Abstract:
The environment for U.S. national security has become increasingly complex in the 21st century. These evolving national security challenges have resulted in an increased demand for technical capabilities to address strategic defense, nuclear nonproliferation, counterterrorism, cyber security, and homeland security. We must also ensure a secure and sustainable energy future, which includes energy supply issues as well as considerations about our energy infrastructure and climate change.
Sandia National Laboratories is one of the largest and most technically diverse of the 17 labs run by the U.S. Department of Energy. We are at the forefront of advancing the state of science and engineering in select fields to address this breadth of national security challenges. We focus on developing and using leading-edge tools and techniques in high-performance computational systems and engineering analysis software. Fully integrating computational simulation with hardware design and testing has become a dominant theme in the engineering community to reduce costs and improve confidence in product performance. I will describe the way we exercise our high-performance, validated engineering codes for design, development, and qualification of high-reliability products.
Two other important themes for systems-level engineering are design for manufacturability and for lifecycle reliability. In this context, an important new enabling technology is additive manufacturing, where complex designs can be directly fabricated using computer-aided deposition systems. Another critical capability is a deep understanding of materials lifetimes under a range of operating conditions, which is especially important for Sandia products that must last decades in many cases.
Miniaturization and integration using microelectronic devices is an additional critical consideration in engineering design. Sandia operates two integrated circuit lines, one for silicon devices and one for compound semiconductors. Our unique capabilities in micro-device integration also address ruggedness and radiation tolerance. Further capabilities for micro-electronics will incorporate advanced nano-technologies. I’ll discuss these all trends and opportunities with Sandia National Laboratories. |
