Single Chip Timing and Inertial Measurement Unit (TIMU) | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The DARPA Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) 11-10, titled "Single Chip Timing and Inertial Measurement Unit (TIMU)," is a research and development funding opportunity run by DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office (MTO). The core aim of the TIMU program is to push microscale navigation technology toward a self-contained, single-chip system that can deliver precise timing, position, and orientation without relying on external navigation aids. In practical terms, DARPA is looking for breakthroughs that would enable advanced precision navigation, guidance, and control for military platforms where size, weight, power, and robustness are critical.

Technically, the opportunity centers on developing a miniature, self-sufficient navigation capability with extremely aggressive size and power targets: roughly 10 mm^3 in volume and about 200 mW in power consumption. The performance target highlighted in the synopsis is a Circular Error Probable (CEP) of 1 nautical mile per hour, which is a way of expressing how quickly position error accumulates when operating without external fixes. The emphasis on integrating "Timing and Inertial Measurement Units" into a single-chip architecture signals that DARPA wants proposers to address both precision inertial sensing (accelerometers and gyroscopes at microscale) and precision timing (clock stability) in a tightly integrated design. The point is not just to make components smaller, but to rethink manufacturing approaches and system architectures so the end result is compact, low-power, and capable of accurate navigation over meaningful time periods.

From an administrative and process perspective, the notice includes multiple amendments that mainly adjust proposal logistics rather than changing the technical thrust. Amendment 01 revised the abstract due date, and Amendment 02 revised the full proposal due date, with those changes called out in the revised DARPA BAA 11-10 document. A later Amendment 2a made an administrative system change to ensure the application package was available to applicants. The original posting date for the opportunity is October 18, 2010. Initially, abstracts were due by noon Eastern on November 24, 2010 and full proposals by noon Eastern on January 25, 2011, but the amended schedule moved the abstract deadline to noon Eastern on December 1, 2010 and shifted the full proposal deadline to noon Eastern on February 7, 2011. The listing also shows an archive date of August 8, 2011, indicating when the opportunity was formally archived in the system.

In terms of award and eligibility, the opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding and lists multiple potential funding instrument types, including cooperative agreements, grants, other procurement contracts, and unspecified "other" instruments, which is typical for DARPA BAAs where award type can depend on the nature of the work and the proposer. The activity category is Science and Technology and other Research and Development, and it is associated with CFDA number 12.910 (Research and Technology Development). Cost sharing is not required. Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning it is broadly open to qualified entities, subject to any specific clarifications that may appear in the full announcement.

For applicants, the key takeaway is that DARPA is soliciting high-risk, high-reward R&D concepts that can overcome the engineering challenges of combining precision timing with microscale inertial sensing in a single-chip, self-contained navigation solution. That implies proposals would likely need to address device physics, microfabrication and packaging, integration strategies, calibration and compensation methods, noise and drift reduction, power management, and system-level architectures that can meet the stated SWaP (size, weight, and power) and performance goals. The notice directs interested parties to the full DARPA BAA 11-10 document (via the MTO solicitations page) for complete technical areas, submission instructions, and evaluation criteria. The contact listed for access issues is Dr. Andrei Shkel, identified as the MTO BAA Coordinator.

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