Award Data

Laboratory investigations have suggested that acoustically or vibrationally inducing motion in buried targets can aid in improving target detectability through a characteristic response related to differential target motion. This gain is realized by adding an additional degree of freedom, modulation due to motion in the GPR return signal, to use as a discriminating feature. The AKELA team is propo ...

As the warfighter is increasingly using more highly integrated instruments, e.g. a laser rangefinder (LRF) combined with a laser designator and an imager, the need to decrease the size of these components becomes more important. Compact small munition applications of rangefinders particularly place an emphasis on size of the optical front end. In order to make the transceiver more compact, speci ...

Terrorist use of radioactive nuclear materials via nuclear and/or radiological dispersion devices (dirty bombs) is a serious threat. Therefore, it is critical to detect the proliferation of nuclear material. Critical challenges facing this objective include: (a) high sensitivity detection of signature emissions (e.g., gamma rays) from common radioactive isotopes behind shielding, and (b) cost-effe ...

There is an unmet demand for ultra-low-power, ultra-compact and low-cost radios to address emerging sensing and communication needs for military and commercial applications such as IoT/IoE. To overcome the limitations in existing bulky and power hungry radios, we propose a disruptive solution by integration of a nano-scaled THz transceiver, on-chip antenna, and energy harvesting circuits in a form ...

There is a need to develop affordable and specific biosensors to defend against current and future biological threats. Biological methods of detection have been evolved by nature to detect molecules at the micro-scale with flexible specificity and with downstream effectors. Advances in cell-free technology allow for deployment of biosensors on pH-strip-type paper, an affordable, robust, disposable ...

Carbonics, Inc. is the only small business entity that is razor-focused on developing and commercializing wafers-scale carbon nanotube (CNT) based RF products for mmWave communications that can outperform incumbent semiconductor high frequency technologies (GaAs & RF-CMOS). Our STTR Phase I accomplishments exceeded all expectations, setting a new world record for CNT FET RF technology (fT > 100 GH ...

Vector Atomic and Stanford University will develop precision, ultra-low noise laser control electronics with low cost, size, weight, and power (C-SWaP). The electronics will be designed to broadly support the various laser types of used for quantum technology, which span 369-1550 nm. The C-SWaP and system architecture will support scaling of quantum systems to higher laser counts. The design will ...

A compact laser driver will allow photoconductive semiconductor switches to be used in small EMP simulator "building blocks" (EMPBB). Combined with a battery powered on-board pulsed power system, these EMPBBs will allow the construction of flexible EMP test facilities with nothing more than a single fiber optic timing connection to each EMPBB.

The US Army aims to integrate multi-modal sensor data streams and advanced AI analytics at the tactical network edge in support of its vision for a future Internet of Battlefield Things. To maintain situational awareness within mission-acceptable levels despite dynamic conditions and infrastructure disruptions, we propose the ConnextEdge framework for resource-aware location-agnostic adaptive AI p ...

There is a military and industry need for easy-to-use, versatile alloys for metals additive manufacturing (3D printing) that print consistently regardless of the specific process or machine and without requiring in-depth metallurgical or manufacturing knowledge. Such capability is critical for soldiers to be able to make needed items on demand in the theater of war. In addition, the alloy will be ...