OSW-Reliance 21 SBIR OSW26BZ06-NV026: Defect Metrology and Charge Trapping Dynamics in Transfer-Doped Diamond Transistors
Quick Answer
OSW26BZ06-NV026 is a Phase I SBIR topic under the Office of the Secretary of War, Reliance 21, 2026 SBIR Broad Agency Announcement, Release 6. Hydrogen-terminated diamond transistors could be a step change in high-frequency, high-power RF electronics, but they suffer from current collapse and knee walkout, and nobody has the right instrument to find out why. This topic funds building that instrument. The award is $314,363 over 6 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.
Note the period of performance. Six months is the shortest Phase I in this release and unusually short for a metrology development effort, which shapes what you can credibly promise.
The gap is stated plainly. Commercial device-characterization tools, built primarily for silicon or traditional compound semiconductor materials, lack the specialized physics and sensitivity required to isolate and characterize traps in ultra-wide bandgap diamond devices. And because hydrogen-terminated diamond relies on surface-channel p-type conduction, the topic warns that validation of new techniques cannot necessarily rely on prior validation from conventional n-type materials such as gallium nitride, gallium oxide, or aluminum nitride, because the fundamentally different physical mechanisms and device architectures may not be acceptable surrogates.
The most important practical fact about this topic: the Government supplies the devices. All primary experimental validations and core metrology capability demonstrations must be performed on Government-provided hydrogen-terminated diamond material and RF transistor devices, furnished as Government Furnished Property. That is true in Phase I as well as Phase II. Your program schedule depends on someone else's delivery.
Topic At a Glance
Topic number: OSW26BZ06-NV026
Title: Defect Metrology and Charge Trapping Dynamics in Transfer-Doped Diamond Transistors
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: Phase I
Base award: $314,363
Base period of performance: 6 months, the shortest in this release
Technical volume limit: 20 pages, with all figures, tables, charts, and references counted inside that limit
OUSW (R&E) Critical Technology Area: Microelectronics
Component Technology Priority Areas: Microelectronics, Quantum Science
Projected CMMC level requirement: Level 2 (Self)
Export control status: no topic-level ITAR or EAR restriction paragraph appears on this topic, unlike NV024 and DV025 in the same release. Note that the release's Additional Information section still refers to foreign national disclosure "per the ITAR notice in the topic description," and the Phase III section notes that some technologies evaluated fall under ITAR or Commerce Control List export controls
Government Furnished Property: the Government will provide hydrogen-terminated diamond material and RF transistor devices, and representative diamond test structures in Phase I
Target defects: charge traps causing current collapse and knee walkout in surface-channel diamond transistors
Required outputs from the technique: trap density, energy levels, physical location within the device stack, and time constants
Candidate trap locations: the gate dielectric, the dielectric-to-diamond interface, the diamond epitaxial layer, the epitaxial-to-substrate interface, and the diamond bulk substrate
Method constraint: non-destructive
Phase II end state: the complete, operational prototype measurement system, hardware and software, is delivered to the Government, with an SOP manual and hands-on training
Technical and Business Assistance: Phase I up to $6,500, Phase II up to $50,000 per project, in addition to the cost ceilings 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: diamond transistors, charge trapping, current collapse, semiconductor metrology, ultra-wide bandgap, RF power electronics, defect dynamics, surface-channel devices, hydrogen-terminated diamond
The Objective, Read Carefully
Develop an innovative, non-destructive diamond semiconductor defect metrology technique and laboratory-scale apparatus to identify, quantify, determine location in the device, and energetically characterize charge traps that cause current collapse in surface-channel diamond transistors.
Four verbs, and each is a separate capability your instrument must have. Identify, meaning distinguish one trap population from another. Quantify, meaning produce a density. Determine location in the device, meaning attribute a trap to a specific layer or interface. Energetically characterize, meaning extract an energy level. The description adds a fifth quantity, time constants.
"Non-destructive" is a constraint, not a preference, and it rules out approaches that require sectioning, delayering, or otherwise consuming the device. That matters because the devices are Government Furnished Property in limited supply and because a metrology tool that destroys the part cannot be used for production screening, which is the eventual commercial application.
"Laboratory-scale apparatus" sets the form factor expectation. You are building a benchtop instrument, not a fab tool.
Why This Problem Exists
The promise
Hydrogen-terminated, meaning surface-channel, diamond transistors hold great promise for next-generation, high-frequency, high-power RF electronics and advanced communications due to diamond's high breakdown field and superior thermal conductivity.
The obstacle
Wide-scale operational deployment is constrained by current collapse and knee walkout, phenomena where transient charges trapped at defect sites in the semiconductor prevent the transistor from operating at its full, high-frequency RF power.
