OSW-Reliance 21 SBIR OSW26BZ06-DV027: Monolithic Graphene-CMOS Broadband UV to LWIR Focal Plane Arrays
Quick Answer
OSW26BZ06-DV027 is a Direct to Phase II SBIR topic under the Office of the Secretary of War, Reliance 21, 2026 SBIR Broad Agency Announcement, Release 6. Phase I proposals will not be accepted. The Navy wants one detector that sees from 300 nanometers to 10,000 nanometers, built by putting graphene directly on a CMOS readout wafer instead of bonding a separate detector array to it. The award is $2,000,000 over 24 months, with a 20-page technical volume. The topic opens September 23, 2026 and closes October 21, 2026 through the Defense SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal.
The argument for it is one sentence in the topic and it is a good one: you cannot detect something you cannot see. Today every wavelength band needs its own material system. Aluminum gallium nitride for ultraviolet, silicon-based devices for near infrared, indium gallium arsenide for short-wave infrared, mercury cadmium telluride and III-V strain-layer superlattices for mid-wave and long-wave infrared. Each is a separate supply chain, a separate cost structure, and a separate camera.
The incumbent approach also has specific, quantified limits. Indium gallium arsenide photodiode arrays for short-wave infrared are hybridized to a silicon readout integrated circuit by indium-bump flip-chip bonding. That is a mature approach but constrained by high unit cost, a limited domestic foundry base, pixel pitches that are difficult to scale below roughly 15 micrometers, array formats limited by hybridization yield, and a spectral response that typically cuts off near 1,700 nanometers.
Monolithic graphene on CMOS removes the bonding step, which is where most of that cost and yield penalty comes from. The topic is not asking you to prove the concept. Graphene-on-CMOS broadband imagers have been demonstrated in the literature, and the topic cites the 2017 Nature Photonics paper that did it. It is asking you to retire four specific risks that stand between those demonstrations and a fieldable naval imager.
Topic At a Glance
Topic number: OSW26BZ06-DV027
Title: Monolithic Graphene-CMOS Broadband (UV-LWIR) Focal Plane Arrays for target detection in low-light conditions
Agency: Office of the Secretary of War, Reliance 21, administered by the OUSW(R&E) SBIR Program
Solicitation: OSW-Reliance 21, 2026 SBIR Broad Agency Announcement, Release 6, Proposal Submission Instructions
Program type: Direct to Phase II only. Phase I proposals will not be accepted
Base award: $2,000,000
Base period of performance: 24 months
Technical volume limit: 20 pages, structured as 5 pages of Phase I justification plus 15 pages of Phase II technical proposal, with the transition and commercialization strategy at no more than 2 pages counting toward the 15
OUSW (R&E) Critical Technology Area: Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance
Component Technology Priority Areas: Integrated Sensing and Cyber, Microelectronics, Quantum Science, Space Technology, Advanced Materials
Projected CMMC level requirement: Level 1
Export control status: no topic-level ITAR or EAR restriction paragraph appears on this topic
Spectral requirement: broadband imaging from 300 nanometers to 10,000 nanometers
Architecture: wafer-scale, monolithically integrated graphene-on-CMOS image sensor
Operating condition: compact, low-power, uncooled focal plane array
Mobility goal: a substantial increase in integrated-device carrier mobility, with a goal approaching 10,000 square centimeters per volt-second
Phase II end state: a functioning broadband camera, characterized against Navy-relevant targets including passive low-light atmospheric nightglow imaging and imaging through obscurants such as fog and haze
Phase III path: a pilot qualification lot on the order of tens of wafers with defined yield and performance metrics
Technical and Business Assistance: up to $50,000 per Phase II project, in addition to the cost ceiling and not subject to profit or fee, using the mandatory SBIR/STTR TABA Request Form in Volume 5
Cost volume: the DSIP online Cost Volume webform is required. No separate Excel template
Topic open date: September 23, 2026
Proposal deadline: October 21, 2026
Submission portal: DSIP at dodsbirsttr.mil
Keywords: graphene, focal plane array, monolithic CMOS integration, two-dimensional materials, broadband imaging, night vision, wafer-scale manufacturing, uncooled detector, quantum-dot and metal oxide nanocrystal sensitization
The Feasibility Bar, Which Is the First Thing to Check
This topic solicits Direct to Phase II proposals only. Phase I proposals will not be accepted. Offerors must document that Phase I feasibility has already been established through prior work.
What counts as acceptable evidence
Acceptable feasibility evidence includes the fabrication and measured characterization of graphene phototransistor or graphene-on-CMOS coupon test structures exhibiting broadband ultraviolet-through-long-wave-infrared photoresponse, and demonstration of die- or wafer-scale graphene integration with quantified device yield and uniformity.
Documentation may comprise technical reports, peer-reviewed publications, measured data, and design artifacts sufficient to substantiate the scientific, technical, and commercial merit required to enter Phase II.
Two distinct capability claims are named, and the word "includes" suggests they are examples rather than an exhaustive list. The first is device physics: coupon structures with measured broadband photoresponse across the band. The second is integration engineering: die- or wafer-scale graphene integration with quantified yield and uniformity. Notice that yield and uniformity must be quantified, not described. Numbers.
What you explicitly do not need yet
Requirements definition for the naval use case, detailed focal-plane-array performance modeling, and pixel-architecture and back-end-of-line integration-flow design need not be complete at proposal. These activities are carried into the Phase II Base effort.
This is a useful and unusually explicit allowance. Three substantial engineering activities are carved out of the feasibility requirement and assigned to the funded Base task. It tells you where to spend your five pages of justification: on measured graphene photoresponse and measured integration yield, not on system modeling or pixel design you have not been paid to do yet.
