Boise State awarded $2.7m for extreme electronics
Boise State has received a $2.7 million award through NextFlex, the US Department of Defense’s flexible hybrid electronics manufacturing institute, to establish the centre for Reconfigurable Analog van der Waals Engines for Non-von-Neumann Sensing (RAVEN).
The 15-month project is in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory and begins in Oct. 2026.
RAVEN will build the personnel, governance and instrumentation needed to take advanced 2D materials from initial design through growth, device integration and qualification for use in extreme environments — the heat, radiation, vibration and particulate exposure that Air Force sensors encounter in the field.
The work targets a specific bottleneck. Advanced sensors on uncrewed aircraft generate far more data than the platform can process or transmit, and conventional computing hardware consumes power that would otherwise extend flight time or support additional sensors. 2D quantum materials offer a path toward sensors that perform computation at the point of collection, reducing both power draw and reliance on data links that may be degraded or denied.
The award builds on prior federal investment at Boise State, which operates an Aixtron close-coupled showerhead 2D MOCVD reactor — described as among the most capable university-based wafer-scale 2D synthesis tools in the world, acquired with earlier NextFlex and AFRL support.
RAVEN funds the surrounding capability the reactor has lacked: advanced optical metrology including confocal Raman and second harmonic generation microscopy, advances for 2D material inks for submicron direct-write printing of sensors and advanced packaging, rheological and thermomechanical characterisation and a mobile autonomous testbed for field deployment.
“Establishing the RAVEN centre at Boise State University will enhance our ability to conduct research of high relevance to the Department of War and advance in-sensor computing for the nation,” said David Estrada (pictured above), professor of materials science and engineering at Boise State and director of the RAVEN centre.
The award establishes RAVEN as a shared user facility, funding technical staff, safety and training infrastructure and a technical services model that will allow researchers from other universities, government laboratories and industry to access the capability.
“Research that enables sensing systems to operate more effectively in extreme and contested environments is increasingly important to the Air Force,” said Emily Heckman, principal research engineer of the Air Force Research Laboratory. “AFRL is pleased to support Boise State’s RAVEN program to advance 2D materials and in-sensor computing capabilities while building a skilled workforce and shared research infrastructure for the future.”
