The U.S. Army Research Laboratory

01shell-detail02The U.S. Army Research Laboratory’s (ARL), Army Research Office’s (ARO) initial concept of exploring DNA as a tagging and tracking method has led to the discovery of an optical scanning technology that can identify counterfeit electronic components before they are integrated into Army materiel.
The technology also provides the capability to identify and track materiel in the absence of external tags or barcodes.
This timely discovery will help address a significant challenge within the Army and DoD: the presence of counterfeit electronic components in military equipment.

2 thoughts on “The U.S. Army Research Laboratory

  1. shinichi Post author

    ARL-Funded Research Leads to Serendipitous Discovery of Optical Scanning Method to Identify Counterfeit Electronics and Covertly Track Materiel

    http://www.arl.army.mil/www/?page=1800

    ARO’s initial concept of exploring DNA as a tagging and tracking method has led to the discovery of an optical scanning technology that can identify counterfeit electronic components before they are integrated into Army materiel.

    The technology also provides the capability to identify and track materiel in the absence of external tags or barcodes.

    This timely discovery will help address a significant challenge within the Army and DoD: the presence of counterfeit electronic components in military equipment.

    Reply
  2. shinichi Post author

    US Military Biomimetic Tagging Preventing Electronic Counterfeits

    by Jonathan Keane

    http://www.industrytap.com/us-military-biomimetic-tagging-preventing-electronic-counterfeits/5101

    The US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and Army Research Office (ARO) have announced the development of optical scanning technology that will be able to identify counterfeit electronic components. The technology is hoped to prevent any bogus army materiel.

    ARO first began exploring the possibilities of DNA as a tagging and tracking method, to aid the tracking of the use of counterfeit materiel that do not have barcodes or external tags.

    The development, which looks much like a small chip uses a DKET system to analyse the surface of equipment to gauge its authenticity.

    US tech company ChromoLogic were hired to address this problem. They developed a tag with a biomimetic barcode that can be “aligned in the proper order and decoded by an optical reader”. This is quite similar to technology that reads a sequence of DNA molecules.

    “This biomimetic tag and reader system has robust information-storage capabilities that are unambiguous and readily authenticated, with no reagent or material exchange between the tag and reader,” according to a statement released by ARL and ARO.

    Counterfeit equipment has posed an issue for the US army in the past, which causes a whole host of risks according to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Senator Carl Levin, stating that the “flood of counterfeit parts, overwhelmingly from China, threatens national security, the safety of our troops, and American jobs.”

    ChromoLogic, who are continuing the development of the technology is based in California, describes itself as “a pioneer in next generation diagnostic technology focusing on critical problems in both physical and biological systems”.

    Reply

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