Award Data

Future MDA space missions will utilize small spacecraft with correspondingly small, advanced sensor systems. Cooling of these sensors is required to decrease detector noise and increase detector sensitivity by maintaining the detector at a reduced operating temperature. The cooling system comprises a mechanical cryocooler and its control electronics, both of which are critical technologies to enab ...

Despite over 100 years of research, decompression sickness (DCS) remains the mission-limiting factor in the design and execution of combat diving operations.Divers may spend over an hour decompressing after spending as little as ten minutes at the target depth.While decompressing, divers are limited in vertical mobility, making then susceptible to detection and threatening their survivability.This ...

The Missile Defense Agency is searching for innovative technologies to implement in future interceptor missiles and kill vehicles that will produce weight savings within the systems. To answer this need, Touchstone Research Laboratory proposes to develop fiber reinforced aluminum (FRA) metal matrix composite components to replace those that were originally made from Ti-6-4. The FRA is able to reta ...

Diode-Pumped Alkali Lasers (DPALs) have great potential for high-energy lasers. Proper design of these systems is challenging because many interrelated processes impact their performance, and critical kinetic rate coefficients are not well known. In response, our team is developing a comprehensive physics-based analysis/design tool, and experimentally determining key kinetic rate coefficients. The ...

The proposed Phase II effort will complete the development, design, fabrication and hot gas evaluation of unitary, net-shape braided throttleable divert and attitude control system (TDACS) components. The program will demonstrate a low cost, thermally-stable, triaxially braided C-SiC integrated throat / plenum / exit cone structure for advanced DACS application. This structure will be designed t ...

Future missile detection systems will require improved thermal management for cooling gimbal-mounted sensors and optics. Current systems utilize cryocoolers placed on the gimbal, which necessitates the cryocooler heat to be rejected directly from the gimbal. A far superior approach in terms of payload mass would locate the warm elements of the cryocooler on the stationary platform near the space ...

Wireless automated threat detection networks currently concentrate on non-imaging technology such as acoustic, seismic, and magnetic data. This proposal details our innovative “TimeScan” solution to fully enable video imaging devices to become a powerful yet economical addition to the arsenal of automatic threat detection sensors. Our solution encompasses the end-to-end goal of achieving reli ...

Missile seekers would benefit from a focal plane array (FPA) that allowed high-speed single or multiple-windowing acquisition of the target or targets while maintaining situational awareness of the rest of the field of view. Such data reduction helps where bandwidth is limited, e.g. arrays with formats larger than 1Kx1K, allowing tracking of high-speed missiles at high frame rates. Readout multi ...

We propose to develop a high-performance longwave infrared focal plane array (FPA) based on Type-II InAs/(In)GaSb strained-layer-superlattice (SLS) technology and deliver it packaged in a portable handheld CAMERA. In Phase 1, a matrix of recipes was designed and grown, several wafers were processed, arrays were fabricated and characterized, and material and process issues identified. In Phase 2, ...

We propose to develop a 2Kx2K 2-Color focal plane array (FPA) that provides pixel-registered and simultaneous imaging in two MIDWAVE infrared spectral bands. We will use a novel bandgap-engineered sensor that minimizes spectral crosstalk between the two midwave bands better than current sensor technologies. The FPA also uses a readout multiplexer that provides massive on-chip data compression by ...