The restriction that will disqualify some proposers
The OSW-Reliance 21 Direct to Phase II guidelines impose a constraint stricter than most components apply.
Feasibility documentation cannot be based upon or logically extend from any prior or ongoing federally funded SBIR or STTR work. Work submitted within the feasibility documentation must have been substantially performed by the proposer or the principal investigator. If technology in the feasibility documentation is subject to intellectual property, the proposer must either own the IP or must have obtained license rights to such technology prior to proposal submission, to enable it and its subcontractors to legally carry out the proposed work.
The Volume 2 instruction phrases it slightly differently, saying feasibility documentation must not be solely based on work performed under prior or ongoing federally funded SBIR or STTR work. The two formulations do not match, and the stricter one, "cannot be based upon or logically extend from," is the one to plan against.
This matters more on this topic than on most. Graphene photodetector and two-dimensional material integration work in the United States has been heavily federally funded, and a meaningful share of it through SBIR and STTR. Audit the provenance of every result you intend to cite. Internally funded work, privately funded work, non-SBIR government contract work, foundry-partnered development, and published academic work you performed yourself under other funding are all cleaner ground.
Note also the intellectual property requirement. Graphene transfer, encapsulation, and sensitization processes are frequently licensed from universities or partners. You must own the IP or hold license rights before you submit, and be able to show it.
And the consequence of falling short is not a low score: if the proposer fails to demonstrate technical merit and feasibility equivalent to the Phase I level as described in the topic, the related Phase II proposal will not be evaluated.
What the Navy Is Actually Buying
The objective
Develop, fabricate, and demonstrate a wafer-scale, monolithically integrated graphene-on-CMOS image sensor that provides broadband imaging from 300 nanometers to 10,000 nanometers in a compact, low-power, uncooled focal plane array.
Every word in that sentence is a requirement. Wafer-scale, not die-scale. Monolithically integrated, not hybridized. 300 to 10,000 nanometers, which spans ultraviolet through long-wave infrared. Compact, low-power, and uncooled, which rules out the cryogenic cooling that mercury cadmium telluride and superlattice detectors typically need and is a large part of the size, weight, power, and cost argument.
The operational problem
The Navy continues to field multiple seeker technologies to detect, identify, and engage targets in multi-domain operations through obscurants. However, you cannot detect something you cannot see. Each wavelength range provides unique opportunity to glean information.
Currently, for each wavelength range a distinct material system technology is required: aluminum gallium nitride for ultraviolet, analog devices for near infrared, indium gallium arsenide for short-wave infrared, mercury cadmium telluride and III-V strain-layer superlattice detectors for mid-wave and long-wave infrared.
The incumbent's specific limits
Indium gallium arsenide photodiode arrays for short-wave infrared are hybridized to a silicon readout integrated circuit by indium-bump flip-chip bonding. This is a mature approach but constrained by five things: high unit cost, a limited domestic foundry base, pixel pitches that are difficult to scale below roughly 15 micrometers, array formats limited by hybridization yield, and a spectral response that typically cuts off near 1,700 nanometers.
These constraints limit the resolution, affordability, and proliferation of imagers across size, weight, power, and cost constrained platforms.
Those five constraints are your value proposition checklist. A strong proposal states, one by one, what monolithic graphene-on-CMOS does to each: what the unit cost becomes at volume, why a CMOS foundry base is broader than a compound semiconductor one, what pixel pitch you can reach without hybridization, what array format becomes possible when yield is not bounded by bump bonding, and how far past 1,700 nanometers you actually get.
A note on the source text
The paragraph describing incumbent technology is broken in the source document. The sentence beginning "In addition, the incumbent detector technologies, for example indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs)" ends abruptly, the four risk items are inserted, and then the sentence resumes several lines later with "photodiode arrays for SWIR are hybridized to a silicon read-out integrated circuit (ROIC) by indium-bump flip-chip bonding."
Reassembled, it reads as a single statement about InGaAs photodiode arrays being flip-chip bonded to a silicon ROIC. This page presents it in that reconstructed order because that is plainly the intended meaning. Nothing about the requirement changes, but be aware that the topic text as published is out of sequence, and if you quote it, quote it carefully.
The Four Risks to Retire
This is the heart of the topic. It seeks to retire the principal risks that stand between existing demonstrations and a fieldable naval imager. Four are named, and they make a natural outline for your technical proposal.
Risk one: graphene material quality and uniformity at wafer scale
Carrier mobility, Dirac-point control, low hysteresis, and low defect density, for example Raman D-to-G intensity ratio, held tight across full wafers and lot to lot.
Four material metrics and a named measurement for the fourth. "Held tight across full wafers and lot to lot" is the operative phrase: this is a statistical process control requirement, not a best-coupon requirement. Report distributions, not champions.
Dirac-point control and low hysteresis deserve particular attention because they are what make a graphene device stable enough to calibrate. A focal plane whose pixels drift in threshold cannot hold a flat field.
Risk two: back-end-of-line integration on CMOS
Repeatable, high-yield BEOL transfer, encapsulation, patterning, and contacting of graphene on CMOS read-out wafers.
Four process steps, all constrained by the fact that they happen after the CMOS is built. BEOL means low thermal budget, no damage to underlying metal and dielectric layers, and compatibility with a foundry's process flow. Graphene grown at high temperature elsewhere and transferred is the usual answer, and transfer at wafer scale with high yield is the hardest single manufacturing problem in this topic. The topic cites Neumaier, Pindl, and Lemme on integrating graphene into semiconductor fabrication lines, which is exactly this problem.
Risk three: absorber sensitization and passivation
Absorber sensitization and passivation that deliver uniform, stable, low-noise broadband response.
