Company
Portfolio Data
Back to Company SearchQORTEK INC
UEI: TLD8L3APDZM3
Number of Employees: 66
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
SBIR/STTR Involvement
Year of first award: 1996
86
Phase I Awards
48
Phase II Awards
55.81%
Conversion Rate
$9,857,753
Phase I Dollars
$46,783,996
Phase II Dollars
$56,641,748
Total Awarded
Awards
Revised Low Cost Actuators
Amount: $149,853 Topic: MDA23-006
The program aims to develop a new compact, high temperature (150░C withstand) operational solid-state actuator technology aimed at hypersonic missile and munition applications that will decrease cost and improve existing actuator performance. These new actuators will meet stall loads of 5000 N, provide an actuation speed of 100 mm/s, and enabling stroke of up to 5 cm. The design will incorporate QorTek advanced TX101 textured ceramic actuation elements delivering strain (displacement) approximately 2 times greater than conventional piezo ceramics. Importantly, TX101 shows no reduction in performance up to 150░C. Further available is our HT301 piezoceramic with even higher operational temperature of 300░C (3 times that of conventional piezoceramics). QorTek will develop an innovative large force/stroke piezoelectric linear motor/actuator incorporating this high temperature material as their active elements. Phase I will focus on simulation and testing of critical subsystems, with a phase I exit of a down selected design, which will be prototyped in Phase II. Approved for Public Release | 23-MDA-11635 (9 Nov 23)
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2024
DOD
MDA
Advanced Manufacturing of Piezoelectric Textured Ceramic Materials
Amount: $999,986 Topic: N222-111
Textured piezoceramicsÆ recent expanded commercial availability in wide range of size, quantity, and form factor as well as the successful demonstrations poised to ignite strong further interest in their integration into undersea acoustic systems as to significantly improve operational capabilities.Ā As is now known, textured ceramic materials have electromechanical properties between those of conventional PZT and relaxor PMN-PT single crystals with large advantages over both.Ā Textured piezoceramics show ability to increase source level and improve sensitivity; their larger bandwidth relative to PZT for a specific design and form factor opens new design space for acoustic systems as it can enhance both the probability of target detection (i.e., ability to detect quieter enemy submarines), enable longer operational life of power source limited systems (i.e., expendable sensors), and extend target detection ranges in physical volume limited applications by enabling lower frequency transducer designs in a smaller form factor. Because of the combined gains in key metrics, Textured ceramics emerge as an alternative transduction material filling the gap between legacy PZT and Single Crystal. Despite the growing interest and successful demonstrations, there remain key obstacles towards a widescale market acceptance in terms of production capacity, yield, and comparable purchase costs to legacy PZT materials. These limitations represent a critical risk to transition into major high volume Navy applications, specifically in expendable systems where transduction materials are required to be high volume manufacturable without shape and size limitation with high yield and at comparable costs and consistency to PZT equivalents. The identified manufacturing issues are rooted in non-standard textured piezoceramic specific processing steps (i.e., template, slurry, wet forming, and BBO) that are not part of a PZT production causing yield issues. This program will focus on addressing these yield, throughput and cost issues as to enable textured piezoceramic parts approach the baseline cost and availability of standard piezoceramic parts in use by US Navy.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2024
DOD
NAVY
Open Architecture Telemetry First Level Multiplexer with Array Power Distribution
Amount: $1,248,492 Topic: N231-034
As anti-submarine warfare (ASW) technologies expanded rapidly during the Cold War, towed array systems such as Surveillance Towed Array Sonar System (SURTASS) were deployed with outstanding success at detecting submarines. Later TB-29(A) and TB-34 along with the Multi-Function Towed Array (MFTA) have further increased detection capabilities. This proposal aims to develop an OAT first level multiplexer that incorporates array power distribution functions. QorTek will take innovative packaging approaches to integrate the power regulator components into the already compact packaging requirements. QorTek plans to use Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to perform thermal simulations to ensure there is adequate heatsinking and design margin for reliable operation. QorTek will leverage design experience to make the telemetry electronics as dense as possible while designing for manufacturability.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2024
DOD
NAVY
Dynamic Power Conversion
Amount: $150,000 Topic: S13
