Award Data

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project...will develop lightweight titanium engine components for fuel efficiency. The use of advanced titanium-based metal matrix composite materials can significantly improve automotive fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The titanium metal matrix composites also can reduce engine vibration. Reduction in vehicle weight resul ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project proposes to develop an entirely new platform for the molecular diagnostics of cancer exploiting a new Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) enhanced Ligase Detection Reaction (LDR) and an optically active microfluidic chip. Since every dye has a unique Raman fingerprint, the number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that can ...

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project seeks to address the steadily growing but unsustainable polymer matrix composite (PMC) market. PMCs are leveraged for their high strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios as compared to conventional engineering materials, but are notoriously unsustainable, energy-intensive to manufacture, and non-recyclable. Researchers have investiga ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of virtual single crystal (VSC) technology for high-efficiency, low-cost and flexible CdTe solar cells. Wakonda has previously showed epitaxial deposition of CdTe on a flexible VSC metal foil, resulting in CdTe films with large (~ 50 microns) and highly-oriented crystalline grains. This project will ...

This project seeks to develop an orthotic knee joint system that includes a non-linear torsion spring coupled with a novel concept called Morphological Switching (MorS) that changes the mechanical properties of the joint in response to user behavior. The research objectives are to prototype and functionally test the medial side of a Morphological Switched Orthotic Joint (MSOJ) assembly. Tasks incl ...

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will determine optimal process parameters for massively parallel Laser Chemical Vapor Deposition (LCVD) of silicon carbide fibers by building on work already performed at the proposing company, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the University of Montreal. Ceramic fibers are typically produced using polymeric precursors, which means that s ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to develop a self-powered Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) piezoelectric wireless sensor platform architecture based on a Micro-Vibrational-Energy-Harvester (uVEH) that can be monolithically integrated with MEMS sensors. Current commercially available vibrational energy harvesters are too large and expensive to integrate with w ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop a mechanical system for facilitating vascular anastomoses (end-to-side, end-to-end) technology that allows for the rapid and reproducible production of a non-penetrating, compliant vascular reconstruction. This one-shot technology represents a technical advance over the serial clip applier because the entire anastomotic ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to develop a technology to fabricate thin-film spectrally-tunable optical filters with wide bandwidth for operation in the visible and near infrared spectrum. Spectrally-tunable optical filters with electronic controllability are desired in optical imaging systems, such as fluorescence microscopy systems, dual-band cameras, and a ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of a revolutionary, low-cost, real-time, amperometric sensor technology based on bio-electrochemical systems. The proposed device utilizes exo-electrogen microbes to detect levels of target substances, primarily nitrate and oxygen. The sensor takes advantage of highly specific biological processes and t ...