Award Data

The AEgis Technologies Group proposes to develop an innovative real-time thermal solver solution to model hardbody thermal histories. This thermal solver solution will consider the relevant phenomenology associated with MDA targets and other associated objects requiring thermal histories. Modeling of complex objects and advanced features such as model ablation and dynamic surface areas will be co ...

Existing thermal analysis tools for optical signature generation are employed in an off-line manner, and are inadequate for new closed-loop real-time system simulations being pursued by MDA. This STTR project aims to develop and demonstrate an innovative simulation tool for the automatic generation and subsequent computation of reduced thermal models for accurate, real-time analysis of complex 3D ...

To reduce the cost of new hardware development, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is developing fast new computational tools that enable in-the-loop hardware testing. The MDA and contractors have developed high-fidelity scene modeling tools such as the Fast Line-of-sight Imagery for Target and Exhaust-plume Signatures (FLITES) to test optical signature trackers. Currently, these high-speed tools ar ...

The MDA is developing satellite based systems that could benefit from ongoing developments in advanced materials for lithium ion batteries. Unfortunately, the driving applications for much of the new materials research have less abusive operational cycles than the frequent cycling, and sporadic pulse loads to deep discharge, of MDA satellite applications. Physics based models of battery performa ...

Current state-of-the-art infrared focal plane arrays are based on HgCdTe grown on bulk CdZnTe substrates. The use of Si-based substrates would eliminate a number of drawbacks related to the HgCdTe/CdZnTe system and permit larger formats. We have developed growth protocols that produce material with good crystal quality for such a highly mismatched heteroepitaxial system. Double crystal rocking c ...

Hydrogen isotopes have been shown to reduce the electrical effects of various semiconductor defects. Specifically, monoatomic hydrogen and deuterium passivate the electrical activity of defects such as dislocations in long-wavelength HgCdTe grown on Si. We propose a novel method of controlling the intake of hydrogen in HgCdTe IRFPAs by using the H2/He plasma afterglow formed by flowing plasma-gene ...

Current state-of-the-art infrared focal plane arrays (IRFPAs) are based on HgCdTe material epitaxially grown on bulk CdZnTe substrates. The size of the IRFPAs is limited by the size of the available CdZnTe substrates and the thermal mismatch between CdZnTe and the Si readout circuit, which misaligns the photodiode array with respect to the circuit during heating and cooling cycles. Having HgCdTe ...

An innovative, super-miniature, fast-switching array-based photonic time delay device is being developed for the active electronically scanned-array (AESA) MDA and Navy radars. The design is based on the fast electro-optic effect, the super miniature fiber-lens collimation array, and the existing WDM photonic true time delay technologies. In Phase I Agiltron has successfully demonstrated the core ...

The purpose of this STTR phase I proposal is to demonstrate the feasibility of producing the survivable multi-functional engineered material systems for spacecraft surfaces at an affordable cost using the proposed novel material designs and processes. The objectives of these efforts are not only to demonstrate the technical feasibility, but also to illustrate that at least 50% cost savings for DOD ...

High-fidelity missile plume flowfield simulations of MDA interest require use of detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms, which significantly improve IR/UV/RCS/visible signature prediction but entail long solution runtimes for completion. These long runtimes result from the required iterative solution of large systems of stiff, non-linear chemical source terms at each CFD mesh point; this curtails t ...