"High energy density capacitors will serve various commercial and military applications, such as pulse power systems, pulsed lasers, high energy switches, radar modulators, and directed energy weapons. However, today¿¿s capacitors, especially high energydensity storage capacitors, are the weakest… More

Boston Applied Technologies Inc. (BATI) proposes a novel approach to configure an optical smoke meter for smoke number measurement. In the proposed smoke meter, a light beam with modulated polarization is incident onto the exhaust plume, the lightscattered by the smoke particles is collected to a… More

This proposal will enable the most efficient integration of NASA?s semiconductor lasers into strategic optical systems. To protect laser lifetimes and increase performance, these lasers will require isolators to protect them from back-reflections, similar to the isolators in all fiber-optic… More

An all-solid portable lidar system is desired as a prominent instrument for monitoring various atmospheric phenomena. Lidar return signal from targets inherently suffer from noise caused by atmospheric variations. Increasing laser energy and improving receiver photon sensitivity enable longer-range… More

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project proposes to fabricate ultra-fast imaging spectroscope for applications in geosciences. One of the key components in a hyperspectral imaging system is the tunable filter. Existing mechanical tunable filter are usually heavy, bulky, slow… More

After the 9-11 terrorist attacks, homeland security and anti-terrorism become a national priority and received the most and highest attention. Improved anti-terrorism technology is specially needed to prevent future terrorist attack and increase theability and accuracy of US military force in the… More

Access to the space is fundamentally very expensive. One of the most effective ways to lower the cost is obviously to reduce the weight and size of the payloads while maintaining high performance. Microwave communication is the most important and practical communication method used in the space… More

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop a high performance optical switch. The optical communication is a fastest growing technology in modern communication industry meeting the ever-increase in market demand for bandwidth. Fiberoptic communication is inherently immune… More

New concepts in fiber optic lasers are of interest to Army to reduce the cost-per-watt and sustain longer storage life in the field. Current solid state laser materials are limited in Nd or Yb doped single crystals, both emit at near 1 mwavelength, and other material systems have not yet… More

This work proposes to capitalize on our Phase I success in monolithically integrating magneto-optic and magnetic materials with semiconductor platforms in order to reduce the size and weight, as well as increase the performance, of NASA?s strategic optical systems. Nonreciprocal components play… More

This Small Business Research (SBIR) Phase II project is aimed to capitalize on our Phase I success of ultra-fast tunable optical filter technology for the applications of hyperspectral imaging, environmental monitoring and optical communication. During Phase I period, the feasibility of ultra-fast… More

High energy density capacitors will serve various commercial and military applications, such as high energy x-rays, impulse generators, controlled nuclear fusion, and directed energy weapons, However, today's capacitors, especially high energy density storage capacitors, are the weakest link in… More

Detection and identification of similar class military targets can be extremely difficult, especially at extended ranges. The wide variety of deployment scenarios further complicate this effort. Existing DoD investments in inventory aircraft also limit possible solutions. There is a need to… More

There is a need in Air Force to inspect for fatigue cracks in multi-layer metallic structures in an aging aircraft. High resolution, high accuracy imaging and easy operation are key characteristics required in developing new NDE technology for evaluating large objects. Current x-ray backscattering… More

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR ) Phase II project will develop electro-optic photonic bandgap (EO-PBG) Materials and Devices. During the Phase I project the feasibility of the proposed electro-optic PBG technology has been demonstrated. High quality EO film, La-modified PMN-PT… More

75174-Remote sensing, needed for the detection and monitoring of nuclear facilities, depends upon reliable and renewable energy sources. However, today¿s energy storage systems are the weakest link in power electronic systems, due to their low-volumetric efficiency and the limited temperature… More

Infrared (IR) window materials possessing both good optical and mechanical properties have been identified and developed for several decades. While their optical properties have been perfected to approaching the theoretical limits, higher mechanical strengths are still sought to meet the… More

75173-Current scintillator materials do not fully satisfy the requirements for high and intermediate energy particle/photon detection, needed to support the monitoring and verification of the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty and other international arms control agreements. Due to… More

76142-High power, high wall-plug efficiency, mass producible, reliable and low-cost lasers with wavelength of 2 to 2.5?m are needed for laser accelerator with Si optics. The technology would benefit the DOE¿s High Energy Physics program. The objective of this project is to develop a novel… More

78891S In conventional, micrometer-scale, phosphors, strong light scattering at grain boundaries decreases light out put. In addition, conventional phosphors obtained by the solid state sintering method have a lower concentration quenching threshold due to non-uniform doping. Nano-scale phosphors… More

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR ) Phase II project will develop electro-optic photonic bandgap (EO-PBG) Materials and Devices. During the Phase I project the feasibility of the proposed electro-optic PBG technology has been demonstrated. High quality EO film, La-modified PMN-PT… More

