Award Data

Fires in dry bays of military aircraft present a significant hazard that must be addressed with advanced fire suppression systems. The USAF is interested in concepts that do not require power or active sensing of fire for proper operation. ADA Technologies, Inc. has been developing fine water mist fire suppression technology for the past 10 years, and proposes a solution for this problem that inco ...

The goal of this proposal is to fabricate a capacitor with an energy density of at least 4 J/cc that is durable over 10,000 cycles with an operational temperature range of -55 °C to 300 °C. This goal requires that a new thermally stable, high dielectric constant material be developed. It is proposed that such a dielectric layer can be achieved using nano-composites. In particular, high dielec ...

There is a need to monitor the structural health of aerospace components operating in extreme temperatures ranges (e.g. -60 to +300C) and with high accelerations. Ideally the sensors employed for this task should be passive (i.e. not powered through batteries), permanently placed on the critical components and transmit the relevant data to a remote data processing center wirelessly.  Albido is pr ...

Polymers in space are subjected to various threats including hyperthermal oxygen atoms, UV and VUV photons, and ions.  These threats can degrade the polymer and lead to static charge accumulation.  This Phase II proposal will build on the Phase I work which demonstrated that inorganic films grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) can protect polymers such as Kapton, Teflon and PMMA.  Al2O3 ALD f ...

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) desires a method to map Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) performance to signature performance in order to aid database optimization.  To better understand the physical mechanisms relating the sensing platform, candidate ATR algorithms, and the classifier database, advanced radar signal processing models are required.  Analytic Designs, Incorporated (ADI ...

Applied Optimization, Inc. herein proposes three technical tasks for modeling of electron-beam free-form fabrication [EBF3] as follows. The first task is to enhance existing capability to simulate melt-pool generated by the electron-beam, and evolution of its shape due to interaction between thermo-mechanical and geometry phenomena. The second task is to enhance the existing simulation capability ...

This Phase I effort will demonstrate the production of large area carbon nanopaper prepreg mats with very high electrical conductivity and EMI shielding capabilities. Currently, metal structures, metallic fillers, and metallic coating are used to provide ESD and EMI shielding, but issues such as weight and corrosion make these materials less than ideal. Carbon nanotubes and nano graphene platele ...

In this Phase I effort our team, a collaboration between Traycer Diagnostic Systems and The University of Notre Dame, proposes to develop a single pixel detector of terahertz frequency electromagnetic radiation. The devices we propose are AlN/GaN high electron mobility transistors which, via the excitation of plasma waves in the device channel, exhibit a nonresonant broadband and resonant respons ...

Stand-off inspection using THz sources is a promising technology for non-destructive evaluation by means of direct imaging as well as by identifying spectroscopic signatures of the material being inspected. This proposal addresses critical developments for realizing this promise. In particular we address the issue of developing THz sources to the point where stand-off detection at ranges of 3-5 ...

Aqwest proposes to develop an advanced thermal management for cooling of electronic components using a variable conductance heat sink (VCHS) offering unparalleled capabilities in high-heat flux handling and temperature control. The project will produce a cooling system with the following benefits to wide band gap amplifiers and high-power laser diodes (HPLD): 1) Heat flux handling > 1200 W/cm2 2) ...