DARPA Electronics Resurgence Initiative

Page Last Updated 06/20/19

On June 1, 2017, the DARPA Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) announced a new Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI) to ensure far-reaching improvements in electronics performance well beyond the limits of traditional scaling. ERI draws on new and existing DARPA programs to make a significant investment into enabling circuit specialization and managing complexity. Building on the tradition of other successful government-industry partnerships, ERI aims to forge forward-looking collaborations among the commercial electronics community, defense industrial base, university researchers, and the DoD to create a more specialized, secure, and heavily automated electronics industry that serves the needs of both the domestic commercial and defense sectors.

ERI Overview and Structure

Moore’s Law, defined on pages one and two of Gordon Moore’s seminal 1965 paper entitled “Cramming More Components onto Integrated Circuits,” has guided the electronics industry for more than 50 years. The continued realization of this Law, however, is challenged on both technical and economic grounds. Page three of Moore’s paper described research areas required to manage this possibility. In deference to Moore’s ideas, ERI investments are organized into the areas he described - Architectures, Designs, and Materials and Integration:

• The Architectures Thrust asks whether the electronics community can enjoy the benefits of specialized circuitry while still relying on general programming constructs through the proper software/hardware co-design
• The Designs Thrust asks whether the electronics community can dramatically lower the barriers to modern system-on-chip design and unleash a new era of circuit and system specialization and innovation
• The Materials and Integration Thrust asks whether the integration of unconventional materials can enhance conventional silicon circuits and continue the progress traditionally associated with scaling

In July 2018, DARPA officially kicked off six “Page 3” programs aligned to these thrust areas. In November 2018, DARPA announced the initiation of ERI Phase II, which builds on the existing ERI thrusts areas to address issues regarding enforcing electronics security and privacy; provide access to differentiated electronics capabilities; and maximize the impact of ERI investments on national defense applications. Today, ERI encompasses over 19 programs, including eight foundational programs that lay the Initiative’s early groundwork; six “Page 3” programs that call for new approaches to microelectronics materials and integration, architectures, and designs; and six “Phase II” programs that emphasize electronics security and privacy, differentiated capabilities from domestic suppliers, and novel defense applications. By drawing on the recommendations found in Gordon Moore's seminal 1965 paper and building on the tradition of successful government-industry partnerships, ERI is working to create a more specialized, secure, and heavily automated electronics industry that meets the needs of both the national defense community as well as the domestic commercial industry.

Working with ERI

ERI aims to more constructively enmesh the technology needs and capabilities of the defense enterprise with the commercial and manufacturing realities of the electronics industry. To facilitate collaboration, this page will provide regular updates on ERI-related broad agency announcements, programs, and events. One such event is the second annual ERI Summit, June 15 – 17, in Detroit. It will feature leading voices, 11 collaboration workshops, and 14 DARPA Program Managers.