Seeking Innovative Concepts for Next-Generation Antennas
April 17, 2023 | DARPAEstimated reading time: 1 minute
DARPA is soliciting disruptive ideas from small businesses and nontraditional defense contractors for novel antenna designs, materials, manufacturing, or processing as the first topic issued under the agency’s Bringing Classified Innovation to Defense and Government Systems (BRIDGES) initiative. The topic area aims to explore new designs that would offer significantly increased performance or substantial reduction in size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) compared to current state of the art.
The BRIDGES effort aims to connect innovation from small companies that traditionally do not work with the U.S. government to classified Department of Defense research and development efforts. Specifically, the goal is to connect innovators directly to the challenging problems that exist in the classified realm and to help develop solutions to those problems. BRIDGES aims to provide companies that demonstrate they can provide innovation and value to the DOD the means to obtain a facility clearance and interact directly with DOD customers at classified levels. DARPA plans to solicit responses to multiple technical topics under BRIDGES, introduced periodically.
“If your company is working on cutting-edge antenna designs for commercial applications and you’ve never considered or known how to apply your expertise to help solve Defense Department challenges, we want to hear from you,” said Greg Kuperman, program manager in DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office. “In the defense space, we’re at least 10 years behind state of the art in antennas. There’s a gold mine of untapped technical capability and potentially revolutionary concepts in small and large commercial companies across our country that could provide solutions to national security needs. We want to hear the best ideas related to active and passive sensing across RF (radio frequency), acoustic, and electro-optic/infrared spectral bands applied in every physical domain – air, space, sea, and land. The proposal process is very simple: Send us a four-page or shorter proposal of your antenna concept. If we find your proposal intriguing and of potential value to DoD, we may sponsor you through the BRIDGES consortium to receive a facility clearance so we can start to have classified discussions with you.”
Suggested Items
Catching Up With Chasom Electronics
04/16/2024 | Dan Beaulieu, D.B. Management GroupI recently met with Chasom Electronics’ founding director Anil Kumar. Chasom offers a unique menu of services for companies looking to extend their technology capabilities on a short- or long-term basis. Read on to learn about this very unique service company.
Renesas Commences Operations of Kofu Factory as Dedicated 300-mm Wafer Fab for Power Semiconductors
04/15/2024 | RenesasRenesas Electronics Corporation, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced that it has started operations at its Kofu Factory, located in Kai City, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan.
MacroFab Announces Addition of Gordon Rapkin to Board of Directors
04/10/2024 | PRNewswireMacroFab Inc., the operator of North America's largest technology platform for electronics manufacturing, has announced today the appointment of Gordon Rapkin to its Board of Directors as Chairman.
The Need for a Holistic Global Sustainability Standard
04/10/2024 | Michael Ford, Aegis SoftwareNo one can deny that the resources of our fragile planet are finite. The environment seems like a third party, subject to constant degradation. We’re acutely aware of the effects of pollution on our climate, and despite our “throw-away” culture, recycling and recovery of materials has remained relatively expensive, even as we use more energy just to survive.
SEMI Talent Forum 2024 to Help Build Next-Generation Chip Industry Workforce
04/09/2024 | SEMIPost-graduates and onboarding talent will connect with local companies to explore semiconductor industry career paths and employment opportunities at the SEMI Talent Forum, May 1, 2024 at the University of Swansea.