Award Data

In today’s world of accelerating climate change effects, a community's capacity to plan for and build resilience to disasters, homeland security threats, and extreme weather is of increasing importance. The ability of public safety organizations and local governments to effectively communicate with community members in emergency situations is critical, especially in the immediate aftermath of la ...

Sivananthan Laboratories (SL) with the University of Iowa as the STTR partner, proposes to develop metasurface-coupled type II superlattice (T2SL) LWIR detectors that are predicted to outperform HgCdTe detectors. We developed in Phase I fundamental understanding of metasurface-coupled T2SLs, likely performance, and issues related to scaling up device structure to form arrays for LWIR imaging. In P ...

Sb-based III-V semiconductor Type-II superlattice (T2SL) materials with band structure-engineered device architectures are groundbreaking for infrared detectors and focal plane arrays (FPAs). T2SL FPAs have become very attractive candidates for various MDA/DOD sensor platforms including air, space, ships, and missiles. T2SL wafers, the starting materials of FPAs, are grown on large substrates usin ...

The proposed program will design a microwave interferometer for the purpose of measuring the electron density and other fundamental parameters of Diode-Pumped Alkali Laser (DPAL) gain media. Although several models of the collisional chemistry of DPALs exist, benchmarking such models with experimental measurements has been hampered by the absence of experimental measurements of the electron densit ...

Viable Gear will provide proof-of-concept for a seaweed-based bioplastic to be used in manufacturing a compostable biotwine for marine equipment, designed to replace petroleum-based plastics. This addresses NOM-SBIR research topic area 9.3, The Changing Ocean - specifically to "support increased protection and restoration of marine and coastal habitats to enhance vital ecosystems", by helping decr ...

The long endurance “StratoSonde” lighter-than-air, uncrewed system combines a low-cost, 5day endurance StratoSonde supports up to 10 micro-dropsondes, which when released from the HAB, descend safely through the entire atmospheric column under a ribbon drogue while reporting observations directly back to the HAB. This project will assess the feasibility of integrating a disposable miniature ae ...

The marine microalgae Chrypthecodinium conhii (C. cohnii) contains high levels of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and DHA synthase enzymes (DSe). Finfish have shown de novo synthesis of DHA when fed a C. cohnii product, KoniSap™, developed by FPN LLC. KoniSap™ is unique to the aqua-feed market as it is produced under low temperature and inert gas to prevent lipid oxidation and avoid enzyme denatura ...

Demand for seaweed products has dramatically increased in the U.S.; however, domestic production from both wild harvests and aquaculture operations only supplies 1% of this demand. To meet demand, expansion of seaweed aquaculture is crucial to protect wild populations from extinction by overharvesting, which impacts entire marine ecosystems. Currently, U.S. kelp aquaculture methods rely on wild ha ...

Sivananthan Laboratories, Inc. with the University of Iowa proposes two major improvements to superlattice (SL) detector technology which are predicated to enhance the LWIR imaging performance comparable or better than HgCdTe-based detector performance. The performance of the current SL detectors is limited by the prevalence of native point defects (NPDs), thicker SL absorber region as required by ...

CU Aerospace (CUA) and team partner Lockheed Martin Space (LMS) propose to develop a low-cost and more efficient cryocooler cold head designed for 5 W cooling at 77 K, and to begin the process of certifying CUA’s innovative approach to provide CUA-built cold head subassemblies to LMS in order to reduce cryocooler costs. Materials and materials processing expertise at CUA will be used to investig ...