Aeluma wins $11.717 million DARPA contract
Aeluma has been awarded funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop heterogeneous integration technology compatible with leading edge and future advanced-node semiconductors with potential applications in AI, mobile devices and 5G/6G wireless communication.
Aeluma Founder and CEO, Jonathan Klamkin, Ph.D. commented, "This award from DARPA provides significant, non-dilutive R&D funding and has ambitious goals relevant to our commercialization efforts." Dr. Klamkin continued, "The successful outcomes in heterogeneous integration would be transformational for the broad semiconductor microelectronics industry."
DARPA aims at high performance, nanometer-scale components that are compatible with leading edge and future advanced-node semiconductor manufacturing processes under this new program, Material Synthesis Technologies for Universal and Diverse Integration Opportunities (M-STUDIO). These themes are synergistic with Aeluma's mission to solve challenging problems by scaling high performance semiconductors with mass market microelectronics manufacturing.
"DARPA's decision to invest in Aeluma's scalable semiconductor platform demonstrates confidence in our technology and its potential to improve emerging end products," said Aeluma's Director of Technology, Matthew Dummer, Ph.D. "We believe this contract, along with the multiple other contract investments we have received, will accelerate Aeluma's business traction."
DARPA, as described on its website, explicitly reaches for transformational change instead of incremental advances. Notable examples include not only significant military capabilities such as precision weapons and stealth technology, but also icons of modern civilian society such as the Internet, automated voice recognition and language translation, and Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers small enough for consumer devices.
This DARPA contract to Aeluma is structured with $5.974 million provided over 18 months, and the $5.743 million balance provided over the following 18 months as Aeluma meets certain milestones. Teledyne Scientific Company, the Central Research Laboratory of Teledyne, is a proposed subcontractor to assist with defining target materials and with developing strategies for demonstrating program metrics. The University of California Santa Barbara is also a proposed subcontractor to support the implementation of test devices.
Aeluma previously announced awards from the Navy, the Office of Secretary of Defense and the Department of Energy to apply its technology to defense & aerospace, quantum computing, energy, and communication applications. The latest award from DARPA represents a major step toward advancing Aeluma's technology and applying it to advanced-node semiconductors, which is a primary focus of the CHIPS and Science Act.