This project aims to produce a small, very high performance, radhard, modular AC-DC Fission Surface Power (FSP) controller that incorporates a novel fine dust and EM mitigation solutions. The program focus is to develop a small radhard power manager for a lunar rover mounted FSP generator enabling long duration operation in dark conditions. The solution is based on advances in radhard ASIC controller/modulator technology and radhard bidirectional wide bandgap (WBG) bidirectional converter power topology. Future work will expand to extending the controller system to a novel GaN-based bidirectional isolated converter for system-level demonstration meeting lunar and M2M Surface mission needs, especially in regard to supporting lander and rover missions. Our initial focus being development of small nuclear fission power delivery based on power electronics that can safely operate in lunar radiation/dust environments while providing power generation in the dark conditions as to enable long duration exploration in permanently shadowed areas or during lunar nights.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2024
NASA
N221 - 065 - Low Cost, Small Form Factor Scalable Receivable Array
Amount: $735,374 Topic: N221-065
The proposed Modular Expansive Spectrum Passive Receiver (MESPR) system is based on Modern COTS-based data acquisition and high-speed serializer/deserializer (SerDes) communication technologies to realize a receiver architecture that is adaptable to a wide range of frequencies and sensor configurations (conformal, planar, line, and volumetric arrays etc.) while maintaining effective size, power, and cost metrics.Ā The program aims to establish a baseline design for MESPR by leveraging COTS-based electronics and commercially available interface systems. The objective for the proposed work is to establish a modular approach that allows the main elements to remain largely unaltered across a range of applications with various frequencies of interest, hydrophone geometries, ceramic materials, and applications. The system will leverage advanced system on chip processing technologies and benefit from application and compatibility with emerging sensor technologies such as QorTekÆs TX101 textured ceramic.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2024
DOD
NAVY
Advanced Piezoelectric Materials in Maritime Surveillance Systems
Amount: $727,397 Topic: N221-042
As the ocean ambient background noise levels have increased and foreign adversary submarines have become quieter the U.S. NavyÆs need to outpace developing threats is as urgent as it was during the Cold War. In order to maintain a competitive advantage new materials, devices and systems must be quickly developed and fielded in a cost-effective way. During this project QorTek will utilize its advanced textures piezoelectric ceramics, TX101. Which has shown sensitivity improvements of 6-12 dB over convention piezo ceramics. Texture ceramics are considerably more durable than single crystal piezo and can be manufactured in large volumes at a lower cost. TX101 will be coupled with a novel accelerometer and hydrophones designs, to produce a next generation vector sensor. Building on the success of the Phase I SBIR and moving into the Phase II, QorTek's overall objectives are to increase the sensitivity of the accelerometers and hydrophone, while packaged in a housing capable of withstanding water pressures as high as 10 KPsi and mission lengths in excess of 20 years.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2024
DOD
NAVY
Scalable High Frequency Transmit/Receive Array for Multiple Unmanned Underwater Vehicle and Torpedo Applications
Amount: $139,990 Topic: N24A-T012
Single crystal apart, over the last 50 years, the US Navy has been constrained to using a defined set of piezoelectric material options for its acoustic transduction materials. This limitation has hindered further advancements in existing autonomous underwater acoustic systems restricting USN capability to meet emerging threats to its undersea superiority. Textured piezoceramics, now emerge as a new class of acoustic transduction material, which will enable improved detection and communication capabilities of multiple autonomous vehicles such as torpedoes and UUVs as they can be rapidly fielded within existing or with new platforms. Recent demonstrations of textured ceramic materials manufactured at QorTek (TX101) show increased acoustic output levels (+3 to +8dB) and larger operational bandwidths beyond what has been traditionally achieved using conventional piezoceramics (PZT). Importantly, it has also been demonstrated that TX101 based sensor designs provide 6-10dB sensitivity improvement over legacy Navy operational PZT based acoustic transduction devices. Several Navy prime companies verified these performance advances furnished by QorTek textured ceramics for various transducer and sensor designs. Our approach is to build on QorTek and its partner’s expertise on the design space as well on the success of previous demonstrations of textured transducer, textured sensor programs. Considering the established manufacturing capability of TX101 textured ceramics at QorTek, the focus in Phase I will be to optimize the transducer design candidate, and to assemble in targeted configurations for in-water testing in Phase I Option.