Graphene alone absorbs only a few percent of incident light, so a broadband imager needs a sensitizer that absorbs and transfers charge to the graphene channel. The keywords name the candidates: quantum-dot and metal oxide nanocrystal sensitization. Uniformity, stability, and low noise are the three qualities demanded, and stability is the one that usually fails, since colloidal quantum dot films are prone to drift and degradation.
Note that getting to 10,000 nanometers is the hardest part of the spectral requirement. Quantum dot sensitization comfortably covers visible through short-wave infrared. Long-wave infrared response at 10 micrometers from an uncooled graphene device is a much more demanding claim, and it likely involves a different physical mechanism than the short-wave case. Address the long-wave end explicitly rather than presenting a single sensitization story for the whole band.
Risk four: the focal plane array itself
An imaging focal plane array meeting the noise-equivalent irradiance, dynamic range, frame rate, operability, and stability required for naval intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
Five system metrics. Note "operability," which in focal plane array practice means the fraction of pixels meeting specification, and it is where monolithic integration should beat hybridization. If your yield story is good, operability is where you show it numerically.
The stated performance target
Proposers should target a substantial increase in integrated-device carrier mobility, with a goal approaching 10,000 square centimeters per volt-second, tight pixel-to-pixel uniformity, and a manufacturable process flow with a clear path to pilot-scale production.
Note "integrated-device carrier mobility." Not mobility measured on a pristine transferred graphene film, but mobility in the finished device after transfer, encapsulation, patterning, and contacting. That is a considerably harder number, and stating your current integrated-device mobility honestly, with the measurement conditions, is more persuasive than citing a film-level figure.
Phase II Structure and Requirements
Design, fabricate, and deliver a prototype monolithic graphene-CMOS broadband and short-wave infrared focal plane array, maturing the technology from documented feasibility through a demonstrated camera. The effort is organized into a Base task that completes design and risk reduction and a Prototype task that builds and characterizes the imager.
Base task: design and risk reduction
Define imager requirements against a representative naval ISR use case.
Develop and validate focal plane array performance models covering spectral response, responsivity, noise-equivalent irradiance, dynamic range, and operability.
Complete the pixel-architecture and back-end-of-line integration-flow design for a foundry CMOS readout integrated circuit.
Fabricate and characterize coupon-level and small-array test structures to confirm material quality, integration yield, and broadband photoresponse.
Finalize the wafer-scale process definition.
Note "for a foundry CMOS ROIC." Your integration flow has to target a real foundry process, which means a foundry relationship and a process design kit. If you already have one, name it early. If you do not, getting one is a Base task dependency you do not fully control.
Prototype task: fabrication and demonstration
Mature the wafer-scale process, meaning graphene growth and transfer, encapsulation, patterning, contacting, and absorber sensitization, to demonstrate high device yield and pixel-to-pixel uniformity across full wafers.
Build and demonstrate a functioning broadband camera, meaning sensor plus read-out and minimal supporting electronics and optics.
Characterize spectral response, responsivity, noise-equivalent irradiance, dynamic range, frame rate, operability, fixed-pattern noise, and stability against Navy-relevant targets, including passive low-light atmospheric nightglow imaging and imaging through obscurants such as fog and haze.
Conduct an initial environmental and reliability assessment.
The two named demonstration scenarios
Passive low-light imaging under atmospheric nightglow, and imaging through obscurants such as fog and haze. These are not generic performance claims and they should drive your test planning and your budget.
Atmospheric nightglow is a specific and demanding illumination condition. The night sky radiates in the near infrared and short-wave infrared, notably from hydroxyl emission bands, at levels well below what a visible sensor can use. Passive imaging by nightglow is the operational argument for short-wave infrared night vision, and demonstrating it requires either a genuinely dark field site on a moonless night or a calibrated low-light chamber that reproduces the spectral distribution. Both are real costs and real schedule.
Obscurant penetration through fog and haze needs either a fog chamber or opportunistic field testing, and quantifying it requires a measured obscurant condition rather than a qualitative before-and-after image. Say how you will measure the obscurant.
Deliverables
Validated performance models and final focal plane array design.
Prototype focal plane arrays and cameras.
The documented wafer-scale process flow with measured yield and uniformity.
A full test and evaluation data package.
A Phase III transition and manufacturing plan, including a path to a pilot qualification lot on the order of tens of wafers with defined yield and performance metrics.
That last item is the most commercially meaningful. "Tens of wafers with defined yield and performance metrics" is a manufacturing qualification plan, not a research roadmap. It tells you the Navy is thinking about a production path and expects you to price and schedule one.
A terminology note
The objective and the title specify 300 to 10,000 nanometers, which is ultraviolet through long-wave infrared. The Phase II section repeatedly says "broadband and short-wave infrared," and the Phase III section refers to "broadband and short-wave infrared imaging." The Phase II characterization scenarios, nightglow and obscurant penetration, are both short-wave infrared applications.
The most reasonable reading is that the full 300 to 10,000 nanometer band is the objective and the short-wave infrared portion is the near-term naval application driving the demonstration. Plan to demonstrate broadband response, as the feasibility evidence requires, while designing the camera demonstration around the short-wave infrared use cases the topic actually names. If the discrepancy affects your architecture choices, raise it through DSIP Topic Q&A before it closes on October 7.
Phase III Dual Use
Transition the technology to naval and joint platforms that require affordable, compact, broadband and short-wave infrared imaging: unmanned aerial, surface, and undersea vehicles; handheld, weapon-mounted, and helmet-mounted night-vision and threat-warning systems; shipboard situational-awareness and navigation suites; and distributed or expendable sensor nodes. Also to hyperspectral and multispectral payloads for camouflage and decoy discrimination and littoral mine countermeasures.
