DARPA is seeking is to identify technology investment opportunities that may significantly expand next-generation inspection of macroscale objects through advances in high-energy source technology and motion-based signal processing, which are expected to play a major role in future civilian and military systems.
Respondents may be invited to attend a DARPA sponsored workshop to be held 25 June 2023 in association with the 2023 IEEE Pulsed Power Conference in Texas. Attendance can be in-person or virtual.
Focus Areas
- High-brightness, compact pulsed X-ray sources – new approaches to producing highly penetrating, coherent, energetic X-ray photons in very compact sizes, along with an estimate of how long it might take to mature these concepts to a demonstration. Continuous-wave (CW) and nuclear/radioisotope sources are out of scope.
- Analysis of alternatives – alternate, innovative approaches that might create equivalent or better imaging products than an X-ray source, while maintaining a compact form factor, to performing moving object CT, along with an estimate of how long it might take to mature these concepts to a demonstration. Examples include, but are not limited to, millimeter wave, electron beam and neutron sources. CW and nuclear/radioisotope sources are out of scope.
- Data processing – The challenges of very low SNR CT in an uncontrolled setting requires innovation in 2D and 3D image recovery.
Submissions are due 15 June 2023.
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Supporting document
RFI – Compact Pulsed High-Energy Sources for Macro-Scale Object Inspection: DARPA-SN-23-71
