Award Data

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 broader impact/commercial potential of this project includes increased range, increased efficiency, and decreased size of wireless charging systems, which will provide value to consumer devices (e.g., mobile phones and tablets), transportation, and medical industries. In consumer devices, improved and widely adopted wireless power transfer can lead to more rugged designs of the devices by elim ...

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proposes to develop fiber reinforced aluminum (FRA) metal matrix composite components to replace those that were originally made from Ti-6-4.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 ...

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 ...

IN RECENT YEARS, CONSIDERABLE ATTENTION HAS BEEN FOCUSED ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNIQUES FOR GENETIC TRANSFORMATION OF HIGHER PLANTS. MOST ADVANCES HAVE BEEN MADE USING EITHER PETUNIA OR NICOTIANA AS A MODEL EXPERIMENTAL SYSTEM, MAINLY BECAUSE THESE PLANTS RESPOND WELL FOR REGENERATION IN CELL CULTURE. THERE IS AN OBVIOUS NEED TO EXTEND THESE STUDIES TO OTHER SPECIES, FOREST TREES IN PARTICULAR, ...

CONVENTIONAL ROCK CORE DRILLING AT GREAT DEPTHS IS EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE AND TIME CONSUMING. ITS MAJOR DRAWBACK IS THE REQUIRED LENGTH OF DRILL PIPE. THE SUSPENSION CORE DRILL IS SUPPORTED BY CONTINUOUS FLEXIBLE LEADS HELD ON ONE OR MORE HIGH-SPEED REELS. WITHDRAWALS AND REPLACEMENT TIMES CAN BE REDUCED BY AN ORDER-OF-MAGNITUDE. COMMERCIAL USES INCLUDE STANDARD CORING APPLICATIONS AS WELL AS INTERMI ...

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project seeks to develop a novel prototype system for privacy protection in the information sharing and data mining environment. This research addresses our society's growing concerns about invasions to individual privacy by information technology in general, and by data mining in particular. The intellectual merit of the proposed project is four-fol ...

This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I research project is the development of liveness confirmation for fingerprint systems to reduce vulnerability to spoofing. Biometrics systems, authentication through physiologic characteristics such as fingerprints, have been suggested to improve security while increasing convenience. One limitation is that it can be 'stolen' and replicated to achieve ...

THE PROPOSED PROJECT WILL DEVELOP MATERIALS AND SUPPORTING THERMAL TECHNOLOGY LEADING TO DESIGN OF HIGH POWER PULSE CONDUCTORS FOR SPACE APPLICATIONS. IN PHSE I WE WILL EVALUATE AN EM GUN SYSTEM, IDENTIFY ALTERNATIVE MATERIALS AND THERMAL APPROACHES FOR SELECTED COMPONENTS, AND IDENTIFY TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS. COMPONENT DEVELOPMENT FEASIBILITY AND BENEFITS WILL BE DEFINED.

THE NEED FOR INCREASING THE SENSITIVITY OF SPACE-BORNE SENSORS WILL REQUIRE DEVELOPMENT OF LONG-LIFE, HIGHLY EFFICIENT HELIUM LIQUIFIERS. CONVENTIONAL HELIUM LIQUIFIERS EMPLOY A JOULE-THOMSON EXPANSION VALVE TO EXPAND THE HELIUM AT TEMPERATURES BELOW ABOUT 10 DEG K. IT HAS BEEN SHOWN THAT GAINS OF UP TO 30% IN OVERALL CYCLE EFFICIENCY CAN BE OBTAINED IF THE JOULE-THOMSON VALVE IS REPLACED BY AN EX ...