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 ...

Superconducting radio-frequency receivers, optical absorption energy sensors, and quantum computers have the potential to revolutionize digital communications for manned aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, (UAVs) and satellites. Development of low size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) cryocooler technology is essential since these communication systems must operate at cryogenic temperatures. Turb ...

Navy aircraft components require constant repair due to damage from field operations. In most cases, the damage is due to maintenance occurrences or service, due to Foreign Object Debris (FOD). Although the damage appears to be minor, the components need to be sent back to a Navy depot for disposition and repair, which is usually comprised of blending away the damage and substantially reducing the ...

Aircraft carrier control systems rely upon many sensors and signal processors to ensure safe and efficient aircraft launch and recovery. As one example subsystem, Digital End Speed Indicators (DESI) use reluctance sensors mounted within the catapult trough to determine aircraft end speed during launch. The DESI was developed in the 1980s, and recent reliability problems have highlighted the need f ...

Improved head and hearing protection is required for aircraft maintainers working on a carrier flight deck during launch and recovery operations. Legacy Flight Deck Cranials are inadequate in many aspects including hearing protection and impact protection. In previous work, Creare has developed a Flight Deck Cranial (FDC) that offers unparalleled hearing protection and industrial standard head pro ...

Creare is proposing to develop a heater utilizing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that will have high temperature uniformity and high optical transmission with low glare. By creating a variable effective sheet resistance across the windshield, we will be able to produce a robust design that can be flexed and easily scaled up to a production environment. In Phase I, we will fabricate and test a coupon size ...

Two-phase refrigerant pumped-loop systems are a promising approach to efficiently and effectively remove heat from directed energy weapons and high power radar systems of future warships. One of the key technical challenges of these new thermal systems is maintaining the flow stability and system reliability under the dynamic motion of a ship. Creare proposes to develop a liquid-vapor phase separa ...

Particle ingestion can be a significant issue for military aircraft with gas turbine engines. Ingested particles can erode or foul engine components such as cooling holes, accelerating engine wear, and decreasing service intervals. To better understand engine wear, and to plan service intervals, the Navy is interested in developing sensors that can measure particle loading in real time onboard ope ...

Modern hearing protection devices (HPDs) often include electronic “hear-through” technology that helps to preserve or enhance the user’s auditory situational awareness (ASA). Restoration of ASA has removed one of the largest barriers to HPD adoption. However, because HPDs alter the shape of the ear or ear canal, they distort the acoustic cues used by the brain to localize the source of a sou ...

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 ...