UF will begin a research program today that will aim to develop more reliable computer chips for military communications and radar.
The Center for a 21st Century Approach to Electronic Reliability, based in the College of Engineering, will host representatives from the U.S. Navy and Air Force at its day-long kickoff meeting.
Mark Law, the center's principle investigator, said the center, funded by a $6.5 million grant from the Department of Defense Air Force Office of Scientific Research, will investigate why the military's computer chips have been failing recently.
Unlike standard computer chips, which are made from silicon, military chips are made from aluminum gallium nitride.
Law said the center will use its faculty's expertise in both standard and military-style chips to help make the technology more reliable.
"Blending those two areas of research is what helped us win this contract," he said.
The chips are comparable to the antennas attached to cell phones, he said, because they help amplify signals sent by radar and communications equipment.
The military's newest generation of chips is designed to handle high-frequency signals.
Signals with higher frequencies are able to transmit more data, he explained, likening the concept to high-speed wireless Internet.
The chips could allow the air- and land-based radar systems and communications satellites to transmit larger images over greater distances.
The five-year Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative will bring together faculty in electrical engineering, chemical engineering and materials science, as well as 18 doctoral students.
Timothy Anderson, associate dean for research of the College of Engineering, said earning a federal government research grant is competitive.
A small percentage of the proposals submitted by universities - roughly one in five - typically gets approved, he said.
In March, the Department of Defense's MURI program gave more than $200 million in research grants to 64 universities.
Law said universities receiving MURI grants for similar research included the Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, North Carolina State University, Vanderbilt University, the University of California-Santa Barbara and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
That puts UF in good company among nationally recognized research institutions, he added.