Establish and qualify a domestic, CMOS-foundry-based manufacturing capability for monolithic two-dimensional material focal plane arrays.
The same platform carries broad commercial dual-use value in automotive and autonomous-vehicle vision, seeing through fog, smoke, and darkness; machine vision and semiconductor and solar wafer inspection; agricultural and food-quality sorting; medical and biometric imaging; and environmental and industrial process monitoring, supporting an economically sustainable supply base.
Two things worth pulling out. First, "establish and qualify a domestic, CMOS-foundry-based manufacturing capability" is a supply chain objective, not just a product objective. The topic named a limited domestic foundry base as one of the incumbent's five constraints, and domestic manufacturability is part of what is being bought. Say something concrete about which domestic foundry path you would use.
Second, automotive short-wave infrared vision is the largest commercial market on that list by an order of magnitude, and it is driven by exactly the cost and pixel pitch constraints the topic identifies. If your cost model closes for automotive volumes, that is the strongest possible commercialization argument, and it also happens to be the market that would fund the pilot line the Navy wants.
Funding, Cost Structure, and OSW-Reliance 21 Mechanics
The award
$2,000,000 over 24 months.
Be realistic about scope against that budget. Wafer-scale process development, a foundry CMOS run, camera integration, and a characterization campaign including low-light and obscurant testing is a lot for two million dollars over two years. Existing foundry relationships, existing test infrastructure, and existing graphene transfer capability are worth more here than headcount.
Cost volume mechanics
OSW-Reliance 21 requires the use of the DSIP online Cost Volume webform. No separate Excel template is required. If supplementary cost detail is desired, it may be uploaded as a PDF attachment within Volume 3.
A detailed Phase II cost volume must be submitted online in the proper format shown in the Cost Breakdown Guidance in the DoW 2026 SBIR BAA. Provide enough information to allow evaluators to assess your plans to use the requested funds.
Justify items of equipment to be purchased, including Government Furnished Equipment. All requirements for government furnished equipment or other assets, and associated costs, must be determined and agreed to during Phase II contract negotiations. If you need government-furnished readout wafers, test articles, or facility access, say so.
Percentage of Work, with no exceptions
Review the updated Percentage of Work calculation details included in the DoW solicitation. OSW-Reliance 21 will not accept any deviation to the POW requirements.
This is a live risk on this topic. A monolithic graphene-CMOS effort naturally involves a CMOS foundry, possibly a graphene supplier, possibly a university for materials characterization, and possibly a camera integrator. Model your Percentage of Work before you assemble that team, because a plan that pushes too much work outside your firm cannot be negotiated back into compliance.
Technical and Business Assistance
Phase II awardees may request up to $50,000 per Phase II project. TABA funding is in addition to the Phase II cost ceiling and is not subject to profit or fee.
All requests for TABA must be completed using the SBIR/STTR TABA Request Form, and the completed form must be included in Volume 5 of the proposal submission in DSIP. OSW will not accept requests for TABA that do not utilize the form or that are not included as a submission document in Volume 5.
Fifty thousand dollars is at the high end across components in this cycle. For this topic, the strongest uses are manufacturing and foundry transition consulting, given that the Phase III deliverable is a pilot qualification plan, and intellectual property counsel, since graphene transfer and sensitization processes are commonly licensed.
The 20-page structure
Volume 2 is 20 pages maximum, divided into Part 1, Phase I Justification, at 5 pages maximum, and Part 2, Phase II Technical Proposal, at 15 pages maximum. Within the 15 pages, the Technology Transition and Commercialization Strategy is not to exceed 2 pages and counts toward the limit.
All figures, tables, charts, and references must be included within the page count. Any pages past the limit will not be considered, and no separate appendices will be evaluated.
So: 5 pages of feasibility, 13 pages of technical proposal, 2 pages of commercialization. For a topic with four named risks, a two-task program, a foundry integration flow, and a characterization campaign, that is tight. Plan the page budget before you draft.
What the Phase II technical proposal must contain
The Phase II Technical Objectives and Approach section must list specific technical objectives and provide a detailed technical approach, and include these named subsections.
Phase II Work Plan, with an explicit, detailed description of the approach, indicating what is planned, how and where the work will be carried out, a schedule of major events, and the final product to be developed.
Related Work, describing significant activities directly related to the effort including those of the Principal Investigator, the firm, consultants, or others, and demonstrating awareness of the state of the art.
Relationship with Future Research or Research and Development, stating anticipated results and the significance of the Phase II effort as a foundation for Phase III.
Technology Transition and Commercialization Strategy, at no more than 2 pages counting toward the 15-page limit, addressing five specific questions: what is the first product this technology will go into; who will be your customers and what is your estimate of the market size; how much funding will you need to bring the technology to market and how will you raise those funds; does your company contain marketing expertise and if not how do you intend to bring it in; and who are your competitors and what is your price or quality advantage.
Key Personnel, including the Principal Investigator, with directly related education, experience, and relevant publications, and a concise resume of the PI.
Facilities and Equipment, describing available instrumentation and physical facilities, justifying equipment purchases including Government Furnished Equipment, and stating whether facilities meet federal, state, and local environmental laws across the named groupings.
Consultants, describing in detail any involvement of universities, academic institutions, or other consultants and identifying them in the Cost Volume.
Answer the five commercialization questions as five distinct answers. They are enumerated and a reviewer will look for each one.
The Company Commercialization Report, and a contradiction
Completion of the CCR as Volume 4 is required.
The Direct to Phase II section of this release states that the information contained in the CCR will not be considered by "SCO" during proposal evaluations. The Phase I section of the same document states that CCR information will be considered by OSW-Reliance 21 during proposal evaluations.