Both terms are worth knowing precisely, because the topic uses them as the observable behavior your technique must explain. Current collapse is the reduction in drain current under RF or pulsed operation relative to DC characteristics, caused by trapped charge modulating the channel. Knee walkout is the shift of the knee voltage, the boundary between the linear and saturation regions, toward higher drain voltage under stress, which reduces the usable voltage swing and therefore the achievable RF power. Both are classic trapping signatures familiar from gallium nitride, and both cost you the power density that made the wide bandgap material attractive in the first place.
Why existing tools fail
Commercial device-characterization tools, built primarily for silicon or traditional compound semiconductor materials, lack the specialized physics and sensitivity required to isolate and characterize traps in ultra-wide bandgap diamond devices.
Standard capacitance-voltage or simple transient electrical analyses do not provide sufficient physical insight into trap dynamics.
Two named inadequate approaches, CV and simple transient electrical analysis. If your technique is a variation on either, you need to explain what you add that produces physical insight rather than a signature.
The five candidate locations
These performance-limiting charge traps can reside in multiple distinct, critical locations within the device stack, including the gate dielectric, the dielectric-to-diamond interface, the diamond epitaxial layer, the epitaxial-to-substrate interface, and the diamond bulk substrate.
Five locations, and location attribution is the capability the topic emphasizes most. The Phase II validation definition names it explicitly: isolating and distinguishing between different trap locations, for example the gate-dielectric interface versus the bulk epitaxial layer.
This is the technically hardest requirement in the topic. An electrical measurement at the terminals integrates contributions from everywhere in the stack. Separating five spatially distinct populations from terminal measurements requires either a physical discriminant, such as depth-sensitive optical excitation or a frequency-dependent coupling argument, or a modeling framework that inverts the measurement, or both. State which and defend it.
What the system must extract
This topic seeks the development of a comprehensive measurement system and associated methodology capable of extracting trap density, energy levels, physical location, specifically identifying the layers or interfaces where the traps reside, and time constants characterizing these defects, so that design teams can efficiently work to address them.
Specifically, a successful technique and system must be capable of resolving multiple trap populations and correlating these distinct signatures with observed current collapse behavior in diamond.
Note the last clause. It is not enough to find traps. You must correlate the trap signatures with the observed current collapse behavior, which means your instrument has to measure the RF or pulsed degradation and the trap properties on the same device and connect them causally.
The p-type surrogate warning
Because hydrogen-terminated diamond relies on unique surface-channel p-type conduction, validation of these new techniques cannot necessarily rely on prior validation from conventional n-type semiconductor materials, for example gallium nitride, gallium oxide, or aluminum nitride, as the fundamentally different physical mechanisms and device architectures may not be acceptable surrogates for the diamond device behavior.
This paragraph is aimed squarely at the most likely proposal in the pile: a company with a proven gallium nitride trap characterization tool proposing to point it at diamond. The topic is telling you in advance that a GaN validation history is not sufficient evidence, and that your physics argument has to account for surface-channel p-type conduction rather than assuming the n-type framework transfers.
If you do have GaN or gallium oxide heritage, use it, but use it as capability evidence while making an explicit argument about what changes for hydrogen-terminated diamond: the two-dimensional hole gas at the hydrogen-terminated surface, the role of the surface acceptor layer, the p-type band alignment, and why your discriminant still works.
Government Furnished Property, Which Governs Your Schedule
To meet operational requirements, all primary experimental validations and core metrology capability demonstrations under this effort must be performed specifically on Government-provided hydrogen-terminated diamond material and RF transistor devices.
The Government will provide these verified working devices and test articles as Government Furnished Property during the execution phase to anchor the research.
The public literature contains examples of hydrogen-terminated diamond RF transistors that exhibit comparable baseline characteristics. While the GFP will vary in specific design, architecture, and properties from the literature, they can provide a baseline for concept development.
It is expected that preliminary or intermediate metrology demonstrations on other wide or ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor devices may be used for initial development, but the main and final capability demonstrations must be validated directly on the specific diamond device architectures provided.
In Phase I specifically: while initial benchtop calibration may utilize other wide bandgap materials, the core Phase I feasibility demonstration must be applied specifically to hydrogen-terminated diamond architectures. To facilitate this early validation, the Government will provide representative diamond test structures as Government Furnished Property.
What this means for a 6-month Phase I
Read the two constraints together. Your core Phase I feasibility demonstration must be on hydrogen-terminated diamond. The diamond comes from the Government as GFP. And you have six months.
That is a real schedule dependency on an external party. Three practical consequences.
First, ask about GFP timing through DSIP Topic Q&A before the topic closes. When the test structures become available, what they consist of, and how they are shipped and handled are all questions that materially affect whether a 6-month plan is executable. This is the single most valuable question you can ask on this topic.
