-element non-linear simulation



Robust, variation tolerant, mixed signal design/architectures



Effective multi-domain optimization strategies for complex optimized architecture designs



Reconfigurable and self-reconfiguring microsystems



Adaptive, highly resource efficient, algorithms for generalized signal analysis, organization of high-dimensional data, and context-aware information exploitation



Specifically excluded are evolutionary approaches based on conventional strategies to optimize Microsystems in these topical areas.



Proposals must highlight the applicability of the proposed work to CSA system challenges. Advances are needed to identify quantifiable metrics for analysis of complex system behavior. Investigations of novel CSA architectures should show the potential effectiveness to a specific problem or problems of interest to MTO. The deliverables should be designed such that relevant study results can be shared with the CSA community to fuel discussion and help generate new ideas. Proposals should include a clear program plan, regular milestones and metrics.



Proposal will be evaluated as they are received with an initial funding selection anticipated 60 days after this amendment is published.



For more information regarding the CSA program and related links, see

http://www.darpa.mil/mto/initiatives/csa/index.html



Dr Dennis Healy, dennis.healy@darpa.mil , is the primary technical POC for this amendment.

Added: January 16, 2007 Modified: June 25, 2007Track Changes The purpose of this modification is to revise the open period of the BAA from 14 January 2009 to 14 January 2008. In addition, the archive date of the BAA has been changed from 14 January 2010 to 16 January 2008.

Added: January 16, 2007 1. INTRODUCTIONThe Microsystems Technology Office?s (MTO) mission is to exploit breakthroughs in materials, devices, circuits, and mathematics to develop beyond leading edge Microsystems components with revolutionary performance and functionality to enable new platform capability for the Department of Defense. To execute this mission, MTO supports revolutionary research in electronics, photonics, MEMS, algorithms, and combined Microsystems technology to deliver new capabilities to sense, communicate, energize, actuate, and process data and information for the war fighter.



1.1 TECHNICAL TOPIC AREAS

MTO regularly publishes Broad Agency Announcements requesting responses to specific program topics. This announcement seeks revolutionary research ideas for topics not being addressed by ongoing MTO programs or other published BAA solicitations. This BAA is primarily, but not solely, intended for early stage research that will lead to larger, focused, MTO programs in the future. Potential bidders are highly encouraged to review the current MTO programs listed on the MTO website at: http://www.darpa.mil/mto/radprograms.html and other MTO solicitations list at: http://www.darpa.mil/mto/solicitations/index.html to avoid proposing efforts to this BAA that duplicate existing activities or that are responsive to other published MTO BAA?s. Contacting MTO program managers to discuss research interests is also encouraged. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.



Research areas of current interest in MTO, include, but are not limited to:

1.Low power, high performance digital and analog data processing

2.Novel electronic and photonic device demonstrations

3.Novel semiconductor materials enabling new device concepts or capabilities

4.Nanophotonics and nanoelectronic device and circuit demonstrations

5.Power Electronics

6.RF technology

7.Biological and chemical sensors

8.Quantum information science and technology

9.Chip scale navigation, timing, and control

10.Three dimensional digital, rf, and imaging technologies

11.Integrated chip-scale photonics

12.Micro-scale power generation, control, and conversion

13.Infrared and ultraviolet detectors and imagers

14.Terahertz technology

15.Optical communication technology

16.Analog-to-digital conversion

17.Co-optimization of hardware and algorithms

18.Novel complex circuit design technology

19.Trusted design and hardware technology

20.Microsystems addressing challenges in complex systems architectures

21.Scaling of macro-systems to micro and nano-scale

22.Micro and NanoElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS and NEMS)



2. PROPOSAL EVALUATION

The criteria to be used to evaluate and select proposals for this project are described in the following paragraphs. The criteria to be used to evaluate and select offers under this BAA are, in order of descending importance: (a) Overall Scientific and Technical Merit; (b) Proposer?s Capabilities and/or Related Experience; (c) Realism of Proposed Schedule. (d) Potential Contribution and Relevance to the DARPA Mission; (e) Plans and Capability to Accomplish Technology Transition; and (f) Cost Reasonableness and Realism; each proposal will be evaluated on its own merit and relevance rather than against other proposals in the same general area, since no common work statement exists. Proposals may be evaluated as they are received, or they may be collected and periodically reviewed.



Details regarding the white paper and proposal preparation and submission, and other administrative details, are found in the attached Proposer Information Pamphlet (PIP).