The two statements conflict, and the reference to SCO appears to be residual text from another organization's instructions, which weakens the DP2 statement as authority. Complete the CCR carefully and completely, and if the answer materially affects your proposal, raise it through DSIP Topic Q&A.
Note that the commercialization strategy in Volume 2 is separate from the CCR. The strategy addresses how you propose to commercialize this research; the CCR covers what you have done to commercialize the results of past Phase II awards.
Supporting documents that are optional but encouraged
Letters of Support from prospective transition stakeholders within DEVCOM C5ISR Center, PAE Maneuver Ground, PAE Maneuver Air, CPE Autonomy, the Naval Research Laboratory, or the Air Force Research Laboratory.
A Data Management Plan addressing provenance, licensing, and protection of pre-training data and government-furnished data.
For this topic the Naval Research Laboratory is the most natural fit, since the topic is written around naval seekers and naval ISR. NRL is also among the named evaluating organizations. DEVCOM C5ISR Center is relevant for the handheld and weapon-mounted night vision applications, and CPE Autonomy for the unmanned platform cases.
Evaluation and selection
All proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the evaluation criteria listed in the DoW solicitation.
Government technical evaluators from Army DEVCOM C5ISR Center, Army DEVCOM Army Research Lab, the Naval Research Laboratory, and the Air Force Research Laboratory may participate in the evaluation. Non-government support contractors may assist in administrative handling of proposals if the individual has signed a non-disclosure agreement, and they will not participate in selection decisions.
Proposing firms will be notified of selection or non-selection status within 90 days of the closing date of the topic, which is approximately January 19, 2027. Notifications will be issued through DSIP to both the Corporate Official and the Principal Investigator listed on the proposal.
Protests after award should be submitted, as prescribed in FAR 33.106(b) and FAR 52.233-3, to osd.ncr.ousd-r-e.mbx.SBIR-STTR-Protest@mail.mil.
Tri-service coordination and the TPOC question
This topic is of joint interest to the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Air Force and Space Force through the organizations named above. Proposers are strongly encouraged to engage the Technical Point of Contact listed in the topic description during the pre-release period to discuss technical scope and transition opportunities across the Services.
No Technical Point of Contact appears in the DV027 topic description, or in any of the four topic descriptions in this release. Use DSIP Topic Q&A, and send administrative questions to osd.pentagon.ousd-atl.mbx.communities-of-interest@mail.mil.
Note that Phase II efforts under this release shall include a transition plan addressing at least two of the three Services. The topic is written from a Navy perspective, but its Phase III list already spans naval platforms, handheld and helmet-mounted night vision, and space-adjacent applications, so a two-service transition case is available. Write it explicitly rather than assuming it is obvious.
Classification
Classified proposals are not accepted. Including classified data in an unclassified proposal may be grounds for the Agency to determine the proposal non-responsive and not evaluate it.
In some instances, work being performed on Phase II contracts will require security clearances. If a Phase II contract requires classified work, the offeror must have a facility clearance and appropriate personnel clearances.
Note that although this topic carries no ITAR restriction paragraph, infrared focal plane array technology is frequently export controlled in practice, and specific seeker performance requirements are often classified. Keep the unclassified proposal unclassified and be careful about claims regarding specific naval seeker systems.
The References
Only three, and together they define the topic's premise almost exactly.
Goossens, Navickaite, Monasterio, and colleagues, "Broadband image sensor array based on graphene-CMOS integration," Nature Photonics 11, 366 to 371, 2017. This is the demonstration the topic is building on: a broadband image sensor array made by integrating graphene with CMOS. Read it as the baseline, and be explicit about what your work adds, since the topic's whole framing is that demonstrations exist and the remaining risks are manufacturability and performance at naval requirements.
Neumaier, Pindl, and Lemme, "Integrating graphene into semiconductor fabrication lines," Nature Materials 18, 525 to 529, 2019. This is risk two, back-end-of-line integration, stated as a review. If your BEOL transfer and patterning approach does not engage with the issues this paper raises, a reviewer will notice.
Koppens, Mueller, Avouris, and colleagues, "Photodetectors based on graphene, other two-dimensional materials and hybrid systems," Nature Nanotechnology 9, 780 to 793, 2014. This is the device physics foundation, including the sensitized and hybrid architectures that risk three concerns.
Three references, three of the four risks. The fourth risk, focal plane array system performance against naval ISR requirements, has no cited reference, which is consistent with it being the part no one has published because no one has built it. That is also where your proposal has the most room to differentiate.
Bring additional literature yourself, particularly on colloidal quantum dot and metal oxide nanocrystal sensitization stability, since the keywords name those approaches while the reference list does not cover them, and stability is the property most likely to be questioned.
Timeline and What to Do When
The dates
Topic opens: September 23, 2026
DSIP Topic Q&A closes: October 7, 2026, two weeks before the topic closes, per the DoW SBIR Program BAA
Proposal deadline: October 21, 2026
Selection notification: within 90 days of the closing date, approximately January 19, 2027
Period of performance: 24 months from award
A working backward plan
Before September 23. Audit the funding provenance of every feasibility result you intend to cite, because work based upon or logically extending from prior or ongoing federally funded SBIR or STTR work is excluded and failing the feasibility bar means the proposal is not evaluated. Confirm the work was substantially performed by your firm or your PI. Resolve intellectual property ownership or licensing for graphene transfer, encapsulation, and sensitization processes, since license rights must be in place before submission. Pull your measured integrated-device carrier mobility, Dirac-point distribution, hysteresis, and Raman D-to-G data, and be ready to present them as distributions across wafers and lots rather than best-coupon values. Quantify your die- or wafer-scale integration yield and uniformity. Secure or confirm your foundry CMOS readout relationship and process design kit access, since the Base task requires a BEOL integration flow for a foundry ROIC. Identify your low-light and obscurant test approach, including whether you need a dark field site, a calibrated low-light chamber, or a fog chamber. Model your Percentage of Work before finalizing foundry, supplier, university, and integrator arrangements. Approach the Naval Research Laboratory and other named organizations about letters of support. Confirm SAM registration and your CMMC Level 1 posture.
