Award Data

The proposed SBIR Phase I program is to develop a novel nanobulb flotation method with high efficiency and rare earth mineral recovery rate comparing to conventional methods. Significant efforts will focus on the studies of fundamental surface chemistry o

New enhancements to mobile computers including smaller sensors, displays and powerful processors have made them much more attractive for the battlefield, not only as wearable systems for soldiers, but also unattended ground sensors a warfighter can leave behind for situational awareness. Unfortunately, while the technologies for hands-free interfacing have improved greatly, the challenge of limiti ...

In this proposal, AlphaSense, Inc. details the development of a novel, low cost and handheld microwave sensor for the detection and evaluation of incipient composite heat damage. The merits of the proposed sensor and its advantages over other techniques are listed below: a) Compact, handheld and low cost, b) Sensitive for incipient heat damage detection, c) Capable of quantitative analysis of the ...

PSI will leverage our extensive experience and unique capabilities in MMW photonics to design a compact, lightweight, frequency-agile MMW source combining wide, continuous, rapid tunability with superb phase noise and moderate output power. Such a source will have extensive commercial applications in next-generation wireless communications, as well as military applications including reconfigurable ...

In Phase I we have developed an integrated software and hardware solution to identify personnel who have a natural aptitude for a cognitive skill. The goal of Phase II is to develop a screening tool by expanding previous multi-dimensional approach developed in Phase I and predict vigilance skill performance and aptitude for enlisted classification and officer career path aptitude assessments. The ...

In the proposed effort, we will leverage this extensive experience and capabilities to realize a frequency agile mmW radiometer that can cover the range of DC-110 GHz and can be scaled to DC-200 GHz under Phase II. Ours is a photonic system that multiplies and up-coverts a low-frequency reference signal onto an optical carrier (laser) using EO modulation, then uses the modulation sidebands to inj ...

As infrared (IR) electo-optical sensors improve in both availability and quality a strong need exists to have comparable improvements in the performance of military obscurants within the IR band. Conventional approaches for creating effective IR obscurants have relied primarily on shaped metal particles with high aspect ratios (e.g. rods, flakes). While efficient it is difficult to create very ...

Millimeter-wave RADAR imaging holds significant promise for many applications from rotorcraft DVE mitigation to standoff security screening. A key challenge of this imaging modality, however, has been the implementation of an effective method for creating an image without relying on either mechanical scanning or expensive, high SWAP phased array techniques. Herein, we present a concept for creat ...

Although biodiesels have been increasingly used in automobiles, trains, commercial aircrafts and heating systems, they are not currently used in the military aircrafts and land vehicles because they typically do not meet the JP-8 performance criteria as specified by MIL-PRF-83133E. Unintentional contaminations by the biodiesels into the jet fuels can introduce adverse effects, including engine ope ...

In this program, we propose a radio frequency (RF) direction finding sensor for low probability of intercept (LPI) RF radar system. This sensor consists of a dielectric lenses focusing system and an innovative focus plane detector array (FPDA) developed by Spectrum Magnetics, LLC (SM). The focusing system project the RF signal onto its focus plane. A novel FPDA based on emerging spintronic and met ...