The Pentagon is pioneering micro technology for just about every device,

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/05/micro-darpa-microchips

Nanotechnology goes to warThe Pentagon is pioneering micro technology for just about every device, from 10g video cameras to tiny atomic clocks on a chiP


David Hambling The Guardian,
Thursday 5 March 2009


Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of microcogs forming a microgear mechanism. Photograph: David Parker/Science Photo Library

Wouldn't it be handy if everything we needed to build the next generation of portable devices and robots were available on a microchip? You could just plug in a navigation system, a radar sensor, cryogenic cooling system, or even a miniature power unit. For laboratory applications, there would be micro versions of everything from mass spectrometers to magnetic sensors. The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), the Pentagon's extreme science wing, aims to provide all this, and more, in handy "matchbook size" electronic packages.

Forty years ago, Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel, accurately predicted that the cost of processing power would halve every two years. We have come to expect devices to get smaller, cheaper and more powerful over time. Now the revolution is spreading to other types of device. The development of mems (microelectromechanical systems) has already paved the way for "lab-on-a-chip" chemical analysis. Such breakthroughs tend to come from the military rather than industry.

"Darpa was instrumental in helping support much of the initial development of lab-on-a-chip in the early 90s," says Jon Cooper, Wolfson chair of bioengineering at the University of Glasgow. "The technologies enabled a number of US startup companies to develop miniaturised chips for faster biological analysis, giving them the necessary long-term support to grow."

Cool runnings

Now Darpa is miniaturising many new devices. Some electronics require very low temperatures, such as superconducting circuits and infra-red sensors, and the entire component is chilled by a bulky cooling system. The low-power micro-cryogenic cooler program will cool only the exact spot needed.

[babylonsister]

1. They're keeping up with the Joneses, and everyone else. Or so

I'd like to believe.

[anigbrowl]

2. W00T. DARPA is part of publicly funded science

Like this here internet thingy. I'm toally down with what they do, even if some of it ends up in weapons development.