Second, structure your Phase I so the non-diamond work happens first and productively. Initial benchtop calibration on other wide bandgap materials is explicitly permitted, so the sensible plan front-loads instrument setup, calibration, and modeling on available GaN or gallium oxide parts while the diamond GFP is in transit, then applies the technique to diamond as soon as it arrives.
Third, note that all requirements for Government Furnished Equipment or other assets, and associated costs, must be determined and agreed to during Phase II contract negotiations, per the release's Phase II instructions. State your GFP requirements explicitly in your proposal, including quantity, device type, and any test structure features you need, so the negotiation has a starting point.
Also useful: the topic points you at the literature for baseline characteristics. The two cited papers, Yu and colleagues 2022 on hydrogen-terminated diamond MOSFETs with state-of-the-art high RF power density, and Yu and colleagues 2021 on 1.26 watts per millimeter at 10 gigahertz for silicon nitride passivated hydrogen-terminated diamond MOSFETs, describe device classes comparable to what you will receive. Read both and design your instrument against those device geometries and impedance levels.
What Phase I Requires
Conduct a 6-month study to establish the scientific and technical feasibility of the proposed defect metrology technique.
The performer shall describe the measurement process, provide sound scientific arguments justifying the approach's ability to meet the project objectives of trap identification and measurement, and describe the hardware equipment requirement needed to perform the measurement.
Expected means to demonstrate feasibility include preliminary experimental demonstrations, a review of relevant existing techniques used on other types of semiconductors, and supporting modeling or simulations.
Phase I deliverables, three of them
A comprehensive feasibility study report detailing the proposed metrology process, scientific justification, and measurement equipment used for the approach.
Initial feasibility data, derived from preliminary experimental demonstrations, literature review of relevant semiconductor techniques, or modeling, supporting the viability of the technique for surface-channel p-type architectures.
A detailed Phase II transition plan outlining the schedule, testing procedures, and integration strategy for validating the prototype instrument on the provided diamond devices.
Reading the Phase I scope
The three permitted sources of feasibility evidence are generous: preliminary experimental demonstrations, literature review, or modeling. The second deliverable says "or," which means a well-constructed modeling and literature argument can satisfy it without new diamond data. That is a sensible accommodation given the six-month window and the GFP dependency, and it tells you where to put your effort.
But note that the second deliverable specifies feasibility for surface-channel p-type architectures. Whatever your evidence source, it has to speak to p-type surface-channel diamond, not to wide bandgap devices generally. That is the same warning as the surrogate paragraph, restated as a deliverable requirement.
The third deliverable, a detailed Phase II transition plan with schedule, testing procedures, and integration strategy, is worth more attention than proposers usually give a planning deliverable. Since Phase II ends with delivering an instrument to the Government, the transition plan is where you show you understand what building and handing over a validated tool involves.
Phase II, For Planning Purposes
Phase II proposals under this release may only be submitted by Phase I awardees, by invitation. The Phase II scope still matters now, because your Phase I proposal is evaluated partly on whether it sets up a credible Phase II, and because Phase II here is unusual.
Develop, construct, and validate a fully functional prototype, laboratory-scale, trap metrology instrument based on the Phase I design.
The performer is expected to demonstrate the system's ability to successfully isolate and distinguish between different trap locations, for example gate-dielectric interface versus bulk epitaxial layer, and correlate these signatures with measured RF current collapse on hydrogen-terminated diamond transistors, which will continue to be provided as Government Furnished Property.
The performer is expected to continue refining the technique developed in Phase I, incorporating those refinements into the prototype.
How validation is defined
The principal milestone of the Phase II effort is the validation of the developed hardware and measurement methodology at the performer's facility. For this effort, validation is explicitly defined as the successful identification, characterization, and physical location attribution of the specific charge traps responsible for current collapse and similar detrimental effects in the provided diamond transistors.
That is a specific and demanding definition. Not "the instrument works." Not "we measured trap signatures." You must identify, characterize, and locate the specific traps responsible for the current collapse in the devices you were given. Success is defined by explaining a particular device's particular degradation.
You hand over the instrument
Following this successful demonstration, the complete, operational prototype measurement system, including all associated hardware, specialized instrumentation, and software, will be provided as a deliverable to the Government.
This is the most consequential business fact about the topic and it should shape your Phase I proposal. Phase II is not a technology development contract that leaves you owning a tool. You build the instrument and deliver it, hardware and software.
Three Phase II deliverables are named.
