HRL Laboratories

HRL Laboratories

Company type	Private (LLC)
Industry	Research and development
Predecessor	Hughes Research Laboratories
Founded	1960
Headquarters	Malibu , United States
Area served	Global
Owner	General Motors Company and Boeing

HRL Laboratories—previously known as Hughes Research Laboratories—is a research institution based in Malibu, California, founded in 1960. It originally served as the research division of Hughes Aircraft and is now jointly owned by General Motors Company and Boeing. The campus features two multi-story buildings that provide views of the Pacific Ocean.

History

During the 1940s, Howard Hughes established a research and development center located in Culver City, California. Construction of the Malibu site commenced in 1959, with architects Ragnar Qvale and Neil Johnson responsible for its design. Although initially planned for Potter Aeronautical Company, Hughes Research Laboratories acquired the property before construction was completed. The primary facility opened its doors in 1960, followed by an additional building erected in 1970 by Del E. Webb Construction Company.

A 1984 decision by a U.S. Federal Court mandated that the Howard Hughes Medical Institute divest Hughes Aircraft to preserve its non-profit status. Consequently, General Motors purchased Hughes Aircraft in 1985. In 1997, GM sold the aerospace and defense segments to Raytheon and restructured Hughes Research Laboratories into HRL Laboratories, LLC, co-owned by GM and Raytheon. After GM transferred Hughes satellite operations to Boeing in 2000, ownership expanded to include Boeing alongside GM and Raytheon. Although Raytheon divested its share in 2007, it continues to collaborate with HRL on research initiatives.

Funding for HRL originates from its LLC partners, government contracts, and commercial clients. The laboratory secured its inaugural patent in September 2000.

The organization focuses on cutting-edge research spanning microelectronics, information science, systems science, materials science, sensors, and photonics. Its principal areas of expertise encompass high-performance integrated circuits, high-power lasers, antennas, networking technologies, quantum information science, and smart materials.

Despite reductions within the aerospace sector during the 1990s, HRL remains the largest employer in Malibu.

Notable accomplishments

• In 1960, Theodore Maiman developed the first operational laser prototype at Hughes Research Laboratories.
• Atomic clock investigations began at HRL in 1959, culminating in maser oscillators that played a role in spaceborne GPS atomic clocks.
• Research into ion propulsion started in 1960 and led to the xenon ion propulsion system (XIPS), utilized on NASA's Deep Space 1 mission and geostationary satellites such as the Hughes/Boeing 601HP and 702 series.
• The liquid crystal wristwatch was invented at HRL in 1975.
• The SyNAPSE neuromorphic chip—capable of synaptic learning—was honored as a leading breakthrough technology by MIT Technology Review during the 2010s.
• HRL created the most extensive biologically accurate computational model simulating nine brain systems to explain cognitive biases (2010s).
• Developed the Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System—the first "cognitive-neural" binocular threat detection technology—recognized among CNN’s Top Ten DARPA Technologies (2010s).
• Introduced "MagicNet," a time-delay neural network pattern matching technique that operates twice as fast as deterministic finite automata (2011).
• Engineered a reconfigurable spatially immersive display system and pioneered both the initial hybrid satellite-wireless ad hoc network and stabilized outdoor augmented reality system during the 1990s.
• Invented the metallic microlattice—the lightest material known—in 2011.
• Demonstrated coherent singlet-triplet oscillations within a silicon quantum double dot device (2012).

See also

• Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System