Advanced Technology

R&D in advanced technology focuses on inventing new materials, devices, and components to enable revolutionary system capabilities. We pursue innovation in a wide set of areas, including imagers, lasers, quantum computing, microsystems, RF technology, and chemical sensors.

Advanced Imager Technology
Advanced Materials and Microsystems
Laser Technology and Applications
Microsystems Prototyping Foundry
Quantum Information and Integrated Nanosystems
RF Technology

Our group has pioneered imaging technologies that have enabled some of the world's most powerful telescopes and cameras for the defense and scientific communities. These technologies include charge-coupled-device (CCD) imagers for astronomical instruments, single-photon-sensitive imagers for foliage-penetrating ladar systems, and digital-pixel focal plane arrays for wide-area infrared cameras.

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When NASA made history in 2013 with the longest laser communication link ever demonstrated (from a Moon-orbiting satellite to Earth), our group was behind the satellite's laser transmitter and the ground terminals' highly sensitive photon detectors that enabled the link. We have a long history of developing advanced solid-state, fiber, and diode laser technologies for the scientific and defense communities.

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In the Media

Faces of MIT: Melissa Smith PhD ’12

Jan 28

MIT News

A researcher makes adjustments to a dilution refrigerator, a large piece of hardware for cooling quantum systems.

In the Media

How 'clean' does a quantum computing test facility need to be?

Dec 18

PNNL

A computer-generated image of the AXIS telescope in space.

In the Media

AXIS mission selected as NASA Astrophysics Probe competition finalist

Oct 29

MIT News

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A magnified view of superconducting circuits.

computing

Superconducting Content-Addressable Memories (SuperCAMs)

Unconventional memory circuits can accelerate data processing in cyber sensing devices by reducing the latency of matching complex data patterns to specialized processing pipelines.

A prototype reflectarray faces a feed horn in an anechoic chamber.

communications

Mitigating cellular network congestion through adaptive beamforming with reflectarrays

A low-cost, reconfigurable radio receiver architecture provides an alternative approach to filter out unwanted transmissions in millimeter-wave (MMW) signals.

A schematic showing optical ground terminals and satellites transmitting data via lasercom links across the Earth and to the Moon.

laser communications

Guiding Light in Air-Filled Fibers for Long-Distance Lasercom

A new type of fiber could transmit the high-power light needed for future deep-space science and exploration missions.

An illustration of data being sent across a laser from a small satellite to a ground station on Earth.

laser communications

TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD)

The laser communications payload has delivered terabytes of data from a satellite to Earth at record-breaking rates that will transform future science missions.

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The people here at the Laboratory really push for their peers to be successful, which is something I greatly appreciate.

Michael Vixamar

FPGA/Firmware Engineer

Advanced Technology

Advanced Imager Technology

I was drawn in by the scope of the technology research being conducted and the opportunities that would be available for me to grow professionally and personally.

Sara Canzano

Advanced Packaging Engineer

Advanced Technology

Advanced Imager Technology

Sara smiles for a photo wearing a green floral shirt. She is outside, with grass in the background.

Within my first few months at the Laboratory, I pitched a new idea for growing quantum diamonds with one of my colleagues, and it was funded internally through the Technology Office.