Prototype system validation and hardware transfer: successful demonstration of the technique and hardware's ability to identify, locate, and quantitatively characterize, specifically providing numerical values for trap density, energy levels, and time constants, the specific traps responsible for current collapse and other detrimental effects in the GFP diamond devices, plus delivery of the fully operational prototype defect metrology test instrumentation to the Government.
Documentation and training: a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure manual containing step-by-step measurement instructions tailored specifically to the provided diamond RF devices, accompanied by hands-on training for Government personnel.
Final report: a technical report detailing the identified trap signatures on the GFP devices, the methodology used to correlate these measurements to observed RF performance loss, detailed procedures by which the prototype tool can be used to reproduce the validation results on GFP devices, and details of any identified limitations of the technique or system related to the desired function, including any identified material or processing mitigation options related to those limitations.
What the delivery model implies for your business plan
Since the instrument goes to the Government, your commercial position rests on the design, the methodology, the software, and your ability to replicate and sell the system elsewhere, not on the delivered unit. That makes intellectual property strategy and data rights the center of your commercialization thinking, and it makes the Phase III commercial application the topic describes, commercializing the diagnostic system design, measurement software, and procedural methodology, the actual business.
It also means the SOP manual and the training are real deliverables with real cost. Writing a step-by-step measurement manual tailored to specific device architectures, and delivering hands-on training to Government personnel, is technical writing and instruction time that belongs in a Phase II budget.
Note as well the final report's requirement to identify material or processing mitigation options related to the technique's limitations. You are being asked to go one step past measurement and suggest what the device fabricators should do differently, which means understanding diamond device processing, not only metrology.
Phase III Dual Use
Military application
The delivered measurement technique will be used to analyze, optimize, and validate the reliability of high-power diamond transistors.
US Army DEVCOM is presently developing diamond transistor devices for the next generation of advanced military sensing, high-frequency communications, and broad-spectrum electromagnetic platforms. Successful outcomes of this research and development program will result in laboratory techniques and supporting equipment necessary to continue development of this technology.
It is expected that the technology will become a standard metrology technique within DEVCOM electronic device laboratories and among the Defense Industrial Base partners with semiconductor foundries presently being engaged in this development.
The named customer is specific and current: DEVCOM is developing diamond transistors now, which is why the GFP exists. That is a strong transition story, and "become a standard metrology technique within DEVCOM electronic device laboratories and among Defense Industrial Base partners" describes a multi-unit market rather than a single delivered instrument.
Commercial application
The performing small business can commercialize the diagnostic system design, measurement software, and procedural methodology to support the emerging domestic commercial diamond semiconductor industry.
This highly specialized metrology capability will be valuable to domestic and allied commercial foundries manufacturing advanced diamond electronics to improve device reliability and manufacturing yield for commercial 5G and 6G telecommunications, commercial satellite communications, commercial radar systems, and high-frequency communication systems requiring advanced thermal management.
Because this metrology system is designed to evaluate high-power semiconductor technologies, some of which fall under ITAR or Commerce Control List export controls, all commercialization, licensing, and replication services will need to comply with U.S. export control laws.
While this may limit certain commercial markets, it also has the potential to establish higher exclusivity within controlled markets.
That final observation is unusually candid for a solicitation and it is a good frame for your commercialization strategy. Export control narrows the market and raises the barrier to entry, which for a specialized instrument vendor can be a net advantage. Say so, rather than pretending the constraint does not exist or treating it as purely a cost.
Note that although this topic carries no ITAR restriction paragraph of its own, the Phase III text acknowledges ITAR and CCL exposure in the commercialization path. Plan for export control compliance in your business model even though the topic-level notice is absent.
Funding, Cost Structure, and OSW-Reliance 21 Mechanics
The award
$314,363 over 6 months. The Phase I base amount must not exceed the base limit set by the topic.
The short duration is the thing to plan around. Roughly $314,000 in six months is a high burn rate, which suits a focused instrument-development effort with existing hardware to build on and does not suit a program that has to buy and commission major capital equipment first.
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.
For this topic, be explicit about Government Furnished Property in your cost and facilities discussion. Requirements for government furnished equipment or other assets, and associated costs, must be determined and agreed to during Phase II contract negotiations, so stating what you need early serves you.
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.
Metrology development invites university collaboration, particularly for trap physics modeling. Model your POW before you build the team.
Technical and Business Assistance
Phase I awardees may request up to $6,500 in TABA funding. Phase II awardees may request up to $50,000 per Phase II project. TABA funding is in addition to the Phase I and Phase II cost ceilings 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.
For this topic, intellectual property counsel is the standout use, because the delivery model hands the physical instrument to the Government and your commercial position depends entirely on protecting the design, methodology, and software. Export control counsel is second, given the ITAR and CCL exposure the Phase III section describes.
