[Dan McCann]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is soliciting research proposals for grating-based integrated circuit layout design and patterning. The goal of the Gratings of Regular Arrays and Trim Exposures program is to develop innovative new circuit design methodologies combined with grating-based lithography tools to enable cost-effective, low-volume nanofabrication for DoD applications.

The novel circuit design methodologies will enable simplified physical layout implementation of circuits by leveraging regular geometries. Overall circuit densities and performance will not be sacrificed when using these new design approaches. The simplified circuit design geometries will be implemented using ultra-high-resolution grating patterns that can be fabricated at high throughput using either mask-based or maskless (interference) lithography.

Cost-effective, low-volume microfabrication will be achieved by lowering the design and fabrication costs of custom application-specific integrated circuits, enabling maskless interference-based patterning with practical throughputs, and improving yield resulting from regular circuit patters.

The deadline for filing a proposal is Feb. 3, 2010. DARPA contact for the project is Michael Fritze; he can be reached via email at DARPA-BAA-10-12@darpa.mil.

To read the entire DARPA solicitation document, visit: