Critical & Emerging Technologies

Over the past two decades, many wireless systems have been developed and widely used around the world. The most important examples are cellular mobile radio and Wi-Fi systems. Just like radio and television broadcasting systems, they radiate electromagnetic waves/energy into the air but a large amount of the energy is …

Since the 1980’s, the electronics industry has undergone explosive growth, as higher transistor densities have fueled substantial performance advances while paving the way for miniaturization.  In order for these systems to function properly, the electronic circuits within them must be protected from extreme temperatures, contaminants, shock and vibration, and harsh …

Many alternatives to silicon are being developed, as it is believed that silicon transistors will reach their technological limits after 2020. Two-dimensional (2-D) nanomaterials have shown promise for a new generation of nanoelectronic devices. The most widely studied 2-D nanomaterial is graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms and packed …

As the name indicates, ultrasonic sensors measure distance by using ultrasonic waves. The basic working principle of these sensors is based on echolocation, which involves transmission of ultrasonic waves to the target object, which reflects it back to the source after receiving the initial wave. The ultrasonic sensors detect the exact …

Robots have already become an indispensable part of our lives. However currently, most robots are relatively rigid machines which make unnatural movements. In contrast, humans seem to be able to manipulate objects with our fingers with incredible ease like sifting through a bunch of keys in the dark, tossing and …

Electromagnetic waves in the millimeter-wave band  (with frequencies between 30 and 300 GHz, or wavelengths between 10 and 1.0 mm) have attractive characteristics. One of their features is the wider usable frequency band compared with waves in the microwave band or lower bands. Another feature of using the millimeter-wave band is the fact …

Among the uses of Laser directed energy weapons (DEW) systems are providing very short-range air defense capability, close-in protection for naval vessels, counter-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and protecting friendly forces from mortar and artillery attack. Laser require a power of the order of 100 kW,  to be employed as directed energy …

Naval Warships now faces wide spectrum of threats from air threats such as hypersonic missiles, ballistic and cruise missiles, rail guns, lasers , UAVs  and underwater threats like cavitating torpedoes.  One of the prime over water threat is from Anti-Ship Missiles type of guided missiles mostly of the sea skimming …

Today’s generation of body-armour systems can provide protection at various levels designed to defeat most common low- and medium-energy handgun rounds. However, currently the highest-threat-level ballistic needs in the market are fulfilled by special, high performance ceramics that tend to be very costly, fragile for standard handling, extremely heavy and …

The Defense Sciences Office (DSO) at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative research proposals in the area of autonomous molecular design to accelerate the discovery, validation and optimization of new, high-performance molecules for Department of Defense (DoD) needs. DARPA Accelerated Molecular Discovery (AMD) program,  aims to …