Microsystems Technology Office-Wide

The summary for the Microsystems Technology Office-Wide grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the DARPA Microsystems Technology Office, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Microsystems Technology Office-Wide: 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 [email protected]. Amendment No. 05: Administrative correction. Amendment No. 04: 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 < 1 ns, bit rate > 40 Gb/s, total power dissipation < 1 mW, area < 100 microns2, spectral bandwidth > 30 nm, and tolerance to thermal variations over ± 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, [email protected], is the primary technical POC for this amendment.Basic Opportunity as originally posted:1. INTRODUCTIONThe Microsystems Technology Offices (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 AREASMTO 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 BAAs. 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 processing2.Novel electronic and photonic device demonstrations3.Novel semiconductor materials enabling new device concepts or capabilities4.Nanophotonics and nanoelectronic device and circuit demonstrations5.Power Electronics6.RF technology7.Biological and chemical sensors8.Quantum information science and technology9.Chip scale navigation, timing, and control10.Three dimensional digital, rf, and imaging technologies11.Integrated chip-scale photonics12.Micro-scale power generation, control, and conversion13.Infrared and ultraviolet detectors and imagers14.Terahertz technology15.Optical communication technology16.Analog-to-digital conversion17.Co-optimization of hardware and algorithms18.Novel complex circuit design technology19.Trusted design and hardware technology20.Microsystems addressing challenges in complex systems architectures21.Scaling of macro-systems to micro and nano-scale22.Micro and NanoElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS and NEMS)2. PROPOSAL EVALUATIONThe 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) Proposers 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).