Award Data

Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT), supported by the University of Nevada-Reno (UNR), proposes to develop a passive, high performance heat storage and dissipation technology for high power electronics and directed energy system applications. The proposed technology incorporates heat pipes for acquisition and dissipation of high heat fluxes and metal hydrides for storage of large transient h ...

Utilizing recently available exceptional mercurous chloride (Hg2Cl2) acousto-optic material having the largest known optical filter figure of merit, we propose to develop a state-of-the-art high speed and wide-bandwidth long-wavelength acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF). The proposed device has the desirable performance attributes of wide operating wavelength range, low optical loss, low power c ...

This proposal addresses a novel photonic approach to the high performance IR scene generator. The revolutionary design has intrinsic advantages of broadband, high apparent temperature, compactness, high spatial resolution, low background temperature and noise, high reliability, and low cost, as compared with the competitive approaches. The device design overcomes the major shortcomings of the curr ...

The terahertz wave region of the electromagnetic spectrum offers exciting and unique attributes for security imaging and secure broadband communications. However, THz signal generation is difficult and current applications are rare. Existing THz sources utilize large and expensive lasers operating in pulsed mode. Practical application of THz radiation requires the development of THz source techn ...

We propose to develop algorithms to manage multiple networked sensors embedded in a system with significant latencies. Sources of latency can include limited bandwidth in communication channels; limited capabilities for processing collected data, especially imagery; and data collection times. Latencies must be accounted for by the sensor manager so that it can appropriately hedge. By using sens ...

A boost-phase intercept (BPI) system aims to destroy attacking intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) while the booster rockets are still burning and before they have deployed mid-course decoys or released their munitions. Detection and tracking of the incoming missile under changing atmospheric conditions is a significant challenge for the BPI system. Including a dual-band mid-wave infrared ...

Object discrimination is one of the most important functions in ballistic missile defense since successful engagement and intercept of the warhead requires timely discrimination of lethal objects from decoys and other non-lethal objects. Multiple sensors exploiting diversity in phenomenology and viewing geometry can provide better discrimination information than a single sensor but exploiting this ...

For this Phase I SBIR, we propose to design, fabricate, and test a colloid thruster integrated with an on/off microvalve. The design leverages Busek's accumulated expertise in colloid thruster development, gained through NASA's ST7 project, toward developing a general-purpose, flexible, and miniaturized micropropulsion system. Busek has already demonstrated a flight-viable colloid thruster arc ...

Missile defense takes place in an unpredictable, real-time environment and thus requires an adaptive approach to optimization that dynamically allocates sensors and their supporting resources in response to changing goals and constraints. Here, we propose a system for Sensor Network Optimization using Multi-Agent Negotiation (SNOMAN) to meet the challenge of this real-time resource allocation prob ...

A novel accelerator system will be developed to enhance oxygen generation from a hydrogen-peroxide catalytic bed, for the purpose of improving start-up performance and reducing system response time. The system will rapidly increase system temperature using chemical stimulation of the hydrogen peroxide, as opposed to power-consuming electrical heaters currently in use. This system design concept wi ...