Page limits and the no-appendix rule
The technical volume for this topic is limited to 20 pages. All figures, tables, charts, and references must be included within the page count limit listed in the topic index. Any pages past the limit will not be considered, and no separate appendices will be evaluated.
Follow all instructions under the Phase I Proposal Instructions section in the DoW SBIR Program BAA and use the Phase I technical volume template provided as Appendix A in that BAA.
The Company Commercialization Report, and a contradiction
Completion of the CCR as Volume 4 is required.
The Phase I Proposal Guidelines in this release state that information contained in the CCR will be considered by OSW-Reliance 21 during proposal evaluations. That is notable, since many components exclude it. The Direct to Phase II section of the same document states the opposite and attributes the statement to "SCO," which appears to be residual text from another organization's instructions.
For a Phase I proposal to NV026, the applicable statement is the one in the Phase I section: the CCR will be considered. Complete it carefully rather than perfunctorily, and raise the discrepancy through DSIP Topic Q&A if it matters to you.
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.
The Data Management Plan is directly relevant here, and more so than on the other topics in this release, because your entire experimental program runs on government-furnished devices. A plan addressing how you handle, protect, and report data derived from GFP is a sensible inclusion.
On letters of support, note that the topic names US Army DEVCOM as the organization developing the diamond transistors. DEVCOM C5ISR Center is on the encouraged list, and DEVCOM Army Research Lab is named among the evaluating organizations. A letter from the DEVCOM element actually building these devices would be the strongest possible support document, since that element is presumably also the GFP source.
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.
For this topic, DEVCOM Army Research Lab is the evaluator to write for. ARL is where diamond electronics work of this kind lives, and your reviewer may well be someone who has personally measured current collapse on one of the devices you will receive. Write with that level of specificity.
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 NV026 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. Given the GFP dependency, using the Q&A channel before it closes on October 7 is particularly important on this topic.
Note also that Phase II efforts under this release shall include a transition plan addressing at least two of the three Services, and that Phase II contracting actions are anticipated to be firm-fixed-price or cost-plus-fixed-fee at the Contracting Officer's discretion. For a metrology tool intended to become a standard technique across DEVCOM laboratories and Defense Industrial Base partners, the multi-service transition case is straightforward, but it must be written.
Classification
Phase I efforts are expected to be performed at the Unclassified and CUI level. Classified proposals are not accepted, and 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.
A note on the Critical Technology Area designation
The OUSW (R&E) Critical Technology Area listed for this topic is Microelectronics. The release's introduction lists six Critical Technology Areas that the program prioritizes: Applied Artificial Intelligence, Biomanufacturing, Contested Logistics Technologies, Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance, Scaled Directed Energy, and Scaled Hypersonics. Microelectronics is not among those six.
The Component Technology Priority Areas listed for the topic are Microelectronics and Quantum Science, which are standard Component Technology Priority Area names. The most plausible reading is that the OUSW (R&E) Critical Technology Area field was populated with a Component Technology Priority Area value. It is unlikely to affect your proposal, but if you are aligning your narrative to a Critical Technology Area, note that Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance is the nearest of the six to this work, given diamond's role in quantum-adjacent and advanced RF electronics.
The References
Only two, and both are device papers rather than metrology papers.
Yu, Zhou, Guo, He, Ma, Yu, Song, Bu, and Feng, "Hydrogen-terminated diamond MOSFETs on (001) single crystal diamond with state of the art high RF power density," Functional Diamond, 2022.
Yu, Hu, Zhou, and colleagues, "1.26 W/mm Output Power Density at 10 GHz for Si3N4 Passivated H-Terminated Diamond MOSFETs," IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 2021.
The topic cites these specifically as examples of hydrogen-terminated diamond RF transistors exhibiting comparable baseline characteristics to the Government Furnished Property you will receive. That makes them functional specifications rather than background reading.
Read them for the things that determine whether your instrument can measure these devices: the gate dielectric and passivation stack, silicon nitride in the 2021 paper, the substrate orientation, (001) single crystal in the 2022 paper, the device geometry and gate dimensions, the operating voltages and currents, the frequency of operation, and the impedance environment. Then design your measurement around those parameters.
The absence of metrology references is itself informative in the same way as on DV025. The Government is stating a capability requirement and leaving the technique open, which means you carry the full burden of establishing awareness of the state of the art in trap characterization. Bring that literature yourself: deep level transient spectroscopy and its variants, drain current transient spectroscopy, pulsed IV and gate lag measurements, low-frequency noise spectroscopy, and the substantial gallium nitride trapping literature, while being explicit about what changes for p-type surface-channel diamond.
