Award Data

The primary objective of this Phase II Project is to provide a viable additive manufacturing solution for producing high performance metal parts using the LENSO technology. To meet this objective several of the current limitations of the existing LENSO process need to be overcome. In particular, a method must be identified and developed to overcome limited overhang capabilities available through ...

Plasmatronics has developed a unique oxygen singlet delta generator having the potential to replace the dangerous and bulky chemical "COIL" generator currently being used to power oxygen iodine lasers in military applications. Our process does not use any stored reactive chemicals - only oxygen plus inert gases, helium and argon. Oxygen activation is accomplished by a 40% efficient electrical proc ...

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL/DEBS) has a requirement for an adaptive secondary mirror to correct the wavefront originating from a large-format primary membrane mirror currently under development. The requirements for this mirror are stringent, calling for large stroke aberration correction to achieve near diffraction limited performance of the entire optical system. In addition, the mir ...

Military and commercial aircraft operators are moving toward predictive maintenance to minimize costs while maximizing asset availability and safety. Key technological prerequisites for this new approach are the ability to monitor the condition of critical components, and the ability to accurately forecast their remaining useful life. Phase I of this project clearly demonstrated the feasibility of ...

Advanced power systems for Future Naval Capability rely on capacitors as the first stage of pulsed power. Significant electrical energy is necessary to support a range of applications including electro-mechanical aircraft launch systems, EMALS. It is anticipated that each ship will require over one trillion joules of capacitor energy, estimated at over 1,000 m3 and 1,000 tons using current techn ...

Touchstone Research Laboratory has developed a novel material, CFOAMr. The primary enabling carbon foam characteristic is that the Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE) values are comparable to carbon fiber polymer matrix systems in manufacturing advanced composites. Other advantages of carbon foam-based tools are low mass, reduced energy, easy modifications, unmatched repair capabilities, and r ...

This project seeks to combine technology developed in an NIH Phase I grant with technologies refined in a DARPA Phase II contract to answer the question "Can DNA can be sequenced using tunneling currents?" We anticipate the answer to be "Yes". The effort will include optimizing supporting fabrication systems and electronic components.

We propose to develop a new narrowband antenna type, termed the "Split-Waveguide Antenna (SWA)," which meets AFRL requirements for high peak power operation with multiple waveguide feeds in a compact, lightweight geometry appropriate to munition-class size and shape factor constraints. The SWA will accept 1 to several waveguide inputs operating at their full transport capacity, typically many 10 ...

A newly developed "coal-based" porous graphite material has been recently produced. This development is a direct result of Touchstone Research Laboratory's Phase I funding to develop enhanced-strength carbon foam heat-exchanger materials for aerospace applications since low density carbon foams cannot endure high bleed air pressures in aerospace pre-coolers and heat exchangers. The newly develope ...

There exists a critical need for revolutionary, new aerospace propulsion-related technologies. The micro Laser Plasma Thruster (uLPT) which Photonic Associates originated is such a technology. Our uLPT uses a cluster of diode lasers focused to a 25mm spot on the back of a transparent tape coated with a 50mm-thick carbon-containing absorbing layer. As the tape moves across the laser focus, a high- ...