Award Data

FLame-assisted Additive Manufacturing (FLAMe) is a new method of AM in which the desired feedstock material is synthesized in a high temperature gas-phase combustion synthesis reaction and the resulting high temperature metal particles are accelerated and deposited onto a substrate in a user-defined pattern to construct a component. Gas-phase phase precursors allow for no limit on the melting poin ...

Sivananthan Laboratories (SL) with the University of Iowa as the STTR partner, proposes to develop metasurface-coupled type II superlattice (T2SL) LWIR detectors that are predicted to outperform HgCdTe detectors. We developed in Phase I fundamental understanding of metasurface-coupled T2SLs, likely performance, and issues related to scaling up device structure to form arrays for LWIR imaging. In P ...

Sb-based III-V semiconductor Type-II superlattice (T2SL) materials with band structure-engineered device architectures are groundbreaking for infrared detectors and focal plane arrays (FPAs). T2SL FPAs have become very attractive candidates for various MDA/DOD sensor platforms including air, space, ships, and missiles. T2SL wafers, the starting materials of FPAs, are grown on large substrates usin ...

The proposed program will design a microwave interferometer for the purpose of measuring the electron density and other fundamental parameters of Diode-Pumped Alkali Laser (DPAL) gain media. Although several models of the collisional chemistry of DPALs exist, benchmarking such models with experimental measurements has been hampered by the absence of experimental measurements of the electron densit ...

PolyMaterials App, LLC (PolyMaterials) proposes to develop a supercapacitor cell suited for MDA applications after a very successful Phase I and Phase II effort addressing topic number MDA19-007, “Supercapacitor Nano-architecture Using Bio-carbon-based Materials Derived from Plant Cellulose”. The primary objective of this 2nd Phase II proposal is to transition PolyMaterials’ supercapacitor, ...

As the Missile Defense System (MDS) codebase grows, it is essential to establish a strategy to automate the verification of software compliance with standards. As breakthrough-enabling technologies, AI and ML can make verifying and complying with standards nearly invisible to the development team, giving clear metrics to quality authorities. The codebase needs to follow the MDA Assurance Provision ...

According to a recent survey, 178 million trips are taken across U.S.’s 46,000 structurally deficient bridges every day. Due to concerns over their actual load-carrying capacity, some of these bridges have posted weight and speed restrictions. The lack of enforcement of these load postings is an issue nationwide and presents risks for human lives and costly failures. To address this issue, this ...

Curing concrete properly is essential for strength gain and durability. While the importance of curing is widely known, all too often curing is not properly executed in practice. This proposal outlines a sensing system that will have three functions: · to record the weather conditions during the concrete placement. · to document how the implemented curing impacts a known concrete system. · to p ...

Food deserts are among the major contributing factors to food insecurity. There are more than 6,500 food desert tracts in the U.S., home to 23.5 million Americans. Rural food deserts are more than 10 miles from the nearest grocery store, and this distance poses extraordinary challenges for those who do not have a vehicle or cannot drive. In urban food deserts, people's grocery store inaccessibilit ...

Highly maneuverable hypersonic vehicles pose an emerging threat which require that we revisit the kill mechanisms employed to defeat them. In Phase I, SwRI and Anyar will consider a trade space study that examines the potential for including blast/fragmentation warhead systems to increase the volume of space available to impart lethal effects. Anyar’s overarching objectives are defined in the co ...