The mission of the Armstrong Memorial Research Foundation is to celebrate and memorialize the genius of Edwin Howard Armstrong, a luminary in the world of radio engineering. His inventions of the regenerative circuit (1912) and the superheterodyne circuit (1917) brought about the creation of the AM broadcasting industry. His invention of the super-regenerative circuit (1922) was yet another major boon to the broadcast industry, but the crown jewel of his inventions is indisputably the invention of FM (1933) which revolutionized the world of high-fidelity broadcasting and has subsequently led to a myriad of applications in communications, including the currently exploding area of wireless communications, as well as applications such as high-performance radars called pulse-compression radars. Armstrong's invention of FM has thus led to applications well beyond the broadcast industry.

Established in 1955, a year after Armstrong's death, with an endowment from his widow, Marion Armstrong, the Armstrong Foundation has applied itself to disseminating knowledge of Armstrong's research and achievements through lectures, awards to electrical engineering students as well as research scientists in the field of communications, and awards to AM and FM stations for excellence and originality in radio broadcasting. The Foundation also promotes Armstrong exhibits in museums and libraries, and also books, films and other media for accurate recording and dissemination of information on Armstrong's role in the past and continuing advancement of the telecommunication industry.