Award Data

This NIST Phase 1 SBIR effort will demonstrate the feasibility of low noise single photon up conversion using KTiOPO4 (KTP) or LiNbO3 (LN) or Stoichiometric LiTaO3 (SLT) periodically poled waveguides and an 1800nm pump for a high efficiency single photon detector. The key innovation is using low noise periodically poled waveguides with a long wavelength (1800nm) pump leading to higher efficiency s ...

Proliferation of nuclear weapons is a serious threat in the world today. One way to determine the presence of nuclear weapons is to detect neutrons emitted by special nuclear material(SNM) such as highly enriched uranium and weapons grade plutonium. The purpose of this project is to develop improved solid state neutron detectors from CVD diamond for homeland security applications. Phase I work wil ...

The use and applications of radiological sources, for power, medical, and defense applications, continuously increases with time. Illicit nuclear materials represent a threat for the safety of the American citizens and the detection and interdiction of a nuclear weapon is a national problem that has not been yet solved. This represents an enormous challenge to current detection methods and monitor ...

THE STUDY OF OCEAN PROCESSES SUCH AS MINERAL DISSOLUTION, ION SPECIATION AND REDOX EQUILIBRIA AS WELL AS EFFLUENT AND POLLUTION MONITORING REQUIRE ACCURATE AND PRECISE MEASUREMENTS OF BOTH MAJOR AND MINOR CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS. ALTHOUGH SPECTROPHOTOMETRY AND FLAME PHOTOMETRY HAVE BEEN USED FOR SEA WATER ANALYSIS, POTENTIONMETRY WITH ION-SELECTIVE ELECTRODES IS THE MOST COMMON-METHODOLOGY, PARTICUL ...

Boston MicroSystems (BMS) proposes to develop a cell-phone sized instrument for detecting hazardous chemical and explosive threats. The instrument is based on BMS' PicoSensor® chemical and explosives detection platform, which has been developed in part under DHS support and is capable of sensing explosives and toxic chemicals at ppb and even ppt (trillion) levels. The Picoensor® consists of a ME ...

This SBIR deals with developing a commercial AC Resistance-Ratio Bridge based on research work done by R. D. Cutkosky at NIST during the 1980's. His initial work will be extended by this Phase 1 project to allow for a new state-of-the-art product design and development. The product, the Model 8686 Precision Resistance-Ratio Bridge, will have an operating current range from 0.1mA to 10mA user selec ...

Ion mobility spectrometer based explosives trace detectors (ETD) have been widely used in airport check points, ports of entry, government buildings, and other high security facilities. Most of these systems require manual collection of trace particles from vehicles via direct swabbing of surface areas of interest. Sample collection efficiency and inconsistency pose significant challenges to the e ...

NOAA supports over 25,000 underwater dive programs per year. To increase the duration and depth of these dives, the use of closed circuit mixed gas rebreathers (CCRs) is being considered. As there currently are no sensors to detect CO2 levels in the breathing gas, Giner, Inc. proposes to develop an electrochemical CO2 sensor for CCR use. The technical innovation will be to develop a reversible ...

Automatic extraction of actionable intelligence from collaborative sensors in a framework that supports seamless exchange of extracted information across sensor layers while leveraging the human in the loop is the focus our proposal. Depending upon the specific end-user, data extracted from the battlefield areas represent two major categories: information requiring and subject to further analyses, ...

This SBIR project aims to develop a new class of low-field magnetic sensors based on magnetic tunnel junctions with magnesium oxide (MgO) tunnel barriers. The phase 1 effort aims to maximize the high-frequency sensitivity of the MgO-MTJ sensor devices by optimizing the magnetic characteristics of the free electrode. By using new and novel combinations of magnetic materials, in conjunction with pro ...