Award Data

There is need for a commercial vaccine against shigellosis because all groups of pathogenic Shigella have acquired resistance to antibiotics. Shigella conjugate vaccines have proven safe and protective in previous clinical trials, but obstacles associated with large-scale manufacturing of these subunit vaccines have apparently hindered commercial development. The present project uses a new and s ...

In Phase I of this SBIR project, novel acousto-optic (AO) sensors were developed that offered many advantages over current state-of-the-art AO sensors. These sensors were used to demonstrate feasibility of a simple, fast and low-cost method for NDE of fielded structures. The proposed Phase II work will build on the success of Phase I to refine the AO sensor concepts and the methodologies for app ...

Infrared photon sensors presently available for THAAD applications, with a cutoff wavelength ~8 micron, are based on HgCdTe. These suffer from a high non-uniformity and thus a high focal plane array cost. The most promising alternative is III-V compound semiconductor superlattices based on arsenides and antimonides, such as type-II InAs/GaSb superlattices, which are expected to exhibit higher qu ...

: The development of cost-effective manufacturing technique for PMN-PT based piezoelectric single crystals with enhanced capabilities is critical to the achievement of the new generation of acoustic transduction devices. In Phase I, feasibility of the novel technique was demonstrated. The objective of this research project is to continue development of reducing the manufacturing costs for large-si ...

There is a growing demand for advanced space-based radar/sensor/imaging systems, ballistic missile defense and anti-satellite warfare capability in self-healing distributed infrastructure space networks. Miniaturization of sensor, communications and structural hardware has driven the industry, however, space power and propulsion has significantly lagged behind. Pseudospark technology has the cur ...

Fuel cross-over still remains one of the major technical obstacles in the commercializaion of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). The objective of this Phase II STTR proposal is to take advantage of multi-stream parallel laminar flow within microchannels to elminate fuel crossover within a laminar flow fuel cell (LFFC). LFFC performance is expected to outpace tradional PEM-based DMFCs and provid ...

Programs such as Airborne Laser and Space-Based Laser require highly mass efficient structures. Because of their high specific strength and stiffness this naturally leads to graphite fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) materials for many system components. In fluid storage tank applications GFRP laminates often develop microcracking when subject to cryogenic temperatures and/or stresses due to press ...

We propose the development of high quality HgCdTe-based materials and high performance two-color detector arrays operating in the very-long wavelength infrared (VLWIR) spectral region. The fabrication of large format, high sensitivity focal plane arrays sensing in the VLWIR is highly desirable for various applications complementing Missile Defense, Army, Navy, and Air Force capabilities. They will ...

Many Unites States Army, and other Department of Defense (DoD) sites, are contaminated with a variety of contaminants including highly energetic compounds, such as 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX), chlorinated aliphatics (such as trichloroethylene,TCE) and chlorinated aromatics. These compounds often persist in soil or groundwater for extended periods of t ...

The Navy has a critical need to measure temperatures at critical areas on the inner bore surfaces of large guns in order to insure appropriate action is taken in case of a misfire. In the case of a misfire, the gun crew must know the bore surface temperature in order to decide if they have time to safely remove the ammunition before enough heat has transferred from the hot barrel, possibly initi ...