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: 6 months from award
A working backward plan
Before September 23. Decide your physical discriminant for location attribution, because that is the hardest requirement and the one a reviewer will probe. Read both cited device papers and design your measurement around those device geometries, dielectric stacks, and operating conditions. Inventory your existing instrumentation honestly against a 6-month, $314,000 effort, since there is no time to specify, purchase, and commission major capital equipment. Line up access to wide bandgap devices for initial benchtop calibration, which is explicitly permitted, so the diamond GFP is not on your critical path from day one. Prepare your Government Furnished Property request specifically: quantity, device type, test structure features, and timing. Model your Percentage of Work before committing to university collaboration on trap physics. Approach DEVCOM about a letter of support, ideally the element developing the diamond devices. Confirm SAM registration and CMMC Level 2 self-assessment in SPRS. Download the DoW SBIR Program BAA Appendix A Phase I template.
September 23 through October 5. Draft the 20-page technical volume. Structure it around the measurement physics, the location discrimination mechanism, the modeling framework that inverts the measurement, the correlation with current collapse, the hardware requirement, and the three Phase I deliverables. Make the p-type surface-channel argument explicitly rather than leaning on n-type heritage. Write the Phase II transition plan deliverable as a real plan, since Phase II ends with delivering an instrument. 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. On this topic, the highest-value questions are about Government Furnished Property: when the Phase I diamond test structures become available, what they consist of, how many, and what the handling and shipping arrangements are. Also worth asking: the CCR evaluation discrepancy, and the Critical Technology Area designation if you are aligning your narrative to it.
October 8 through October 14. Build the cost volume in the DSIP online webform. Price instrumentation, any hardware you must build, modeling and simulation effort, device handling and probing fixtures suited to the GFP geometry, and the technical writing effort for the feasibility report and transition plan. State GFP requirements clearly. 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, since the Phase I instructions state it will be considered. Assemble Volume 5 with the TABA form, letters of support, and a Data Management Plan addressing government-furnished data, which is particularly apt here. 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: 20 pages with 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-NV026?
OSW26BZ06-NV026 is a Phase I SBIR topic titled "Defect Metrology and Charge Trapping Dynamics in Transfer-Doped Diamond Transistors," released under the Office of the Secretary of War, Reliance 21, 2026 SBIR Broad Agency Announcement, Release 6. The objective is to develop an innovative, non-destructive diamond semiconductor defect metrology technique and laboratory-scale apparatus to identify, quantify, determine location in the device, and energetically characterize charge traps that cause current collapse in surface-channel diamond transistors.
How much funding is available and for how long?
$314,363 over 6 months. That is the shortest period of performance in this release. Phase I awardees may also request up to $6,500 in TABA, 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.
How long can my technical volume be?
Twenty pages. All figures, tables, charts, and references must be included within that limit. Any pages past the limit will not be considered, and no separate appendices will be evaluated.
What is current collapse and knee walkout?
Current collapse is the reduction in drain current under RF or pulsed operation relative to DC characteristics, caused by transient charge trapped at defect sites modulating the channel. Knee walkout is the shift of the knee voltage toward higher drain voltage under stress, reducing usable voltage swing and achievable RF power. Both prevent hydrogen-terminated diamond transistors from operating at their full high-frequency RF power.
What must the technique measure?
Trap density, energy levels, physical location within the device stack, specifically identifying the layers or interfaces where the traps reside, and time constants. It must also resolve multiple trap populations and correlate those signatures with observed current collapse behavior in diamond.
Where can the traps be located?
Five named locations: the gate dielectric, the dielectric-to-diamond interface, the diamond epitaxial layer, the epitaxial-to-substrate interface, and the diamond bulk substrate. Attributing traps to a specific one of these is the capability the topic emphasizes most, and the hardest requirement in it.
Must the method be non-destructive?
Yes. Non-destructive is stated in the objective. That rules out sectioning or delayering approaches, which matters both because the devices are Government Furnished Property in limited supply and because the eventual commercial application is production screening.
Why won't commercial characterization tools work?
Commercial device-characterization tools are built primarily for silicon or traditional compound semiconductor materials and lack the specialized physics and sensitivity required for ultra-wide bandgap diamond. The topic also states that standard capacitance-voltage or simple transient electrical analyses do not provide sufficient physical insight into trap dynamics.
Can I use my gallium nitride validation history as evidence?
Not on its own. The topic warns that because hydrogen-terminated diamond relies on unique surface-channel p-type conduction, validation cannot necessarily rely on prior validation from conventional n-type materials such as GaN, Ga2O3, or AlN, since the fundamentally different physical mechanisms and device architectures may not be acceptable surrogates. Use GaN heritage as capability evidence, but make an explicit physics argument for p-type surface-channel diamond.
Who provides the diamond devices?
