Award Data

The DOD requires an environmentally friendly, rapid, and non-destructive method to selectively remove coatings from composite substrates.  Atmospheric Plasma Solutions Inc. (APS) has developed a cold atmospheric plasma process to accomplish this goal. Current processes for the removal of coatings from composite materials are slow, expensive, and potentially damaging to the environment. APS has de ...

Robust altitude estimation for over-the-horizon HF radar requires a combination of advanced signal processing and high fidelity ionospheric propagation modeling. Since aircraft height is manifested in closely-spaced direct and ground-bounce multipath reflections off the target, we propose two new high resolution signal processing methods for discriminating small time delay differences from a seque ...

Development of a compliant microfabricated heat exchanger to work with thermoelectric devices as a means of power generation for hypersonic vehicles is proposed. Polymer-based materials provide to provide compression on the thermoelectric module, to ensure optimal thermal contact, while allowing for compliance to allow for the change in materials expansion without exceeding the failure point of th ...

Certain polymer resins used in the manufacturing of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) aerospace components have relatively long autoclave cure cycles on the order of 6 hours or more.  These long cure cycles cause bottlenecks and inefficiencies when producing composite parts with these thermoset resins. This project will investigate and develop a new manufacturing process for rapidly curing c ...

The focus of our initial work was to research and lay the foundation to develop a system to effectively manage linear and collaborative workflows in a context of existing and unfolding mission requirements using advanced methodologies to address sequencing in task allocation and distribution processes.  Our proposed solution - fmCortex - seeks to apply advanced fusion processes and dynamic resour ...

The European Union''s RoHS and WEE Directives mandated the elimination of the carcinogenic, hexavalent chromium coatings for metals, including magnesium and zinc-nickel plated substrates.  The purpose of this project is to find chemistry that will meet requirements of industry performance specifications and of the mandate.  METALAST intends to explore trivalent chromium in conjunction with two o ...

The goal of the proposed work is to refine and scale-up the production of high strength continuous threads prepared from ultra-long carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The NanoTechLabs, Inc. (NTL) team will work to produce fibers spun from NTL’s ultra-long CNTs. Significant challenges remain that are primarily related to the development of scalable methods for making high strength, CNT threads for the prod ...

In this Phase I SBIR, NanoTechLabs (NTL) Inc. will produce a 100 square ft. carbon nanotube prepeg that can be laminated into a composite structure. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) provide an avenue to prepare organic and corrosion resistant materials for ground plane applications. Recent improvements in the electrical properties of CNTs suggest that CNTs offer a viable substitute for nickel-based conduct ...

The major requirements for this program include the modeling of optical switching fabric technologies appropriate to space-borne systems at very high speed. Specifically, this program will evaluate two OptiComp candidate optical transceiver technologies against a Serial Rapid IO switching fabric. A down-selection to one optical transceiver technology will be made. Then, a simulation of that Serial ...

The major requirements for this program include the modeling of optical routing technologies appropriate to space-borne systems at very high speed. This program will investigate optical routing at speeds to from 3.125 ro 10 Gbps per channel, with a wavelength/channel density from 4 to 16 wavelengths. Models will be constructed for these regimes, and an experimental demonstration of an 8-wavelength ...