Air Force asks industry to develop new electro-optical and electronic materials for electronic warfare (EW)
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio – U.S. Air Force researchers are asking industry to develop new electronic, photonic, electro-optical, and quantum materials for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), and electronic warfare (EW).
Officials of the Electronic Materials Branch of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Materials and Manufacturing Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, issued a solicitation on Friday (FA865023S5012) for the Materials for Integrated Nano-electronic and Optoelectronic Structures (MINOS) project.
MINOS seeks to enhance electronic, electro-optical, photonic, magnetic, ferroic, and quantum materials; wide-bandgap and ultra wide-bandgap semiconductors; digital and analog switching materials; electronic materials integration; and hybrid systems to enable next- generation ISR and EW systems for Air Force applications.
Air Force missions require sustained operations in extremely harsh environmental conditions, researchers explain. As a result, researchers need material advances for electronic, photonic, electro-optical, and quantum materials.
MINOS contractors will perform research in photonic, electro-optical, and quantum materials for ISR and EW applications. This includes solid-state qubits; optical, RF, and hybrid material technologies; modulator materials, RF magnetic materials and materials for integrated photonics; and electro-optical sensing.
MINOS seeks to develop and demonstrate electronic, photonic, electro-optical and quantum materials, including prototypes, models, and computational tools. Researchers want industry to develop new materials through physical vapor and chemical vapor deposition processes to grow magnetic, electronic, opto- electronic, and optical thin films for pulsed laser deposition, sputtering, molecular beam epitaxy, atomic layer deposition, and molecular layer deposition.
The contractors chosen will be asked to fabricate materials into different shapes and sizes, and create areas that are conducting (like metals), semiconducting (like dichalgenides) or insulating (like oxides and nitrides) using focused ion beam, ultra violet lithography, nano lithography, e-beam lithography, reactive ion etching, wet chemical treatment involving acids and solvents, metal vaporation and sputtering, ion implantation, and mechanical and electronic fixture arrangements.
Companies interested should email responses no later than 17 March to the Air Force's Mark Wade at [email protected] and Lorie Walther at [email protected].
Companies that expect to submit proposals should email Lorie Walther by 10 March 2023 with the name of the contractor, the point of contact, and the contractor’s intent to submit a proposal, at [email protected].
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
