Microchip joins DARPA toolbox initiative for easier technology access

Microchip Technology announced that it has joined the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Toolbox initiative that gives the organization’s researchers simplified open licensing opportunities with commercial technology vendors.

Microchip’s participation will speed innovation across a variety of defense and aerospace development programs by giving qualified DARPA researchers zero-cost access to the company’s Libero design software suite and associated intellectual property for developing systems based on its low-power FPGA product families.

“As the industry’s largest microelectronics suppliers to the military and aerospace markets, 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, VP of Microchip’s FPGA business unit.

He added: “We are among the few semiconductor suppliers that are capable of completing the rigorous device qualification process for 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.”

Microchip is currently the only technology company in the DARPA program to offer radiation-tolerant FPGAs, MOSFETs, zenor diodes, transistors, ASICS, linear regulators, microcontrollers, oscillators, atomic clocks, power supplies, relays, switches, and other microelectronic solutions that can survive conditions in space and other harsh military and defense environments.

The PolarFire product family includes PolarFire, PolarFire System on Chip and Radiation Tolerant PolarFire devices, all offering up to 50 percent lower power, best-in- class security, and a side channel resistant CRI pass-through license on data security devices and FPGA configuration cell upset immunity. The PolarFire product family gives DARPA researchers new tools to solve complex problems where high levels of operating performance and density must be combined with low heat dissipation, power consumption, and system-level costs.

“Microchip’s participation in our DARPA Toolbox initiative gives our researchers streamlined access to the industry’s most advanced commercial technologies for solving difficult aerospace and defense challenges, such as onboard satellite payload processing,” said Serge Leef, the Microsystems Technology Office program manager at DARPA leading the DARPA Toolbox initiative. “Microchip’s portfolio of soft IP cores provides our researchers with a powerful option for implementing designs ranging from high-resolution passive and active imaging systems to precision remote scientific measurement equipment, multi-spectral and hyper-spectral imaging solutions, and object detection and recognition systems using neural networks.