Potomac Research LLC — Department of Defense STTR Phase II: A18B-T001
Potomac Research LLC — STTR Phase II award from Department of Defense.
Phase II STTR prototype / development signal
- Phase II is where Department of Defense funds deeper R&D after feasibility. Incumbents with Phase II history are serious competitors on adjacent topics.
- Use this award as past-performance context and to map customer organizations for STRATFI/TACFI-style transition planning.
- Obligated amount $1,069,717 is consistent with substantial Phase II-scale effort; compare to related awards from the same agency.
- Topic code A18B-T001 links this award to a solicitation family — search the same topic stem for incumbents and recompete timing.
- Amount
- $1,069,717
- Agency
- Department of Defense · Army
- Program / Phase
- STTR · Phase II
- Topic
- A18B-T001
- Solicitation
- 18.B
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- VA
- Period
- 2020-01-06 → 2022-01-06
Description
Physically uncloneable functions (PUFs) have the potential to revolutionize cybersecurity by forming the basis for next-generation secure networks and trusted computing environments. During Phase I, Potomac Research and OSU evaluated of three physically uncloneable function (PUF) designs that can be implemented on COTS FPGAs. One design based on hybrid Boolean networks (HBN-PUFs) emerged as the clearly superior design, and it provides state-of-the-art uniqueness and robustness, with vastly higher entropy, compared existing digital electronic and emerging nano-technology designs. The HBN-PUF has unique properties that we believe make it significantly less vulnerable to machine learning (ML) attacks that many other PUF designs have succumbed to, as well as enabling novel use cases in tamper-proofing and trusted computing. The proposed Phase II project is to more fully develop the theory of HBN-PUF operation, evaluate its ML-resistance, perform preliminary experiments on novel applications for supply chain security, evaluate its robustness to temperature and voltage variations, and to package it for commercialization.