Award Data

WE PROPOSE AN EFFICIENT AND COST-EFFECTIVE QUERY PROCESSING COMPONENT FOR AN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEM BASED ON THE USE OF NETWORKED MICROCOMPUTERS AS A LOOSELY-COUPLED NETWORK DATABASE. THE QUERY PROCESSSING SYSTEM WILL WORK ON BOTH LOCAL AND WIDE AREA NETWORKS AND CAN BE USED WITH ANY METHOD OF INFORMATION RETRIEVAL. WE PROPOSE TO: 1. MODEL THE EXPECTED PERFORMANCE OF THIS SYSTEM SO THAT IT M ...

A MINIATURE TWO STAGE JOULE-THOMSON (J-T) CRYOSTAT IN A DEWAR WITH 0.5 IN. DIA X 0.5 IN. LENGTH IS PROPOSED WHICH CAN COOL TO LESS THAN 80 K IN AN AMBIENT OF 75 DEG C. HIGH EFFICIENCY IN THE VERY SMALL HEAT EXCHANGER IS MADE POSSIBLE BY NEW TECHNOLOGY. THE PROGRAM WILL INCLUDE A DEMONSTRATION OF RUN TIME IN EXCESS OF 10 MINUTES USING 15 IN(3) OF GAS.

INCREASES IN SOLAR CELL EFFICIENCY CAN BE ACHIEVED WITH TANDEM MULTI-JUNCTION STRUCTURES TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE AND SCALE OF SPACE PHOTOVOLTAIC CONCENTRATORS. THE "TOP SOLAR CELL" TANDEM APPROACH COULD INCREASE ENERGY CONVERSION EFFICIENCY BY AS MUCH AS 100%. A SELF-SUPPORTING ALUMINUM-GALLIUM-ARSENIDE (ALGAAS) TOP SOLAR CELL IS BEING DEVELOPED FOR MECHANICAL ATTACHMENT TO A SILICON CONCENTRAT ...

EXISTING METALLIC-TYPE CONTACTS ON GALLIUM ARSENIDE (GAAS) HAVE NOT BEEN STABLE AT HIGH TEMPERATURES BECAUSE OF INTERDIFFUSION AND/OR ALLOYING OF THE GAAS TOP LAYER. HIGH TEMPERATURE CONTACTS TO GAAS SPACE PHOTOLTAIC CELLS ARE BEING DEVELOPED BASED ON THE FORMATION OF A HIGHLY-STABLE INTERMEDIATE DEGENERATE SEMICONDUCTOR LAYER BETWEEN THE GAAS AND A HIGH TEMPERATURE METAL ALLOY. THE INTERMEDIATE S ...

UNIFORM LARGE AREA, DEVICE QUALITY INDIUM PHOSPHIDE (INP) EPITAXIAL LAYERS ON INSULATING SUBSTRATES COULD LEAD TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW GENERATION OF PRODUCIBLE, RADIATION-HARDENED MICROELECTRONIC AND OPTOELECTRONIV INTEGRATED CIRCUITS. INP ALLOYS OFFER THE ADVANTAGES OF: PROVEN RESISTANCE TO RADIATION DAMAGE; LOWER SURFACE RECOMBINATION THAN GAAS; HIGH PEAK ELECTRON VELOCITY; AND BANDGAPS THAT ...

HIGH TEMPERATURE (>600 DEGREES CELSIUS) INDIUM PHOSPHIDE (INP) SPACE SOLAR CELLS ARE BEING DEVELOPED TO ELIMINATE THEPROBLEMS, SURFACE DECOMPOSITION AND CONTACT FAILURE, ENCOUNTERED WHEN INP SOLAR CELLS ARE EXPOSED TO HIGH TEMPERATURES. KEY TO THIS PROGRAM ARE THE USE OF AN ENCAPSULANT LAYER TO ARREST SURFACE DECOMPOSITION AND A HIGHLY-STABLE INTERMEDIATE DEGENERATE SEMICONDUCTOR CONTACT SYSTEM DE ...

AstroPower is developing a two-junction monolithic tandem solar cell composed of (AlxGa1-x)0.51In.49P lattice matched to GaAs for use as the top cell in a three-junction, two-terminal tandem stack. This tunable bandgap material system is capable of current matching, at 2.03eV, in a two-junction monolithic tandem solar cell two terminal design of (AlxGa1-x)0.51In0.49P/GaAs yielding a best case pred ...

ASTROPOWER IS PROPOSING THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ULTRA-LIGHTWEIGHT, HIGH PERFORMANCE, THIN LIGHT TRAPPING GAAS SOLAR CELL FOR ADVANCED SPACE POWER SYSTEMS. A THIN DEVICE LEADS TO HIGHER PERFORMANCE IN TERMS OF OPEN CIRCUIT VOLTAGE, RADIATION RESISTANCE, AND SPECIFIC POWER. IN A THIN DEVICE, THE INCORPORATION OF LIGHT TRAPPING TO EXTEND THE OPTICAL PATH LENGTH PERMITS GREATER CURRENT GENERATIC THAN CA ...

THE INCREASING SPEED AND COMPLEXITY OF MODERN (AND FUTURE) AIR-VEHICLE SYSTEMS ARE PUSHING THE HUMAN OPERATOR TO HIS LIMITS, ESPECIALLY IN COGNITIVE-RELATED TASKS. IT IS THEREFORE OF PARTICULAR IMPORTANCE TO DEVELOP TECHNIQUES THAT ALLOW THE COMPUTER TO HELP THE HUMAN TO EXTEND THESE LIMITS. AN IMPORTANT CLASS OF SUCH ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES IS AN ACTIVE, MIXED-INITIATIVE MAN-MACHINE INTERFACE (MMI) ...

THIS PROPOSAL IS BASED ON THE REVERSE ENGINEERING OF SOFTWARE METHODOLOGY DEVELOPED UNDER A PHASE I NSF SBIR GRANT (#ISI 876-0223). THE NSF SPONSORED PROJECT PRODUCED AN ALGORITHM FOR TRANSLATING A PROCEDURAL FORTRAN PROGRAM INTO AN EQUATIONAL SPECIFICATION IN MODEL. THE LATTER IS INPUT TO THE MODEL SYSTEM WHICH REGENERATES THE PROGRAM IN PL/1, C OR ADA. THIS PROPOSAL IN DIRECTED TOWARDS APPLYING ...