Award Data

The NMT/UA team propose to develop a radiation-hardened, low power, and highly robust delay-insensitive asynchronous circuit design methodology in 90nm technology, prototyped by designing a SET/SEL/SEU immune asynchronous microcontroller test chip (PIC 16C57, for example).The proposed Phase 1 SBIR effort will focus on design, simulation, prototyping and demonstration of the key functional blocks o ...

HIGH-DENSITY ENERGY STORAGE AND FAST DISCHARGE WILL BE CRITICAL IN A VARIETY OF HIGH POWER AEROSPACE APPLICATIONS. CAPACITORS ARE IDEAL FOR THESE PURPOSES, AS WELL AS FOR POWER CONDITIONING AND FILTERING. UNFORTUNATELY, BULK POWDER-BASED DIELECTRICS USED IN CAPACITORS HAVE SEVERE LIMITATIONS, ESPECIALLY THE HIGH NUMBER OF SHORT-INDUCING DEFECTS CAUSED BY POOR CONTROL OF MATERIAL PROPERTIES IN CERA ...

The ongoing explosion of microwave radar and communications systems calls for improvement in electronically scanned antennas (ESAs). However, current ESAs crafted from multiple individual elements are extremely expensive. Forming an antenna with integrated scanning and impedance matching elements on a single substrate using thin film technologies may decrease costs by up to two orders of magnitu ...

Virtual displays have tremendous potential in defense applications such as virtual reality training, battlefield support, and information systems. Full color displays require red, blue, and green LED arrays of which only red is commercially available. This program teams ATMI, a recognized leader in the GaN growth community, with Reflection Technology, a leader in virtual display technology. ATMI w ...

Increasing thermal and power loads in circuitry demand electrical components which can operate at temperatures up to 400 C and beyond . A combination of high bandgap semiconductors and improved dielectrics is needed to solve this problem. ATMI has maj or programs in production of both SiC/GaN semiconductor materials and high dielectric constant complex oxide thin films, in particular barium stront ...

In this program we will develop narrow linewidth AlGaN Bragg reflector lasers suitable as injection seeds for solid-state W lasers in the range of 280 to 330 nm. These systems are compact, light weight, and low-power consuming and ideal for airborne lidar systems. Bragg reflector lasers have never been fabricated in the nitrides so in this Phase I program we will develop the technologies necessary ...

Photodiodes have high efficiency since the absorption region thickness is large. However, no GaN p-i-n photodiodes have been reported due to the difficulty in achieving low background doped GaN. This Phase I program seeks to determine the increase in quantum efficiency achievable by the use of a thick intrinsic layer inserted in the p-n junction to increase the absorption region thickness. In addi ...

Commercially viable silicon carbide device manufacturing processes depend on an ability to grow'low defect density epitaxial layers. Low defect density epitaxial layers start with pristine SiC substrate surfaces. Epi-ready pristine SiC surfaces are not commercially available. The results of this-programme should remedy this. In Phase I we will demonstrate a cost-effective, reproducible ex-situ sur ...

SOI technology offers the potential for creating radiation hard integrated circuits which can operate at low power and high speed. These advances are important for DoD and space applications and for battery operated devices. SOI is excellent for rad-hard applications because dielectric isolation of active circuitry from the supporting substrate by the Buried OXygen (BOX) layer enhances resistance ...

Operating temperatures for phosphoric acid fuel cells have been steadily increasing in the quest for higher efficiency. The temperature increase has been made possible by the use of more stable electrode catalyst and other fuel cell materials. This makes it possible to consider reforming methanol fuel internally, thereby improving efficiency and simplifying power plant design. This change eliminat ...