Award Data

This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I research project's objectives are to build and validate an artificial star simulation application for the study of astronomical objects, and to assess its commercial potential for the professional and serious amateur astronomer communities. The prevalence of modern light detectors has ushered in a golden age for astronomy due to their outstanding cha ...

75661S The production of hydrogen fuel from renewable resources such as solar and wind in distributed-generation, small-scale applications would provide an environmentally-benign, truly sustainable transportation fuel supply. But before this can be achieved, the hydrogen generating systems must become as reliable as home appliances (e.g., central air conditioning or furnaces), which require only ...

79729S Ocean currents constitute a potentially enormous renewable energy resource; however, existing technologies for capturing this energy are only in the prototype stage, are small in scale (less than 1 megawatt), and are not grid-connected. Although there is a considerable overlap in technology with the more mature field of wind energy, new robust technologies will have to be developed that ar ...

79659S As direct drive wind turbines increase in size, the diameter of their generators increases to the point where it is no longer possible to ship them as a single unit. While some companies have addressed this issue by using wound rotor generators that can be assembled on site, this approach suffers from the inherent lower efficiency and reliability of the wound rotor technology. To date, no ...

78150B The catalytic reforming of diesel fuel in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) systems must overcome a number of challenging issues: (1) the deactivation of the catalyst by sintering and sulfur poising; (2) the requirement for a large fuel processing system as a result of high space velocity requirements; and (3) the lack of durability of the catalysts, which require frequent replacement due to "c ...

78072S III-V nitride-based, high brightness, UV and visible light emitting diodes (LEDs) are of a great interest for general illumination, but the low light output efficiencies of current high brightness LEDs are still inadequate. A key material issue preventing the achievement of higher light output efficiency in LEDs is the poor crystalline quality of the nitride epitaxial layers that result fr ...

78925B ¿Clean energy¿ is attracting more and more interest, which in turn exerts cost pressure on photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers for more efficient solar panel production. This project will develop a cost-effective technology to produce PV-grade silicon wafers. In particular, a reuseable crucible will be developed for the production of high purity, low oxygen content crystalline silicon ingot ...

75655S The photovoltaics (PV) industry is having difficulty finding enough raw materials to match its rapid growth. In addition, traditional sources of secondary grade polysilicon are no longer readily available at inexpensive prices. Reducing the cost of solar silicon wafers is the key to lowering the price of crystalline silicon solar cells. This project will develop a single-step wafer fabr ...

This SBIR Phase I research project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of exploiting a novel nanomagnetic paste for the next generation of ultrahigh DC-to-DC converters for miniaturized electronic applications. Current DC-to-DC converters are the major impediment for miniaturization of electronic components, due to conventional microsized magnetic materials can only be used effectively at low freq ...

78790S The current method for germanium isotope separation, needed for rare particle and rare decay searches in nuclear physics research, is electromagnetic separation using calutrons, a process that has the disadvantage of low separation capacity and high energy cost. This project will build a cryogenic distillation column in which larger quantities of germanium isotopes can be separated at a s ...