Award Data

Research in silicon photonics has received much attention in recent years for its potential to utilize well developed silicon processing technology. A broad range of linear and nonlinear silicon photonic devices such as modulators, splitters, switches and detectors have been demonstrated. However, the most important challenge in silicon photonics thus far is the difficulty of making electrically p ...

The purpose of this STTR Phase II project is to continue research and development on novel fire resistant thermal barrier coatings (TBC) with low temperature flexibility. Polyurethane coatings are the most important segment of aircraft coatings. Excellent

The US Ferroics and Texas State University team will analyse theoretically and model the behaviour and feasibility of high energy density storage capacitors based upon giant dielectric constant CCTO materials. We will determine the feasibility of non-linear CCTO based super capacitors. by optimizing material properties and processing as both ceramic and near single crystal solgel film diodes. We w ...

Current high power microwave technology typically consists of electron beam sources which require high vacuum and large magnets. Such systems are typically difficult to use in the harsh environment associated with the modern battlefield. These systems are very sensitive to vibrations and typically can be easily damaged if dropped or launched from a weapon system. Nonlinear transmission lines, N ...

Surface analysis of many classes of large polymers (e.g. non-polar synthetic polymer) by laser desorption mass spectrometry (LDMS) is not possible using existing MALDI matrices. Here, we uniquely address this problem by combining two recent proprietary commercial products available exclusively from Ionwerks. 1) A nanoparticulate ion implanter decorates a surface with size selected metal or alloy n ...

To shrink the size and weight of pulsed power systems used by various military systems, the Air Force seeks to increase the energy density of their capacitors. Polymers/ceramics nanocomposites are promising materials for such capacitors. They combine the high dielectric constant of the ceramic and the high breakdown strength and processability of polymers. In collaboration with the University o ...

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/carbon nanotube (CNT) composite fibers will be spun using gel spinning technology in conjunction with bi-component spinning to obtain small diameter precursor fiber (2 - 6 micrometer). Single component spinning (multi-filaments) will also be conducted. The precursor fibers will have tensile strength >1 GPa and tensile modulus >25 GPa. By optimizing stabilization and carboni ...

Over the past fifty years, technological advancements in the microelectronics industry have been astounding. As a result of this success, today’s microfabricated devices are inexpensive, can be produced in large volumes, and can be fabricated with billions of sub-100 nm logic elements as small area microchips. Further increases in computational density will require even more innovation, as funda ...

Carbon fibers are widely used in a variety of applications including aerospace, military and automotive. These applications are limited by the trade-offs that must be made between structural and conductive properties. A new area of interest is the nanotailoring of fibers with carbon nanotubes (CNT) to produce a high strength, high modulus light-weight carbon fiber that is thermally and/or electri ...

The aim of this proposal is to satisfy the U.S. Air Force (USAF) requirements for multi-mode sensing (spatial, spectral, polarization, etc) detectors without external components such as filters and polarizers. The main part of the work will involve the development of a four-band detector with wavelength selection capability without using optical filters based on a new device concept. The spectral ...