Award Data

This research project involves the application, development, and commercial scale up of a process for the deposition of copper and copper barrier materials such as ruthenium, titanium, and other metals. This process could replace copper electroplating currently used to fill deep trenches and thin-film deposition in microelectronic circuit manufacturing. In addition, physical vapor depo ...

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used as an analysis tool to help the designer gain greater understanding of the fluid flow phenomena involved in the components being designed. The next step in the design process is to modify the design to improve the components performance, typically performed manually by the designer in a trial and error fashion. The innovations proposed herein will provide ...

Supercritical air at cryogenic temperature is an attractive source of breathing air because of its very high density and low pressure. However, heat leak into the cryogenic tank causes the stored air to expand and vent, thus limiting the storage life of a charged system. We propose to develop a storage system for supercritical air packs that provides cryogenic cooling that will enable long-term ...

The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) engine currently being developed at NASA Johnson is an attractive technology for minimizing transit time and crew harm during future space exploration missions. One of the critical challenges in developing a flight engine is thermal management of the high-temperature, superconducting electromagnets used to constrain and accelerate the pl ...

Lightweight, high-temperature radiators are needed for future, high-efficiency power conversion systems for Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP). Creare has developed flexible radiators that are extremely lightweight, stowable in small volumes, and deployable with small forces, but are limited by materials to temperatures below 350 K. These novel radiators incorporate integral micrometeorite protect ...

Field emission electric propulsion (FEEP) thrusters have gained considerable attention for spacecrafts disturbance compensation because of excellent characteristics. The application of current FEEP has been slow in developing mainly caused by high specific power, which limit the milli-Newton thruster development due to insufficient onboard power. Dramatic field improvement from nanometer carbon ...

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Three-dimensional woven and braided fiber architectures provide important advantages to composites, including suppression of delamination, high damage tolerance, improved through-the-thickness properties, simplicity and cost-effectiveness of manufacturing complex composite structural components. However, in order to diversify applications and reach high volumes of utilization of these materials in ...

DNA microarray technology, in combination with statistical and predictive modeling tools, could be used to evaluate thousands of genes against distinct gene expression patterns induced by chemical/biological agents to provide early identification and speed therapeutic intervention. The overall objective of this Phase II effort is to leverage existing public domain resources and commercial tools t ...

THIS PHASE I EFFORT WILL APPLY THEORETICAL METHODS BASED PRINCIPALLY ON CAGNIARD'S FORMALISM (PREVIOUSLY INCORPORATED BY US INTO OUR POWERFUL SWREF CODE), TO THE PROPAGATION AND FOCUSING, IN BOTH REFLECTIVE AND PHASED-ARRAY EQUIPMENT, OF SHOCK-WAVES PRODUCED BY UNDERWATER SPARKS. THE OBJECTIVE IS TO INVESTIGATE AND PROVIDE DESIGN DATA FOR LITHOTRIPSY EQUIPMENT IN WHICH FOCUSED SHOCK WAVES ARE USED ...