Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), Contracts Management Office (CMO), 3701 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-1714

A -- ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS MANUFACTURING AND DESIGN SUPPORT FOR MIXED- TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION SOL BAA 96-16 DUE 053096 POC R.E. Harr, ARPA/ETO, FAX (703) 696-2206. PROGRAM OBJECTIVES AND DESCRIPTION: The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) is soliciting innovative research proposals and abstracts in the areas of Electronic Systems Manufacturing (ESM) and Design Support for Mixed-Technology Integration. Electronic systems and subsystems represent about 40% of the defense acquisition budget and are the critical enabling technology that differentiates our weapon systems. As the Department of Defense (DoD) downsizes, it has become increasingly important to keep access to affordable, advanced electronics technology by leveraging the high volume, leading edge, merchant manufacturing infrastructure. Historically, unique DoD requirements and relatively small production volumes have been incongruent with the merchant community's focus on high volume commodity products. ARPA, through this solicitation, seeks to alleviate those barriers by increasing the flexibility of the merchant ESM infrastructure and streamlining the process by which new products are designed and transferred to manufacturing. For the longer term, the goal is to eliminate much of the need for complex assembly processes through the exploitation of micro-machined, mixed technology integration at the component and module level. The applications of greatest interest are compact information products which sense, process, store, and communicate information. Examples in this class are personal digital assistants, smart munitions and decoys, wireless communicators, and distributed sensor systems. This class of system represents a large fraction of future DoD and commercial products, and is driving many aspects of the manufacturing infrastructure. To provide cost effective access to a core set of Electronic Systems Manufacturing (ESM) processes, proposals are sought in the areas of 1) electronic brokering of components to enable quick turn-around, low cost access to printed circuit board (PCB) assembly, 2) physical design tools for the efficient design of electronic systems and subsystems, 3) simplified, flexible manufacturing processes with the potential to dramatically reduce the cost to manufacture compact information products, and 4) applications which leverage the technologies developed under prior ARPA Electronics Technology Office programs in electronic packaging. In the near future, it may become practical to integrate electronic, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), electro-optical, and micro-fluidic devices on a monolithic substrate or highly integrated module. In order to take advantage of these emerging micro-devices and manufacturing processes, proposals are sought for design technology (tools, methodology, and architectures) to support device and systems design of mixed-technology integrated systems. Of particular interest is design technology to support composite electronic systems composed of hundreds to millions of tightly coupled, mixed-technology devices. It is perceived that the developed design technology should 1) allow the design capture, modeling and analysis of functional and physical aspects of interdependent electronic, mechanical and optical device technology structures, 2) provide a rich support for mixed technology, parameter based device libraries in a systems specification and analysis environment, and 3) enable complex, simultaneous visualization of the physical and functional system. Proposals are also sought in other areas which support the general objectives of this BAA, which address a critical issue or opportunity not being adequately addressed elsewhere, and which is of farther out interest to ARPA/ETO. Areas of identified interest include 1) the design of micro-fluidic components and systems for controlled on-chip processing of biological and chemical fluids, and 2) sensor and signal processing design in light of a new model of computation that applies distributed, adaptive signal processing to the digital battlefield environment. ARPA is seeking to build a generic technology base that serves both critical military needs as well as leverages the expanding commercial markets for small and hand held communications, navigation, sensing and information products. Preference will be given to offerors with a demonstrated track record in serving dual-use markets and proposals which support other ARPA and DoD programs in the areas of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS), Electronic Packaging, Microwave technologies and commercial manufacturing of electronic systems. Additional information on technologies of interest is provided in the Areas of Interest section of the BAA 96-16 Proposer Information Pamphlet referenced below. PROGRAM SCOPE: Proposed efforts should not exceed thirty-six (36) months in length. Because the topic areas of this solicitation and the expected technology solutions span multiple disciplines and capabilities, the formation where appropriate of focused, ''vertical'' teaming arrangements to integrate the diverse areas is encouraged. Cost sharing is highly desirable, especially where large commercial market opportunities exist. Awards totaling $50 million over the three years are expected during the second half of calendar year 1996. Multiple awards are anticipated with approximately two thirds of the awards in the area of Electronic Systems Manufacturing. Representatives from the military services will participate in source selection, contracting, and management of the awards. GENERAL INFORMATION: Proposers must obtain a pamphlet entitled ''BAA 96-16 Proposer Information Pamphlet'' (PIP) which provides further information on areas of interest, the submission, evaluation, and funding processes, proposal abstract formats, proposal formats, and other general information. This pamphlet may be obtained by fax, electronic mail, or mail request to the administrative contact address given below. Proposals not meeting the format described in the pamphlet may not be reviewed. In order to minimize unnecessary effort in proposal preparation and review, proposers are strongly encouraged to submit proposal abstracts in advance of full proposals. An original and five (5) copies of the proposal abstract must be submitted to ARPA/ETO, 3701 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-1714 (ATTN.: BAA 96-16) on or before 4:00 P.M., Thursday, April 18, 1996. Proposal abstracts received after this date may not be reviewed. Upon review, ARPA will provide written feedback on the likelihood of a full proposal being selected. Proposers not submitting proposal abstracts must submit an original and ten (10) copies of the full proposal to ARPA/ETO, 3701 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-1714 (ATTN: BAA 96-16), on or before Thursday, May 30,1996 in order to be considered. This notice, in conjunction with the BAA 96-16 Proposer Information Pamphlet, constitutes the total BAA. No additional information is available, nor will a formal RFP or other solicitation regarding this announcement be issued. Requests for the same will be disregarded. The Government reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals received. All responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit a proposal which shall be considered by ARPA. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Institutions (MIs) are encouraged to submit proposals and join others in submitting proposals, however, no portion of this BAA will be set aside for HBCU and MI participation due to the impracticality of reserving discrete or severable areas of research in electronic systems manufacturing and design support for mixed-technology integration. All administrative correspondence and questions on this solicitation, including requests for information on how to submit a proposal abstract or proposal to this BAA, should be directed to one of the administrative addresses below, e-mail or fax is preferred. ARPA intends to use electronic mail and fax for correspondence regarding BAA 96-16. Proposals and proposal abstracts may not be submitted by fax or e-mail, any so sent will be disregarded. ARPA encourages use of the World Wide Web (WWW) for retrieving the PIP. EVALUATION CRITERIA: Evaluation of proposal abstracts and proposals will be accomplished through a technical review of each proposal using the following criteria, which are listed in descending order of relative importance: (l) overall scientific and technical merit. (2) potential contribution and relevance to ARPA mission, (3) plans and capability to accomplish technology transition and commercialization, (4) offeror's capabilities and related experience, and (5) cost realism. Note: cost realism will only be significant in proposals which have significantly under or over estimated the cost to complete their effort. The administrative addresses for this BAA are: Fax (703) 351-8616 (Addressed to: ARPA/ETO, BAA 96-16), Electronic Mail: BAA96-16@arpa.mil, Mail: ARPA/ETO, ATTN: BAA 96-16, 3701 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-1714. This announcement may be retrieved via the WWW at URL http://www.arpa.mil/ in the solicitations area. (0073)

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