Award Data

Sensors and control electronics based on SiC offer an opportunity to realize systems with operating temperatures approaching 500 degrees C. The unique high temperature properties and chemical robustness of SiC make it an ideal choice for applications where generic components and sensors need to function under widely varying environmental conditions The wide range of environments in which military ...

Increasingly strict emissions requirements and the need to increase fuel economy and reduce service intervals have dramatically accelerated the use of monitor and control electronics in engines. traditional methods such as adjusting the air/fuel ratio to optimize catalyst performance are not effective enough to meet future requirements. Measurement of the pressure in each cylinder permits enhanc ...

Although imaging in the 8-12 micron spectral region has widespread uses, high background radiation result sin low contrast, and charge storage in SiO2 capacitors limits the signal-to-noise and the upper limit of the dynamic range. A major opportunity exists to increase the performance of IR focal plan arrays (IRFPAs) using high dielectric constant BaSrTiO3 (BST) films to increase charge storage at ...

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will fabricate an array of gas-sensing elements from pulsed-laser deposited (PLD) metal oxide thin films on silicon wafers, which will be integrated with fiberoptics and a digital signal processor (DSP) for device operation, readout, and signal conditioning. The developed sensor instrument that can be used as a subsystem for combustion contr ...

The objective of the proposed program is to demonstrate the feasibility of an innovative, cost-effective, rapid-pultrusion composite processing technique and newly formulated resins which substantially reduce the need for expensive tooling, high puller tensions (dies are expected to be an order of magnitude shorter than conventional pultrusion dies) and slow thermal processing and can cure the com ...

The engineering of materials on a nanometer scale is an important technological goal which would facilitate the development of a new generation of materials and devices. A variety of biological membranes exhibit self-assembly into 2-D arrays including the purple membrane from Halobacteria salinarium and the S-layer from Sulfolobus acidocaldarius. Methods have been developed to use these membrane ...

The fuel cell power supplies of today are two times too heavy compared to man-portable power supplies. A major portion of the weight is in the fuel cell stack, a stack of carbon electrodes with metal bipolar plate separators that are sandwiched between two end plates and held in place by tie rods. We continue to investigate lighter weight materials to use in our conventional fuel cell stack. Ho ...

ANRO is currently under a Phase II SBIR contract to evaluate an Ultra-Wideband (UWB) linear radar array and the processing of co- and cross-polarization returns for detecting and discriminating buried mines. Experiments indicate that both metallic and plastic ines located several inches below the suface are reliably detected using a novel real-time cancellation scheme; however, it appears that ta ...

An important facet to a soldier's survivability depends on the clothing worn during combat and training exercises. Common fibers used in the textile industry, particularly nylons and polyesters, are flammable, produce toxic smoke and are potentially hazardous when worn soldiers. Flame retardant materials applied directly to these fibers may adversely alter the properties of the fabric and/or deg ...

The development of vaccines is of prime inportance to issues of public health and to issues of military significance. Oral vaccines present a means of delivery which is both convenient to the patient and conservative to time and money for medical personnel charge with administration of vaccination programs. A successful oral vaccine, for maximum efficacy, should 1) delivery antigen over an exten ...