Tagged as:
STTR
Phase I
2024
DOD
NAVY
N231-034 - Open Architecture Telemetry First Level Multiplexer with Array Power Distribution
Amount: $238,990 Topic: N231-034
As anti-submarine warfare (ASW) technologies expanded rapidly during the Cold War, towed array systems such as Surveillance Towed Array Sonar System (SURTASS) were deployed with outstanding success at detecting submarines. Later TB-29(A) and TB-34 along with the Multi-Function Towed Array (MFTA) have further increased detection capabilities. This proposal aims to develop an OAT first level multiplexer that incorporates array power distribution functions. QorTek will take innovative packaging approaches to integrate the power regulator components into the already compact packaging requirements. QorTek plans to use Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to perform thermal simulations to ensure there is adequate heatsinking and design margin for reliable operation. QorTek will leverage design experience to make the telemetry electronics as dense as possible while designing for manufacturability.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2023
DOD
NAVY
Pressure Tolerant modular acoustic communication payload
Amount: $1,057,086 Topic: N212-129
The US Navy is actively supporting the development and procurement of multiple unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) to shift the fleet architecture to a more distributed format. UUV systems will play a key part in future Naval fleet architectures as new threats are identified and addressed. With the Navy’s goal to accelerate the acquisition of large UUVs there is a clear need for new technology development to support capability enhancement of autonomous underwater systems. The proposed effort aims to establish a new pressure tolerant acoustic communication system that leverages advanced power electronics, firmware, software and novel textured ceramic piezoelectric materials to present advancements in size, weight, and power (SWAP) capability for a wide range of unwater communication applications. QorTek’s overall approach is to develop a high-density, pressure tolerant, ACOMs platform that has broader capability (power, modularity, and reconfigurability) than currently available acoustic modems. The proposed approach is to establish an electronics platform that is plug-and-play compatible with differing transducers and hydrophones addressing differing frequencies, bandwidths, and data rates. QorTek plans to leverage their open-architecture Wide Bandwidth Software Defined Acoustic Modem (WBSDAM) currently in development for DARPA as a baseline architecture for this effort. This foundation allows the electronics development effort to focus on design for pressure tolerance as functional hardware been demonstrated. The Phase II will mature a design for a highly compact, highly modular, payload based on QorTek’s Modular Direct Drive Amplifier, Digital Receiver and Software Defined Acoustic Modem architectures. The program will focus on modification of the designs to enable operation at depth without use of a pressure vessel with a goal to establish the feasibility of the approach though analytical modeling, design and early hardware demonstrations.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2023
DOD
NAVY
Acoustic Vector Sensors that Achieve Affordable Array Directivity
Amount: $1,043,589 Topic: N221-070
As anti-submarine warfare (ASW) technologies expanded rapidly during the Cold War, towed array systems such as Surveillance Towed Array Sonar System (SURTASS) were deployed with outstanding success at detecting submarines. Later TB-29(A) and TB-34 along with the Multi-Function Towed Array (MFTA) have further increased detection capabilities. This proposal aims to reduce the cost of vector sensor integration into the towed arrays while concurrently improving array performance. A significant cost of towed arrays is derived from touch time for assembly of the towed array from the multiple components. To help reduce costs, this program aims to simplify assembly procedures and standardize the vector sensor components. The program objective is to integrate the textured piezo ceramic elements with embedded electronics to provide a better solution for a vector sensor following the Open Architecture Telemetry standardization. A secondary objective is to develop the industry’s first commercially available textured piezo vector sensor. This new technology significantly improves sensitivity performance while simultaneously lowering receive noise. The textured piezo technology allows for retrofitted array improvements in legacy arrays and is directly applicable to transmit transducer applications.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2023
DOD
NAVY