The United States military is working to develop "transient" electronics that can be destroyed by remote control.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has struck a $3.5 million deal with tech giant IBM to fund the project, BBC reported. The self-destructing electronics would be used in combat zones.
DARPA's goal is to make networks of data sensors that can garner information for a set amount of time and then be destroyed remotely to stay out of the enemy's hands.
The Vanishing Programmable Resources (VAPR) program seeks electronic systems capable of physically disappearing in a controlled, triggerable manner," DARPA explained on the VAPR page.
"These transient electronics should have performance comparable to commercial-off-the-shelf electronics, but with limited device persistence that can be programmed, adjusted in real-time, triggered and/or be sensitive to the deployment environment."
According to the grant award notice for the Vanishing Programmable Resources project, IBM plans to trigger glass to shatter through a radio frequency signal. The shattered glass on a silicon chip would reduce it to powder.
"A trigger, such as a fuse or a reactive metal layer will be used to initiate shattering, in at least one location, on the glass substrate," the U.S. government said.
DARPA will apply the devices as field sensors to collect data from larger areas, ZDNet reported. The data-collecting technology could also monitor health, diagnosis and treatment among those in the field.
U.S. defense also gave a $2.1 million grant to Palo Alto Research Center, which focuses on "bioinformatics and large-area electronics," according to BBC.
Along with PARC and IBM, two other companies are working on transient electronics: Honeywell Aerospace, which was awarded a $2.5 million grant, and SRI International, awarded $4.7 million late last year.
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