Award Data

Military helicopters rotors contend with rain, ice, sand, and flying debris. To prevent damage to the expensive blade protective sheaths or coatings are applied to the leading edge of the rotor blades. A 3-D woven composite sheath with high thermal conductivity fibers running through the thickness can offer the best qualities of both metal sheaths and elastomer coatings. Infused with an elastom ...

Optically addressing a large number of atoms trapped in a periodic lattice would be a critical missing technology necessary to achieve scalable quantum computation. A micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) based beam steering optical system is proposed to meet the needs of this topic. The system utilizes (a set of) tilting mirrors to create reconfigurable spots on a target of square lattice. The s ...

We propose to develop a computer based system for the online analysis of bio-behavioral signals associated with momentary loss of alertness. We will continue our development of bio-behavioral measures indicative of lapses in alertness. Our system will use only measures that can be obtained without attaching sensors to the operator. We will concentrate on monitoring the oculomotor system using came ...

The US Air Force seeks innovative technologies to exploit available map data to provide a contextual backdrop for imagery. This contextual backdrop will allow the imagery analyst to more rapidly and accurately exploit the data for further processing. Maps provide a wealth of information, such as road delineations, road names, buildings, and other cultural features which comprise the contextual b ...

Kyma Technologies will lead a team of researchers in the development and optimization of bulk GaN crystal growth processes for fabricating non-polar GaN substrates. Processes for extended growth of GaN crystals in the c-axis direction will be developed to fabricate non-polar and semi-polar substrates of selected orientations. This approach will be compared to heteroepitaxial growth in non-polar di ...

In this program, we will combine commercially available AlGaN/GaN on Si FETs with short gates such that the high frequency performance (X-band and higher) can be significantly increased. The AlGaN/GaN material system has significant advantages over the incumbent technology for X-band applications; specifically, AlGaN/GaN FETs have much higher power density which translates into broader bandwidth. ...

Nitronex Corporation proposes to demonstrate the feasibility of building a DPD system implementing adaptive gate bias control and signal insensitive correction for enhancing the power added efficiency of a 150W GaN based amplifier under OFDM signaling.BENEFITS: Work will result in a high power, broad band, highly linear, light-weight power amplifier.

A major limitation of current high performance composites made from vinyl ester resins is their performance with carbon fiber reinforcements. Carbon fiber composites can possess much higher specific stiffness and strength than glass fiber composites, but the laminated composite properties depend on a good interface between the matrix resin and the fiber. Since vinyl ester resins typically do not e ...

The Navy has used vinyl ester resin as the matrix material for manufacturing large scale composite ship structures. However, the Navy is now using carbon fiber as the reinforcement, which means the use of vinyl ester as the matrix system is less appealing. When carbon fiber and vinyl ester resin are combined, lower interfacial properties occur. Also, vinyl ester systems have high-cure shrinkage. Z ...