Non-destructive inspection (NDI) has been broadly used for mechanical health management and quality control in many fields. It is especially important for aircraft maintenance part inspection and product where any mechanical parts flaw may result a catastrophic failure. Due to current lengthy depot… More

76142S High power, high wall-plug efficiency, mass producible, reliable, and low-cost 2 ¿m lasers are needed for a laser accelerator with Si optics. The technology would benefit the DOE¿s High Energy Physics program. This project will develop a novel Tm doped ceramic laser material and diode… More

75173B Current scintillator materials do not fully satisfy the requirements for high and intermediate energy particle/photon detection, needed to support the monitoring and verification of the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty and other international arms control agreements. Due to… More

In recent years there has been an increasing interest in the propagation of polarized light in randomly scattering media. The investigation of backscattered light is of particular interest since most medical applications aimed at the in-vivo characterization of biological tissue rely on… More

Non-destructive inspection (NDI) has been broadly used for mechanical health management and quality control in many fields. It is especially important for aircraft maintenance part inspection and production where any mechanical flaw may result in catastrophic failure. Due to current lengthy depot… More

Non-intrusive E-field probes with better sensitivity and higher frequency responses are needed in military missions for measuring and characterizing high power microwave (HPM) effects on test objects and targets. However, no device is currently fulfilling all the requirements for HPM… More

Boston Applied Technologies proposes to develop a novel passive wireless telemetry sensor for bearing cage temperature monitoring in harsh environment. The sensor will employ Multilayer Ceramic Integrated Circuit (MCIC) Technology to ensure its operation in harsh environment at temperature up to 450… More

Wireless optical communication systems have gone through considerable development in the past few years, as optical components have experiences important technologic advances and price decreases. Thus data communications are increasingly using wireless optical systems at higher speeds. These systems… More

Aluminum and titanium alloys have become more widely used for bearing housings and flanges in aerospace propulsion systems because of their low density, high strength-to-weight ratio, and high thermal conductivity. However, their wear resistance and corrosion resistance are poor. When matched to… More

Environmental sensors are needed for the control of systems and appliances in both commercial and residential buildings, in order to increase energy efficiency and indoor life quality. In particular, wireless sensor suites are needed to minimize the cost of retrofitting buildings, especially in… More

The spectral content of targets through a multi- or hyper-spectral imaging will greatly improve target discrimination capability by utilizing the differences in spectral content of target and background radiation. However, today's hyperspectral imaging systems are limited to wavelength-to-wavelength… More

Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a versatile tool for in situ substance characterization. Existing LIBS instruments are not compact enough for space applications. Major obstructs for miniaturization are from: high voltage Q-switch based pulse laser, inefficient light collection system… More

This work proposes to capitalize on our Phase I success in a novel visible-near infrared Stokes polarization imaging technology based on high performance fast tunable phase retarder and novel algorithms for analyzing and diagnosing biological phantoms and cells. Phase I results have demonstrated the… More

This SBIR project aims at developing a high sensitivity night vision viewer with broadband (near IR (NIR), mid-wave IR (MWIR), and long wave IR (LWIR)) coverage. Utilizing a specific transparent functional material developed at Boston Applied Technologies Incorporated (BATi) that has excellent… More

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) has been envisioned to revolutionize the way humans perceive and interact with the surrounding environment. The sensor nodes form a network and collaborate (to compensate for the extremely scarce resources available to each of them: computational power, memory size,… More

The bone loss associated with extended space missions in astronaut represents a serious health threat, both over the flight period and upon returning to gravitational fields. Continuously monitoring bone qualities during prolonged space missions will lead to a better understanding of the progressive… More

Target discrimination capability can be greatly improved by contrasting the spectral energy content of the target against the background radiation. For fast target discrimination, Boston Applied Technologies proposes to develop a composite dynamic optical filtering technology for imaging arbitrary… More

Recent advances in scintillator materials research have resulted in the development of lanthanum halides detectors. These detectors offer improved energy resolution, faster emission and excellent temperature dependency and linearity characteristics. However, the lanthanum halides crystals have not… More

With people spending more time indoors, concerns about the impact of indoor environmental quality ¿ on human health, comfort, productivity, energy efficiency, building security, and respiratory disease control ¿ are rapidly increasing. Low-cost, reliable, and easy-deployment sensor systems are… More

Recent advances in the single wavelength excitation to induce upconversion emission in transparent colloids of Lanthanide-doped NaYF4 nanocrystals provide the opportunity for significant performance in biological tagging applications. For many military missions, a cost-effective, ultra-compact,… More

