Award Data

X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy is a widely used and extremely sensitive analytical technique for qualitative and quantitative chemical analysis. Superconducting Transition Edge Sensor (TES) microcalorimeter detectors have now been developed that achieve an energy resolution of 2 eV for 1.5 keV X-rays, which is sufficient to enable the measurement of the small shift of the X-ray line position that ...

Spontaneous Parametric Down conversion (SPDC) is currently an active research area in quantum communications (QC) to develop entangled single photon sources. However, the bandwidth of current SPDC sources is too broad for many applications. NIST researchers have modeled a solution to this problem that reduces the bandwidth by >50. We proposed to fabricate a prototype of the NIST device by developi ...

Accurate quantitative characterization of materials is crucial for a wide range of industrial and research applications. New transmission scanning electron microscopy (t-SEM) methods have the potential for high-resolution imaging similar to transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with a less expensive, faster, and more widely available SEM system. To exploit the full potential of these imaging tech ...

Robotic actuators exceed human speed, accuracy, and strength, but human hands are regarded as the ultimate in dexterity. SynTouch proposes this is due absent human-like tactile sensing and intelligent reflexive behaviors in robots. SynTouch created a multimodal compliant tactile sensor that mimics the sensory ability of the human fingertip (force, vibration and temperature) and algorithms that fil ...

UtopiaCompression and team put forth a novel solution for medical diagnostics and continuous monitoring of combat casualties in the battlefield to improve survivability while reducing cost to the military. We propose advances in both physiological diagnostic intelligence and associated physiological sensors systems for a complete solution. The system will consist of the state of the art physiologi ...

This program will consist of a three prong approach to provide an unbiased assessment and development of subsonic ammunition with the highest success rate balanced against technological advancement. Our feasibility study will include: 1) A brass case utilizing a polymer insert to optimize subsonic interior ballistics, 2) A lightweight low cost aluminum cartridge case utilizing a polymer insert, ...

To address the SOCOM need for field-operable computing"bricks", Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop High-performance Arbitrated LOgic processing Topology (HARLOT) device. HARLOT is a computing brick housed in a man-portable, ruggedized package designed for field use and offers>16 Terabyte non-volatile memory and>1 TeraFLOPS computational capability while consuming

We propose to demonstrate near infrared (NIR) InGaAs sensor arrays with 55% lower noise than arrays presently available to improve the sensitivity of current spectroscopy systems. The low noise performance will be enabled by the use of low-noise source follower per detector ROICs, which are also used in astronomy with HgCdTe for low noise measurements. With design improvements to current available ...

Special operation forces utilize C-130 aircraft that often operate in night/adverse weather, low-level, deep-penetration missions in contested or hostile environments. These low altitude missions result in higher risks to the crew and aircraft. AeroVironment proposes to leverage their current packaged and air-launched unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developments to design a self-contained, packaged ...

A high sensitivity laser-induced incandescence system is proposed for the detailed characterization of environmental soot. The Phase 1 effort has clearly demonstrated the feasibility of (1) reducing the lower detection limit of soot volume fraction and increasing the overall measurement range by at least 2 orders of magnitude from what is currently achievable, and (2) providing PM particle size me ...