Advanced Technology
Program Overview
Research and development in Advanced Technology focus on the invention of new device concepts, the practical realization of those devices, and their integration into subsystems for system demonstrations. Historically, those devices were based primarily on solid-state electronic or electro-optical technologies, but recent work is highly multidisciplinary, and current devices increasingly exploit biotechnology and innovative chemistry. Examples of research at the frontiers of science include engineering living cells to make high-performance bioagent detectors, exploring the fundamentals of quantum information science, and assessing the potential for carbon-based electronics that use graphene sheets.
Our work is very broad in scope and ranges from materials science work, aimed at improving detectors, diode lasers, or thermoelectric devices, through the fabrication of electronic and electro-optical devices, to the development of new lasers and optically based sensors, and to the application of biological and chemical technology to unique DoD problems.
Active areas of research include the development of unique high-performance detectors and focal planes, ultra-low power SOI CMOS technologies, 3D integrated circuits, biological and chemical agent sensors, diode lasers and photonic devices using both compound semiconductors and silicon-based technologies, microelectromechanical devices, RF technology, and unique lasers including high-power fiber and cryogenic lasers.
Microelectronics Laboratory
The Laboratory's Microelectronics Laboratory, a state-of-the-art semiconductor research and fabrication facility, provides significant support to its microsystems work. Current activities include a variety of projects:
- Fabrication of gigapixel charge-coupled device imager focal planes
- Photon-counting avalanche photodiode arrays
- Radio frequency and optical microelectromechanical systems
- Niobium-based superconducting circuits
- Fully depleted silicon-on-insulator CMOS technology for imaging, RF, and three-dimensionally integrated circuits
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