Session Descriptions

Plenary Session: MTO and the Outside World

The battlefield of the future will be complex, uncertain and often asymmetric. Our men and women in uniform demand military systems, technologies, and communications and transportation tools that are robust, interactive, flexible, energy efficient and portable. None of these capabilities will be possible without the sort of advancements in microsystems and chip-scale innovations that are being driven by MTO.

This session will provide an overview of DARPA's R&D efforts at micro-scale and contemplate S&T areas that we're not now pursuing but would like to learn more about.

Complexity in Microsystems

This session explores the premise that inherent complexity of microsystems, if managed and directed, could facilitate dramatic improvements in performance and functionality in the future.

But how will these complex microsystems of the future be designed and fabricated? As scaling approaches its limits, we'll need new ideas and tools, often emanating from advances in mathematics, to manage the uncertainties that always accompany complexity. What novel algorithms and processes will enable Microsystems to adapt more readily to their environment? What technologies will enable us to fabricate fine-scale, heterogeneous, 3D Microsystems?

Sensing and Awareness in Microsystems

The ability to shrink a sensor, such as an inertial sensor or an atomic clock, from a tabletop to chip-scale can have revolutionary impact on systems. So -- what's new in sensing? What new functionalities can be realized in microscale sensors? Can we make sensors that more efficiently couple from the micro to the macro world? Once the information has been collected, can sensor outputs be efficiently and locally processed into digital information? This session will examine sensor technologies, imaging, analog and signal processing, and mixed-signal electronics, among other topics.

Chip-scale Energy & Power

Like all systems, micro-systems consume fuel and give off waste. Because distance scales are reduced, managing these basic inputs and outputs is a very challenging problem. This session begins with the premise that, as micro-systems become smaller, the issues associated with delivering power and removing heat become even more acute. Many micro-systems operate in "energy-rich" environments in which power could be "scavenged" - provided that functionality, and any associated power conditioning and storage, can be incorporated into the structure. The opposite side of the same coin is thermal management which, for high performance electronics, has already become a central performance limiter. Significant reductions in the power draw required to perform key operations is also an important applications enabler.

Cooperative Microsystems

Networks are intriguing for their own sake -- even without regard to application. But we need networks to communicate -- and guess what, they don't. The challenges exist at the interface. How will microsystems enhance the ability of networks to communicate with each other? What technologies will accelerate the transfer of information? And how about the transfer of energy? What are the chip-scale "interconnects" that will facilitate network-to-network cooperation and interface?

This session will examine various applications to advance cooperative Microsystems -- cooperative MEMS, configurable networks, self-healing networks, optical networks, and self-forming networks; and explore the challenges and issues associated with such phenomena as storage, sensing, transduction, neurophotonics, silicon integrated photonics and photonic interconnects.

Actuation and Response in Microsystems

Microsystems have the power to affect each other and the larger world through the manipulation of light and individual atoms. Devices such as lasers can be made to direct energy on the nanoscale and the macroscale. This session will examine how we can use the "microworld" to control the "macroworld", examining such topics as DC-to-gamma ray spectrum exploitation, directed energy, and light that can be controlled by light.

RUMP Session

Title: "Advanced Silicon Technology Foundry Access Options for DoD Research"

At present, domestic silicon foundry access for advanced technologies is limited with no dedicated DoD capability. This current status makes it extremely difficult for universities, industry, national laboratories, and the DoD itself to reliably obtain transition-able results and achieve aggressive DoD research goals. The use of foreign foundries provides potential opportunities for access, but such use comes with its own set of challenges. This rump session will illustrate both the panel's and the audience's experiences in obtaining advanced foundry access, examine the challenges that exist in performing IC-related DoD research given the current limitations, and attempt to create a plan to move forward.

Building Your Future with MTO

Would you like to help build the future from the inside out with MTO. as a contractor/performer, grantee, transition partner or even as a DARPA Program Manager? This session will describe all you ever wanted to know about how to do business with the agency and how to work our team of expert scientists and researchers in pursuit of game-changing technological breakthroughs.