Polycrystalline ceramics as laser gain hosts have several remarkable advantages over single crystal ones. For example, they can house a higher doping concentration, are much easier to be fabricated into larger and more complex shapes, which is extremely difficult in the crystal case. The costs of… More

In this STTR project, Boston Applied Technologies, Inc. (BATi), teaming up with Prof. Di Bartolo's group at Boston College, aims at developing a large size (300 mm x 300 mm) updatable 3D display with photorefractive polymers for battlefield and command and control applications. The proposed 3D… More

This SBIR project aims at developing a high sensitivity night vision viewer with broadband coverage. Utilizing a unique transparent functional material developed at Boston Applied Technologies Incorporated (BATi) that has excellent pyroelectric effect, strong absorption at near-, mid- and LW-IR… More

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I research project aims at developing a fast response, broadband TeraHertz (THz) spectrometer with High-Tc SuperConductor (HTSC). It is believed that the development of highly sensitive full THz spectrum coverage spectrometer will be an alternative,… More

Airborne multispectral remote sensing has been an enabling technology for identification of activities associated with the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. However, existing technologies have limitations with respect to color-switching speed, temperature range, throughput, and spectral… More

With respect to its remote sensing responsibilities for verifying the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the DOE is seeking instrumentation for the detection and analysis of polarized light. This project will develop an innovative field-portable polarization imaging solution, based on… More

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project develops a portable ultrasound device for non-invasively monitoring intracranial pressure (ICP). The key issues for developing such a kind of device are sensitivity, accuracy, repeatability, and portability. Boston Applied Technologies,… More

Currently, most (85%) of the nation¿s energy requirements are met through burning fossil fuels, of which coal accounts for about 23% of current energy supplies. The ability to further exploit the nation¿s most abundant and lowest cost resource (coal) for meeting future energy needs will require… More

Advanced high-temperature sensor technology and bonding methods are of great interests in designing and developing advanced future aircraft. Current state-of-the-art high temperature strain sensors are made of wires or thin film deposited by PVD on shims and then welded or glued onto strainable… More

A fiber-based fixed-array laser transmitter can be combined with a fiber-arrayed detector to create the next-generation NASA array LIDAR systems. High speed optical fiber multiplexers allow array LIDAR systems to efficiently share the same laser source. Boston Applied Technologies, Inc. (BATi)… More

Polycrystalline ceramics as laser gain hosts have several remarkable advantages over single crystal ones. They can host a higher doping concentration, are much easier to be fabricated into larger and more complex shapes, which are extremely difficult in the single crystal case. The costs of the… More

Although fluorescent lamps (FLs) convert more input power to visible light than incandescent lamps, even the best of today¿s T-8 FLs convert only about 28% of consumed power into visible radiation. This inefficiency is partially attributed to unwanted infrared emissions (~37%). Therefore, one of… More

With respect to its remote sensing responsibilities for verifying the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the DOE is seeking instrumentation for the detection and analysis of polarized light. This project will develop an innovative field-portable polarization imaging device based on a… More

Airborne multispectral remote sensing has been an enabling technology for the identification of activities associated with proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. However, existing technologies have limitations on color-switching speed, temperature range, throughput, and spectral range. This… More

For remote sensing of laser/lidar technology and global environment monitoring applications, the pulsed coherent Doppler lidars are of considerable contemporary interest as an effective tool. At present, the coherent 2-

Infrared (IR) detection approaches have required significant development of highly sensitive arrays for a wide range of area. How to engineer materials to achieve high IR sensitivity and be deposited onto lenses, goggles, or other substrates are challenging and important to military and commercial… More

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project focuses on developing a novel thermographic phosphor thermometry technique, combined with a thermal barrier coating (TBC) material, for monitoring gas turbine surface temperature and TBC condition (i.e., to monitor the coating for spallation… More

This SBIR project is aimed at developing a novel thermometry technology with upconverting phosphors for temperature measurement in NASA's high-enthalpy wind tunnels. Conventional thermographic phosphors require illumination by ultraviolet (UV) light and emit light at visible wavelengths.… More

In this proposal, Boston Applied Technologies, Incorporated (BATi) together with University of Minnesota proposes to develop a high quality epitaxially grown multiferroic thin film heterostructure through a simple wet chemical route, which has been demonstrated the capability of growing high quality… More

ABSTRACT: Single-point spectroscopic analysis of flame emission and blackbody radiation has been successfully used for jet engine diagnosis such as measuring temperature and specie concentration. An obvious need is to extend such a diagnostic mean to 2-D and 3-D scales. This SBIR project is aimed… More

This project aims at developing a non focal plane laser protection system consisted of single crystal plates with hidden phase gratings, which can be revealed with exposure to strong laser pulse, and a novel optical shutter based device that follows. The protection system is large in aperture, broad… More