Award Data

A fast-pulsed (3-15ns FWHM) high-current (>500A) driver for high power diode lasers or laser arrays is proposed. Present high-current diode drivers typically use MOSFET switches to modulate the current. It is difficult to achieve very fast pulses with such devices because the inherent capacitance of the gate electrode cannot be charged and discharged quickly. Lower current, but faster diode driver ...

Although the "hit-to-kill" technology has shown promise in recent field tests, complete destruction/neutralization of biological submunitions cannot be guaranteed. The subject effort proposes a new concept which enhances the lethality of hit-to-kill interceptors by a synergistic combination of (a) enhanced energy due to a non-parasitic chemical component provided by reactive structural components ...

BMD0 is interested in developing new electrical power system technologies that provide lighter, smaller, lower cost, more efficient and reliable power supplies for a variety of mobile or transportable systems, such as the proposed Ground Based Radar (GBR). Conventional power generation equipment technology will not be adquate to meet the size, weight and efficiency goals of these new systems. Cryo ...

Thermal Management has become the limiting factor in the advancement of many electronic systems. Current thermal management materials have either reached their performance limits or are impractical due to high costs. As applications for high density, high clock rate electronics increase, new cooling techniques and materials are required to allow low cost, high reliability operation. Technology ...

The widespread use of advanced composites has been severely impeded by the lack of an economical fabrication technology. The advantages of the Pultrusion Process in this regard have long been recognized by the composite community, and part shaping of pultuded sections has been identified as a promising means of producing a range of structural components in recent cost modeling initiatives (NASA/AC ...

Conventional shielding techniques for an electromagnetic pulse use high permeability magnetic materials. Such materials have limited effectiveness once they are saturated. A new approach for shielding has been identified using a layered film structure where the shielding actually increases after the magnetic film saturates. These results are based on the use of a new computer code which predicts ...

Recent research has demonstrated a number of new optical processes based on the interaction of temporally structured light beams with spectrally-selective recording materials. One of these all-optical processes provides for the ultrahigh speed, temporal-waveform-controlled, spatial routing of optical beams (time-to-space conversion). Propagation of an optical data stream through an entirely passiv ...

Recent laboratory demonstrations have shown that time-domain persistent spectral holeburning memory can achieve record areal densities and density-bandwidth products. The same work has shown that many kilobits of data can be spectrally multiplexed within single spatial storage locations. These factors, taken together, open the door to an entirely new class of optical data storage, i.e., read/write ...

The following proposal describes a conceptual thermionic converter configuration and operating mode which, if successfully developed could provide 12-15% efficiwent thermionic energy conversion at cathode temperatures below 1500K. The concept builds on experimental work done in the United States on "Hybrid-mode" converters, and on improvements made in the Former Soviet Union which demonstrated gre ...