The Defense Department buys big-ticket items, but sometimes it concentrates on the very small.
Consider the U.S. Air Force contract recently awarded to Varioscale Inc. of San Marcos.
Under the five-year, $23.8 million deal announced Nov. 23, Varioscale “will seek to develop a prototype analysis tool for acquiring the images and reconstructing all layers (up to 13 metal layers) from a 10 [nanometer] integrated circuit chip within an analysis area of 1 [centimeter] squared.”
The project is called RAVEN, short for Rapid Analysis of Various Emerging Nanoelectrons.
Work will be performed in San Marcos and is expected to run through early 2022.
Twelve companies bid on the work.
The Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio awarded the contract.
Varioscale is privately held.
