Advanced technology often comes from straightforward solutions, and that is what the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) seeks with the addition of low-power devices from Microchip Technology to the DARPA Toolbox initiative. Via Toolbox, DARPA’s researchers gain availability to open-licensing opportunities from commercial suppliers such as Microchip, to use their commercial electronic products where they make most sense in defense and aerospace development projects. The agreement initially gives DARPA researchers no-cost access to the Microsoft Libero design software suite and associated intellectual property (IP) based on low-power, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).
“Microchip is committed to enabling DARPA researchers to reach higher and solve complex problems with our low-power and secure FPGA product families,” said Bruce Weyer, vice-president of Microchip’s FPGA business unit. “We are among the few semiconductor suppliers that are capable of completing the rigorous device qualification process for the military and spaceflight microelectronics products, and this expertise is embedded in the FPGA design software and IP that we are delivering through our streamlined DARPA Toolkit acquisition license.”
Especially important for space applications, Microchip offers radiation-tolerant components not available from other suppliers in the DARPA Toolkit program, including FPGAs, discrete MOSFETs, Zener diodes, power supplies, relays, and switches. For example, Microchip’s PolarFire product line of system-on-chip (SoC) devices are conditioned for use in space but with low-power consumption and high data security. They support miniaturized, dense circuit designs in which cost and heat dissipation must be controlled. Serge Leef, Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) program manager at DARPA and leader of the DARPA Toolbox initiative, says: “Partnering with Microchip through our DARPA Toolbox initiative gives our award-winning innovators streamlined access to the industry’s most advanced commercial technologies for solving such difficult aerospace and defense challenges as onboard satellite payload processing.”