Award Data

The ever-decreasing size of the electronic microchips and the ever-increasing density of electronic components required to support future Air Force platforms are creating the problem of substantial localized heat generation that can impair component operation. State of the art thermal interface materials (TIMs), that are used to dissipate heat from the source to the spreader in a microchip, are se ...

Developments in micro/nano technologies are leading the way to a new fleet of micro air vehicle (MAV) airframes. However, the unavoidable and ultimately the mission-limiting issue for all of these new systems will be on-board power. The lightest-weight current lithium-polymer batteries don’t provide sufficient energy densities and impose a variety of operational limitations that are unacceptab ...

Lithium-ion batteries have become the industry standard for use as rechargeable secondary batteries in space vehicles. Although substantial advancements have made in this class of batteries of late, substantial limitations still exist in: energy and power densities, operational temperature limits, safety, and most importantly lifecycle and lifetime performance. To address this need, ADA Technolo ...

Micro air vehicles (MAV) are envisioned to play a substantial role in carrying out critical missions for the Nation’s future military force. However due to their small size, deficiencies in critical technologies may limit the operational performance of future MAVs. Arguably, on-board power may be the most mission-limiting issue facing future MAVs. To address this need, ADA Technologies, Inc. ...

Morphing air vehicles are characterized by an ability to dramatically alter their airfoil characteristics to maintain optimal aerodynamic efficiency over a broad flight regime thereby broadening their mission profile over an equivalent fixed-wing vehicle. Essential to enabling these vehicles is a wing skin that is highly compliant in-plane for wing morphing while being highly stiff out-of-plane to ...

A novel method of fabricating carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced polymer matrix composites is proposed. It includes growing super-aligned carbon nanotube arrays on a flat substrate, using NCSU proprietary shear pressing method to compress the grown arrays into a layer of densely packed, highly aligned CNTs inclined at an angle of several degrees to the substrate, separating the produced CNT sheet fr ...

Aqwest proposes to develop an advanced thermal management for cooling of electronic components using an active heat sink (AHS) offering unparalleled capabilities in high-heat flux handling and temperature control. The project will produce a cooling system with the following benefits to wide band gap amplifiers and high-power laser diodes (HPLD): 1) Heat flux handling > 1200 W/cm2 2) Easily scalabl ...

The intent of this project is to explore the feasibility of using a parallel connection strategy similar to a utility solution for the operation of multiple high speed turbo-generators in the 10 to 50 kW range. It is desired to connect the high frequency, 3-phase outputs of multiple turbo-generators in parallel to produce a single high frequency bus of significantly higher power, up to 500 kW. Th ...

Robust altitude estimation for over-the-horizon radar (OTHR) requires a combination of advanced signal processing and high fidelity ionospheric propagation modeling. Since aircraft height is manifested in closely-spaced direct and ground-bounce reflections off the target, during Phase I, we have developed two new approaches for discriminating small delay differences from a sequence of radar dwells ...

Colorado Engineering Inc. (CEI), with its teammate, Ball Aerospace, proposes to leverage its collective expertise with phased array antenna design, advanced processing architectures, and radar signal processing algorithms to research, identify, and mature technologies that will improve the cost, size, weight, and power consumption of radar systems supporting Sense and Avoid (SAA) systems. This ef ...