September 23 through October 5. Draft the 5-page Phase I justification around measured broadband photoresponse on coupon or graphene-on-CMOS structures and quantified die- or wafer-scale integration yield and uniformity, remembering that requirements definition, FPA modeling, and pixel and BEOL design are explicitly not required at proposal. Draft the 13-page technical proposal organized around the four named risks and the Base and Prototype task structure. Address the long-wave infrared end of the band explicitly rather than extrapolating a short-wave sensitization story. Draft the 2-page commercialization strategy answering all five enumerated questions. Draft the 3,000 character cover sheet abstract and the 3,000 character anticipated benefits and commercial applications discussion.
October 6 through October 7. Submit questions through DSIP Topic Q&A before it closes. Worth asking: the broadband versus short-wave infrared scope question if it affects your architecture, the CCR evaluation discrepancy, and whether any government-furnished readout wafers or test support are available.
October 8 through October 14. Build the cost volume in the DSIP online webform following the Cost Breakdown Guidance in the DoW 2026 SBIR BAA. Price the foundry CMOS run, graphene growth and transfer at wafer scale, encapsulation and patterning, sensitizer deposition, camera integration electronics and optics, the characterization campaign including nightglow and obscurant testing, and the environmental and reliability assessment. Justify equipment purchases and identify any Government Furnished Equipment needs, remembering those are settled in contract negotiations. Add supplementary cost detail as a Volume 3 PDF if useful. Complete the SBIR/STTR TABA Request Form and place it in Volume 5.
October 15 through October 18. Complete Volume 4, the Company Commercialization Report, carefully. Assemble Volume 5 with the TABA form, letters of support, and a Data Management Plan if applicable. Complete Volume 6 training and the Volume 7 foreign affiliations webform, remembering that Volume 7 must be the webform and will not be accepted as a PDF in Volume 5, and that no previous versions should be uploaded to Volume 5. Run compliance: 5 plus 15 pages with the 2-page commercialization strategy inside the 15, all figures, tables, charts, and references counted inside, no appendices, unclassified or CUI only.
October 19 through October 20. Submit and certify in DSIP.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is OSW-Reliance 21 SBIR topic OSW26BZ06-DV027?
OSW26BZ06-DV027 is a Direct to Phase II SBIR topic titled "Monolithic Graphene-CMOS Broadband (UV-LWIR) Focal Plane Arrays for target detection in low-light conditions," released under the Office of the Secretary of War, Reliance 21, 2026 SBIR Broad Agency Announcement, Release 6. The objective is to develop, fabricate, and demonstrate a wafer-scale, monolithically integrated graphene-on-CMOS image sensor providing broadband imaging from 300 nanometers to 10,000 nanometers in a compact, low-power, uncooled focal plane array.
How much funding is available?
$2,000,000 over 24 months. Phase II awardees may also request up to $50,000 in Technical and Business Assistance, in addition to the cost ceiling and not subject to profit or fee, using the mandatory SBIR/STTR TABA Request Form in Volume 5.
When is the proposal deadline?
The topic opens September 23, 2026 and proposals are due October 21, 2026 through the Defense SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal at dodsbirsttr.mil.
Can I submit a Phase I proposal?
No. This topic solicits Direct to Phase II proposals only, and Phase I proposals will not be accepted.
What feasibility evidence does the topic accept?
Fabrication and measured characterization of graphene phototransistor or graphene-on-CMOS coupon test structures exhibiting broadband ultraviolet-through-long-wave-infrared photoresponse, and demonstration of die- or wafer-scale graphene integration with quantified device yield and uniformity. Documentation may comprise technical reports, peer-reviewed publications, measured data, and design artifacts.
What do I not need to have done yet?
Requirements definition for the naval use case, detailed focal plane array performance modeling, and pixel-architecture and back-end-of-line integration-flow design need not be complete at proposal. Those activities are carried into the funded Phase II Base effort.
Can my feasibility evidence come from a prior SBIR award?
No. The OSW-Reliance 21 Direct to Phase II guidelines state that feasibility documentation cannot be based upon or logically extend from any prior or ongoing federally funded SBIR or STTR work, and that the work must have been substantially performed by the proposer or the Principal Investigator. The Volume 2 instruction uses the weaker phrasing "must not be solely based on"; plan against the stricter reading. This matters here because graphene photodetector work in the United States has been heavily SBIR funded.
What if my feasibility documentation falls short?
If the proposer fails to demonstrate technical merit and feasibility equivalent to the Phase I level as described in the topic, the related Phase II proposal will not be evaluated.
Do I need to own the intellectual property?
Yes, or hold license rights. If technology in the feasibility documentation is subject to intellectual property, the proposer must either own the IP or have obtained license rights prior to proposal submission, sufficient to enable it and its subcontractors to legally carry out the proposed work. Graphene transfer, encapsulation, and sensitization processes are commonly licensed, so resolve this before submitting.
What is the spectral requirement?
Broadband imaging from 300 nanometers to 10,000 nanometers, spanning ultraviolet through long-wave infrared, in an uncooled focal plane array.
Why is monolithic integration better than the current approach?
The incumbent approach bonds InGaAs photodiode arrays to a silicon readout integrated circuit by indium-bump flip-chip bonding. The topic names five resulting constraints: high unit cost, a limited domestic foundry base, pixel pitches difficult to scale below roughly 15 micrometers, array formats limited by hybridization yield, and spectral response typically cutting off near 1,700 nanometers. Monolithic integration removes the bonding step that drives most of that.