The Government. All primary experimental validations and core metrology capability demonstrations must be performed on Government-provided hydrogen-terminated diamond material and RF transistor devices, furnished as Government Furnished Property. In Phase I, the Government will provide representative diamond test structures as GFP.
Can I do preliminary work on other materials?
Yes. Preliminary or intermediate metrology demonstrations on other wide or ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor devices may be used for initial development, and initial benchtop calibration may utilize other wide bandgap materials. But the core Phase I feasibility demonstration must be applied specifically to hydrogen-terminated diamond architectures, and the main and final capability demonstrations must be validated directly on the provided diamond device architectures.
How do I plan a 6-month Phase I around Government Furnished Property?
Front-load the work that does not need diamond: instrument setup, calibration on other wide bandgap materials, and modeling. Then apply the technique to diamond as soon as the GFP arrives. Ask about GFP availability, quantity, device type, and shipping through DSIP Topic Q&A before it closes on October 7, since that is the single most schedule-relevant unknown on this topic. State your GFP requirements explicitly in the proposal.
What are the Phase I deliverables?
Three. A comprehensive feasibility study report detailing the proposed metrology process, scientific justification, and measurement equipment. Initial feasibility data, from preliminary experimental demonstrations, literature review, or modeling, supporting viability for surface-channel p-type architectures. And a detailed Phase II transition plan outlining the schedule, testing procedures, and integration strategy for validating the prototype instrument on the provided diamond devices.
Do I need new experimental data for Phase I?
Not necessarily. The second deliverable permits feasibility data derived from preliminary experimental demonstrations, literature review of relevant semiconductor techniques, or modeling. A well-constructed modeling and literature argument can satisfy it, provided it speaks specifically to surface-channel p-type architectures.
What happens in Phase II?
Develop, construct, and validate a fully functional prototype, laboratory-scale trap metrology instrument based on the Phase I design, demonstrating the ability to isolate and distinguish between different trap locations and correlate those signatures with measured RF current collapse on hydrogen-terminated diamond transistors provided as GFP.
How is Phase II validation defined?
Explicitly, as the successful identification, characterization, and physical location attribution of the specific charge traps responsible for current collapse and similar detrimental effects in the provided diamond transistors. The principal milestone is validation of the hardware and methodology at the performer's facility.
Do I keep the instrument I build?
No. Following successful demonstration, the complete operational prototype measurement system, including all associated hardware, specialized instrumentation, and software, is provided as a deliverable to the Government. Phase II also requires a Standard Operating Procedure manual tailored to the provided diamond RF devices and hands-on training for Government personnel.
What does the delivery model mean for my business?
Your commercial position rests on the design, methodology, and software rather than on the delivered unit, which makes intellectual property strategy and data rights central. The topic's own Phase III commercial application describes commercializing the diagnostic system design, measurement software, and procedural methodology, which is the actual business.
Is this topic ITAR restricted?
No topic-level ITAR or EAR restriction paragraph appears on NV026, unlike NV024 and DV025 in the same release. However, the release's Additional Information section refers to foreign national disclosure per the ITAR notice in the topic description, and the topic's own Phase III section states that some of the technologies this system evaluates fall under ITAR or Commerce Control List export controls and that all commercialization, licensing, and replication services will need to comply with U.S. export control laws. Plan for export control compliance in your business model.
What CMMC level applies?
The projected requirement for this topic is CMMC Level 2 with self-assessment.
What Critical Technology Area does this fall under?
The topic lists Microelectronics as the OUSW (R&E) Critical Technology Area, which is not among the six Critical Technology Areas named in the release introduction. Its Component Technology Priority Areas are Microelectronics and Quantum Science. The field appears to have been populated with a Component Technology Priority Area value. Of the six named Critical Technology Areas, Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance is the nearest to this work.
Is the Company Commercialization Report evaluated?
For Phase I under this release, yes. The Phase I Proposal Guidelines state that CCR information will be considered by OSW-Reliance 21 during proposal evaluations. The Direct to Phase II section of the same document says the opposite and attributes it to a different organization, which appears to be residual text. Complete the CCR carefully.
What cost volume format do I use?
The DSIP online Cost Volume webform. No separate Excel template is required. Supplementary cost detail may be uploaded as a PDF attachment within Volume 3.
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. Model your POW before committing to university collaboration on trap physics modeling.
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. For this topic, DEVCOM Army Research Lab is the most likely technical reviewer, since ARL is where diamond electronics work of this kind lives.
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.
What is the commercial market?
Domestic and allied commercial foundries manufacturing advanced diamond electronics, improving device reliability and manufacturing yield for commercial 5G and 6G telecommunications, satellite communications, commercial radar, and high-frequency communication systems requiring advanced thermal management. On the defense side, the topic expects the technique to become standard within DEVCOM electronic device laboratories and among Defense Industrial Base partners with semiconductor foundries engaged in this development.
