HALOVS
Summary
The Highly Accelerated Learning of Vibratory Systems (HALOVS) portfolio is a fundamental science portfolio to develop, model, prototype, and demonstrate technologies to overcome the existing performance limitations of vibratory sensors (e.g., inertial sensors such as accelerometers or gyroscopes in your smartphone) for improved positioning and navigation.
The ultimate goal is to provide precision navigation for warfighters via a handheld device in GPS-denied environments.
The HALOVS programs will investigate and demonstrate new technology platforms that exploit the latest breakthroughs and insights in 3D micromachining, assembly, and fabrication processes using novel materials and chemistries to determine their dynamic performance limits while increasing lifetime.
HALOVS will produce blueprints and a database on how to improve on the four fundamental pillars of vibratory sensors: noise and drift, scale factor, shock and vibration, and aging.
Together, the programs in the HALOVS portfolio will inform DARPA and the Department of Defense of sensor science performance limits and the practical borders of the design space for next-generation positioning and navigation sensors for use in GPS-denied missions.
The HALOVS portfolio comprises four programs:
- CLOAK: Chemistries and monoLayers for Anti-aging Kinematics
- HORCREX: Higher-Order Composite Resonators for Extra resilience
- LeviTAS: Levitated and Trapped Accurate microSystems LeviTAS
- NIMBUS: NIMBle Ultrafast microSystems
Solicitations for the four programs are expected in 2025, and if published will be available on SAM.gov.
CLOAK
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is issuing a Disruption Opportunity (DO), inviting submissions of innovative basic or applied research concepts in the technical domain of novel micromechanical oscillators for applications toward precision positioning and navigation systems.
This DO is issued under the Program Announcement for Disruptioneering, DARPA-PA-24-04 Amendment 1.
All awards will be made in the form of an Other Transaction (OT) for Prototype project. The total award value for the combined Phase 1 base (Proof-of-concept) and Phase 2 option (Prototype) is limited to $1,200,000. This total award value includes Government funding and performer cost share if required or proposed.
HORCREX
Solicitation closed
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is issuing a Disruption Opportunity (DO), inviting submissions of innovative basic or applied research concepts in the technical domain of novel micromechanical oscillators for applications toward precision positioning and navigation systems.
This DO is issued under the Program Announcement for Disruptioneering, DARPA-PA-24-04. All awards will be made in the form of an Other Transaction (OT) for Prototype project.
The total award value for the combined Phase 1 base (Proof-of-concept) and Phase 2 option (Prototype) is limited to $2,000,000. This total award value includes Government funding and performer cost share if required or proposed.
LeviTAS
Solicitation closed
A primary source of noise and bias-drift in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors is the mechanical spring’s anchor to the substrate. The LeviTAS Disruption Opportunity is a fundamental investigation to explore the feasibility of replacing the spring anchor by levitating and trapping a mass approximately the size of a sugar cube inside a volume approximately the size of a Rubik’s cube. Previous levitated systems have either achieved heavy mass with very small bandwidth, or atom-sized masses with large bandwidth, making such MEMS devices impractical for use as inertial sensors.
LeviTAS aims to break this mass/bandwidth limitation in existing systems by using advances in transducers and materials and exploring novel architectures to achieve heavy mass and high bandwidth in a compact form factor. The core technology demonstrated in LeviTAS seeks to lay the foundation for providing warfighters long-duration navigation accuracy on handheld devices without relying on GPS.
Warfighters in the field must make rapid course corrections, requiring accurate and rapid positioning or dead reckoning, so sensor resolution at small timescales is critical. Sensor scale-factor is critical to achieve high accuracy in such scenarios. Scale-factor is the relationship between the phenomena of interest to a measurable sensor signal. A large scale-factor in sensing inertial signals enables rapid dead reckoning and abrupt course correction for applications such as unmanned air, land, and water vehicles. MEMS sensor scale-factors have plateaued because of traditional approaches to operating sensors in linear vibration regimes. The NIMBUS Disruption Opportunity seeks to push MEMS sensor scale-factors beyond the existing plateau.
NIMBUS
Solicitation closed
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is issuing a Disruption Opportunity (DO), inviting submissions of innovative basic or applied research concepts in the technical domain of novel micro-mechanical oscillators for applications towards precision positioning and navigation systems.
This DO is issued under the Program Announcement for Disruptioneering, DARPA-PA-24-04.
All awards will be made in the form of an Other Transaction (OT) for Prototype project.
The total award value for the combined Phase 1 base (Feasibility Study) and Phase 2 option (Proof of Concept) is limited to $2,000,000.