What are the four risks the topic wants retired?
Graphene material quality and uniformity at wafer scale, covering carrier mobility, Dirac-point control, low hysteresis, and low defect density such as Raman D-to-G ratio, held tight across full wafers and lot to lot. Repeatable, high-yield back-end-of-line transfer, encapsulation, patterning, and contacting of graphene on CMOS readout wafers. Absorber sensitization and passivation delivering uniform, stable, low-noise broadband response. And a focal plane array meeting the noise-equivalent irradiance, dynamic range, frame rate, operability, and stability required for naval ISR.
What mobility should I target?
A substantial increase in integrated-device carrier mobility, with a goal approaching 10,000 square centimeters per volt-second. Note "integrated-device," meaning mobility in the finished device after transfer, encapsulation, patterning, and contacting, not mobility measured on a pristine film.
How is Phase II structured?
Into a Base task and a Prototype task. The Base task defines imager requirements against a representative naval ISR use case, develops and validates FPA performance models, completes the pixel-architecture and BEOL integration-flow design for a foundry CMOS ROIC, fabricates and characterizes coupon and small-array test structures, and finalizes the wafer-scale process definition. The Prototype task matures the wafer-scale process for high yield and uniformity across full wafers, builds and demonstrates a functioning broadband camera, characterizes it against Navy-relevant targets, and conducts an initial environmental and reliability assessment.
What demonstration scenarios are required?
Characterization against Navy-relevant targets including passive low-light imaging under atmospheric nightglow and imaging through obscurants such as fog and haze. Both require real test infrastructure, either a dark field site or a calibrated low-light chamber, and either a fog chamber or measured field conditions.
What are the Phase II deliverables?
Validated performance models and final FPA design; prototype focal plane arrays and cameras; the documented wafer-scale process flow with measured yield and uniformity; a full test and evaluation data package; and a Phase III transition and manufacturing plan including a path to a pilot qualification lot on the order of tens of wafers with defined yield and performance metrics.
Is the requirement full ultraviolet to long-wave infrared, or short-wave infrared?
The title and objective specify 300 to 10,000 nanometers. The Phase II and Phase III sections repeatedly say "broadband and short-wave infrared," and both named demonstration scenarios are short-wave infrared applications. The reasonable reading is that the full band is the objective while short-wave infrared is the near-term naval application driving the demonstration. Raise it through DSIP Topic Q&A if it affects your architecture.
How long can my technical volume be?
Twenty pages maximum, divided into Part 1 Phase I Justification at 5 pages maximum and Part 2 Phase II Technical Proposal at 15 pages maximum. The Technology Transition and Commercialization Strategy is limited to 2 pages and counts toward the 15. All figures, tables, charts, and references count inside the limits, and no separate appendices will be evaluated.
What must the commercialization strategy address?
Five specific questions. What is the first product this technology will go into. Who will be your customers and what is your estimate of the market size. How much funding will you need to bring the technology to market and how will you raise those funds. Does your company contain marketing expertise and if not how do you intend to bring it in. Who are your competitors and what is your price or quality advantage over them.
Is this topic ITAR restricted?
No topic-level ITAR or EAR restriction paragraph appears on DV027, unlike NV024 and DV025 in the same release. Note that infrared focal plane array technology is frequently export controlled in practice, and the release's Additional Information section still addresses foreign national disclosure, so treat export control as a live consideration in your business planning.
What CMMC level applies?
The projected requirement for this topic is CMMC Level 1.
What cost volume format do I use?
The DSIP online Cost Volume webform. OSW-Reliance 21 does not require a separate Excel template. Supplementary cost detail may be uploaded as a PDF attachment within Volume 3. Follow the Cost Breakdown Guidance in the DoW 2026 SBIR BAA.
Are there Percentage of Work restrictions?
Yes. OSW-Reliance 21 will not accept any deviation to the Percentage of Work requirements described in the DoW solicitation. This is a real risk on a topic that naturally involves a CMOS foundry, a graphene supplier, a university, and possibly a camera integrator. Model your POW before assembling the team.
Is the Company Commercialization Report evaluated?
The document conflicts with itself. The Direct to Phase II section states that CCR information will not be considered by "SCO," which appears to be residual text from another organization's instructions. The Phase I section of the same document states that CCR information will be considered by OSW-Reliance 21 during proposal evaluations. Complete it carefully either way and raise the discrepancy through DSIP Topic Q&A if it matters.
How do I request TABA?
Using the SBIR/STTR TABA Request Form, included in Volume 5 of the DSIP submission. OSW will not accept TABA requests that do not use the form or that are not submitted in Volume 5. Phase II is up to $50,000 per project, in addition to the cost ceiling and not subject to profit or fee.
What optional documents help?
Letters of support from prospective transition stakeholders within DEVCOM C5ISR Center, PAE Maneuver Ground, PAE Maneuver Air, CPE Autonomy, the Naval Research Laboratory, or the Air Force Research Laboratory. For this topic the Naval Research Laboratory is the most natural fit, and NRL is also among the named evaluating organizations. A Data Management Plan addressing provenance, licensing, and protection of pre-training and government-furnished data is also encouraged.
Who evaluates my proposal?
Government technical evaluators from Army DEVCOM C5ISR Center, Army DEVCOM Army Research Lab, the Naval Research Laboratory, and the Air Force Research Laboratory may participate. Non-government support contractors may assist with administrative handling under a non-disclosure agreement but do not participate in selection decisions.
When will I hear back?
