Award Data

Under this STTR Imaging Systems Technology (IST) will apply novel Plasma-shell technology and expertise with gas plasma systems to shield and protect BMDS Radar. Plasma-shells are tiny hollow gas encapsulating shells. When energy is applied across the shell, the gas inside ionizes into a plasma. Theory of plasma-electromagnetic (EM) field interaction shows that, under appropriate conditions, pl ...

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 ...

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 ...

Mercury Cadmium Telluride (MCT) has been described as one of the most technologically significant semiconductor materials and is the most widely used material for long wave infrared (LWIR) imaging. The current challenge is to produce MCT over large focal plane array size at low cost and high reliability without compromising sensitivity or noise performance. MCT on silicon substrates is highly attr ...

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 ...

This STTR Phase II proposal relates to the development of a Multi-Band IR Scene Projection Display for Scene Simulation in Hardware-In-the-Loop facilities. The focus is to transition Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) displays to the infrared regime and to develop multi-band projection optics. This projection display enables MDA/AF a much enhanced scene simulation capability for missile intercepti ...