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 NV026 description or in any of the four topic descriptions in this release. Use DSIP Topic Q&A, which is especially important here because of the Government Furnished Property dependency, and send administrative questions to osd.pentagon.ousd-atl.mbx.communities-of-interest@mail.mil.
Positioning Advice for Companies Considering This Topic
Lead with your location discrimination mechanism. Five candidate trap locations, terminal measurements that integrate all of them, and a requirement to attribute traps to specific layers and interfaces. That is the hardest thing in the topic and the thing a reviewer at DEVCOM ARL will probe first. Whether your discriminant is depth-sensitive optical excitation, frequency-dependent coupling, a bias-dependent sensitivity argument, or a model inversion, name it in the first page and defend the physics.
Make the p-type surface-channel argument explicitly. The topic warns in advance that n-type wide bandgap validation may not transfer. If you have GaN or gallium oxide heritage, and most credible bidders will, present it as capability while walking through what changes for hydrogen-terminated diamond: the two-dimensional hole gas at the terminated surface, the surface acceptor layer, the band alignment, and why your method still discriminates. Skipping that argument is the most predictable weakness in this pile of proposals.
Ask about the Government Furnished Property before the Q&A closes. Your core Phase I demonstration must be on Government-supplied diamond, you have six months, and you do not control the delivery. Timing, quantity, device type, test structure features, and handling arrangements are all legitimate questions, and asking them signals that you have thought about executing rather than only about physics.
Design your Phase I schedule so diamond is not on the critical path from day one. Initial benchtop calibration on other wide bandgap materials is explicitly permitted. Use that permission structurally: instrument setup, calibration, and modeling first, diamond validation as soon as the GFP arrives. A proposal whose entire plan waits on a shipment is fragile in a way a reviewer will notice.
Design the measurement against the actual devices. The two cited papers describe device classes comparable to the GFP, including a silicon nitride passivated stack and a (001) single crystal substrate. Read them for gate geometry, dielectric stack, operating voltages, currents, frequency, and impedance, and show that your fixturing and sensitivity suit those parameters. That level of specificity is the difference between a general trap metrology pitch and a proposal for this topic.
Connect the trap signature to the current collapse, not just to the trap. The topic requires correlating distinct trap signatures with observed current collapse behavior. That means measuring the RF or pulsed degradation and the trap properties on the same device and closing the causal loop. A technique that produces a beautiful trap spectrum with no link to the device's actual performance loss has not met the requirement.
Be honest about a 6-month, $314,000 envelope. There is no room to specify, buy, and commission major capital equipment. Show what you already have. If your approach needs an instrument you do not own, explain how you access it and what that costs in schedule.
Plan for the fact that you hand over the instrument. Phase II delivers the complete hardware and software to the Government, plus an SOP manual and hands-on training. Start thinking now about what you protect and how: the methodology, the software, the design, data rights assertions. That is your business, and getting it wrong in Phase I framing is expensive later.
Budget the documentation and training as real work. A step-by-step SOP tailored to specific device architectures, plus hands-on training for Government personnel, is technical writing and instruction time. Most proposals will treat it as a line item and underprice it.
Address the mitigation question. The Phase II final report asks you to identify material or processing mitigation options related to the technique's limitations. That means understanding diamond device fabrication, not only measurement. Showing some of that understanding in Phase I positions you as a partner to the device developers rather than a vendor of a black box.
Go after a DEVCOM letter of support. The topic names US Army DEVCOM as the organization presently developing these diamond transistors, which makes it both the likely GFP source and the likely eventual customer for multiple instruments. DEVCOM C5ISR Center is on the encouraged letters list and DEVCOM ARL is among the named evaluators.
Include a Data Management Plan. It is optional but encouraged across this release, and on this topic it is genuinely apt, because your entire experimental program runs on government-furnished devices and the plan is specifically described as addressing protection of government-furnished data.
Bring the trap metrology literature yourself. The topic cites only two device papers and no metrology references, so it gives you no scaffolding and you carry the burden of demonstrating awareness of the state of the art. Deep level transient spectroscopy and its variants, drain current transient spectroscopy, pulsed IV and gate lag, low-frequency noise spectroscopy, and the GaN trapping literature all belong in your related work, with an explicit account of what changes for diamond.
Frame export control as exclusivity, following the topic's own lead. The Phase III text notes that export control may limit certain commercial markets while establishing higher exclusivity within controlled ones. That is a more sophisticated commercialization argument than a large unqualified market estimate, and it comes from the solicitation itself.