Within 90 days of the closing date of the topic, which is approximately January 19, 2027. Notifications go through DSIP to both the Corporate Official and the Principal Investigator listed on the proposal.
Does Phase II require a multi-service transition plan?
Yes. Phase II efforts under this release shall include a transition plan addressing at least two of the three Services. Phase II contracting actions are anticipated to be firm-fixed-price or cost-plus-fixed-fee at the discretion of the Contracting Officer.
What is the commercial market?
Automotive and autonomous-vehicle vision through fog, smoke, and darkness; machine vision and semiconductor and solar wafer inspection; agricultural and food-quality sorting; medical and biometric imaging; and environmental and industrial process monitoring. Automotive short-wave infrared vision is the largest of these and is driven by the same cost and pixel pitch constraints the topic identifies.
Who is the technical point of contact?
The release strongly encourages engaging the Technical Point of Contact listed in the topic description during pre-release, but no TPOC appears in the DV027 description or in any of the four topic descriptions in this release. Use DSIP Topic Q&A, and send administrative questions to osd.pentagon.ousd-atl.mbx.communities-of-interest@mail.mil.
Positioning Advice for Companies Considering This Topic
Audit your feasibility provenance first, before anything else. Feasibility documentation cannot be based upon or logically extend from any prior or ongoing federally funded SBIR or STTR work, and a proposal that fails the feasibility bar is not evaluated at all. Graphene photodetector development in the United States is heavily SBIR-funded, so this is a real risk for exactly the companies most likely to bid. Trace every result. Internally funded work, privately funded work, non-SBIR government contract work, foundry-partnered development, and your own published academic work under other funding are all cleaner.
Report distributions, not champion devices. The first named risk is material quality and uniformity "held tight across full wafers and lot to lot." That is a statistical process control claim. Give mobility, Dirac point, hysteresis, and Raman D-to-G as distributions with wafer maps and lot-to-lot comparison. A single spectacular coupon answers a question the topic did not ask.
Quote integrated-device mobility, honestly. The goal approaching 10,000 square centimeters per volt-second is specified for the integrated device, after transfer, encapsulation, patterning, and contacting. Citing a film-level number and hoping no one notices is the fastest way to lose credibility with a reviewer who works on this. State your current integrated-device value, the measurement conditions, and your path to the goal.
Treat wafer-scale BEOL transfer as the central manufacturing problem. It is the second named risk and it is the thing that has kept graphene out of production for a decade. The topic cites Neumaier, Pindl, and Lemme specifically on integrating graphene into semiconductor fabrication lines. Engage with that paper's issues directly, and give measured yield across full wafers rather than a process description.
Address the long-wave infrared end separately. Quantum dot sensitization gets you visible through short-wave infrared comfortably. Uncooled response at 10 micrometers is a different physical problem and a much bigger claim. A proposal that presents one sensitization story for 300 to 10,000 nanometers will read as not having thought it through. Say what mechanism carries the long-wave end, or be explicit about how far you actually reach and why that still meets the naval need.
Make sensitizer stability a first-class topic. Uniform, stable, and low-noise are the three qualities demanded of the absorber, and stability is where colloidal quantum dot and nanocrystal films usually fail. The reference list does not cover sensitization, so bring that literature yourself and address photodegradation, ambient sensitivity, encapsulation, and drift over the operating life.
Name your foundry. The Base task requires completing the BEOL integration flow for a foundry CMOS readout integrated circuit, and Phase III asks you to establish and qualify a domestic CMOS-foundry-based manufacturing capability. An existing foundry relationship with process design kit access is worth more to this proposal than almost any technical claim. If you have one, put it on page one. If you do not, explain how you get one and when.
Answer the five incumbent constraints one at a time. High unit cost, limited domestic foundry base, pixel pitch below 15 micrometers, array format limited by hybridization yield, and the 1,700 nanometer cutoff. Walk each and state your number. That is the clearest possible articulation of why monolithic integration is worth funding, and it uses the Navy's own framing.
Lead with operability. It is one of the five system metrics and it is exactly where monolithic integration should beat hybridization, because you are not limited by bump-bond yield. If your yield numbers are good, operability is where you convert a process advantage into a system advantage a focal plane engineer will recognize immediately.
Budget the demonstration campaign properly. Atmospheric nightglow imaging needs a genuinely dark site on a moonless night or a calibrated low-light chamber with the right spectral distribution. Obscurant testing needs a fog chamber or measured field conditions. Both are named requirements, both cost money and schedule, and both are easy to underprice. Say how you will measure the obscurant condition rather than showing a qualitative image pair.
Price the pilot lot plan as a deliverable. The Phase III transition and manufacturing plan must include a path to a pilot qualification lot on the order of tens of wafers with defined yield and performance metrics. That is manufacturing engineering, not a roadmap slide. It is also the deliverable that makes this program credible to a program office.
Lead the commercialization strategy with automotive. Short-wave infrared automotive vision is the largest market on the topic's own list and it is bounded by the same cost and pixel pitch limits the topic identifies. A cost model that closes at automotive volumes is also the thing that funds the domestic pilot line the Navy wants, which makes the defense and commercial cases mutually reinforcing rather than parallel.
Get a Naval Research Laboratory letter. The topic is written around naval seekers and naval ISR, NRL is on the encouraged letters list, and NRL is among the named evaluating organizations. It is the highest-leverage optional document here.
Model Percentage of Work before you build the team. A foundry, a graphene supplier, a university, and a camera integrator is a natural team for this work and a fast route to a POW violation that no deviation will fix.
Plan the page budget before drafting. Five pages of feasibility, thirteen of technical proposal, two of commercialization, everything counted inside, no appendices. Four risks, two tasks, a foundry integration flow, and a characterization campaign do not fit unless you decide the allocation up front.
