Award Data

Many of the US Department of Defense (DOD) electrical connectors, back-shells and components currently contain cadmium (Cd).Cadmium is a known carcinogen.Furthermore, the cadmium is typically conversion coated with a hex-chromate which is also hazardous.Both the cadmium plating process and its subsequent conversion coating have been proven to be toxic (unlike other processes such as chromium plati ...

3D printing has recently taking a lead role as a potential solution for future manufacturing. However, there are still many problems and limitations to the technology for cost effective high resolution, high throughput manufacturing.Derived from the SBIR Phase I effort, Digibeam is presenting an innovative solution using a different beam and growth process that directly addresses both resolution a ...

To address the Air Force need for advanced radar characterization of fighter aircraft, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) is developing a new Near Field Scanner (NeFS) based on novel RF/microwave sensing and scanning technologies. Specifically, innovations in sensor miniaturization and broadband functionality, combined with an innovative 3D scanning platform, enable NeFS to measure near-field radia ...

To address the Air Force need for an automated target recognition (ATR) capability that uses Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to advance the development of the Highly Parallel LIDAR-based Automated Target Recognition (PLATR) system, which was proven feasible in Phase I. PLATR is based on an innovative combination of target isolation, target pose estim ...

In 2010, ES3/USAF qualified LHE Zn-Ni electroplating process to replace cadmium plating on Landing Gear components. Hill AFB implemented an LHE Zn-Ni plating line in 2013 to replace all cadmium plated components with follow-on plans to terminate all cadmium plating. The F-16 has many components that are coated with cadmiuma known carcinogen. The F-16 Program office has identified the wing attachme ...

To address the Air Force need for a reliable method to inspect large aircraft structures, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) is continuing the development of a new automatic, three-dimensional (3D) Compton scattering IMaging system for in situ nondestructive inspection (NDI) of large HOneycomb Sandwich structures (IMHOS), providing accurate detection and identification, and precise 3D localization/ ...

It is widely recognized that near surface residual stresses play a significant role in fatigue performance. Tensile residual stresses are of concern because they accelerate fatigue crack initiation and fatigue crack growth relative to what would occur in the absence of residual stress. Compressive residual stresses, on the other hand, have the opposite effect and can be used to improve fatigue per ...

The U.S. Air Force has a need to develop a new forward looking infrared imaging system that can actively mitigate thermal loading associated with munitions flight speeds greater than Mach 5.Excessive thermal loading causes the viewing domes to emit a high background radiance, which saturates the sensor and reduces the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) below the level required for reliable targeting, gui ...

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) typically requires restoration of damaged aircraft components. These aircraft structure and components are typically manufactured from aluminum substrates, as well as other alloys like magnesium, titanium, and low alloy, PH and Cres steels.Current repair techniques will inspect, clean, and then apply Corrosion Preventative Compounds to prevent/reduce corrosion.Additionall ...

In this work, Freedom Photonics is proposing to develop a hybrid integration platform that integrates yielded, best-of-breed active optical components on a low-loss passive waveguide interposer to form high performance, phase stable integrated photonic systems. This development will leverage off ongoing Freedom Photonics high-performance component and photonic integration technology. The advantage ...