Award Data

To meet MDA’s need for cost effective dynamic material evaluation techniques, Mentis Sciences Inc. proposes to modify a Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) apparatus to achieve and gather dynamic material response data at strain rates above 107s-1 and at temperatures up to and exceeding 1000°C to provide data for first-principles hydro-codes modeling in a laboratory environment. The focus in Ph ...

Diode-Pumped Alkali Laser (DPAL) systems have great potential for missile defense and other applications. These systems require a uniform, steady, flowing mixture of helium and rubidium vapor at elevated pressure and temperature. Significant challenges exist because rubidium is a very reactive material. Our team has developed a contamination-free, hermetic circulator based on gas-bearing turbomach ...

Future space missions will utilize small spacecraft with advanced sensor systems. Cooling of these sensors is required to decrease noise and increase 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 enable future missions. Creare proposes to develo ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A TOTALLY INTEGRATED MONOLITHIC GaAs/HgCdTe FPAs ON GaAs SUBSTRATED. THE INNOVATIVE FEATURES ARE: 1. THE DETECTOR IS FABRICATED DIRECTLY ON THE GaAs MULTIPLEXER SUBSTRATE, WITH THE MONOLITHIC METAL INTERCONNECT INSTEAD OF STANDARD INDIUM BUMPS ALLOWING ARRAY SIZES UP TO 1024x1024 WITH HIGH FRAME RATES. 2. THE FOCAL PLANES WILL INCORPORATE AN ON-CHIP LOW POWER MASSIVELY PARALL ...