Award Data

In unmanned underwater vehicles and underwater sensor networks underwater ranging is becoming of increasing importance. Laser-based ranging techniques offer the potential of high resolution and high speed. However, the challenging underwater environments could limit the performance of the optical ranging system. Specifically, (a) dynamic scattering particles distorts the optical beam in both time ...

Thermal batteries are single-discharge reserve batteries that provide a very long shelf life, minimal self-discharge, wide storage temperature range, fast activation under sudden power demand, and also a wide range of temperature operating conditions. 32Upon activation, thermal batteries are heated with an internal pyrotechnic heat charge above the melting temperature of the molten salt electrolyt ...

Sivananthan Laboratories (SL) with the University of Iowa as the STTR partner, proposes to develop metasurface-coupled type II superlattice (T2SL) LWIR detectors that are predicted to outperform HgCdTe detectors. We developed in Phase I fundamental understanding of metasurface-coupled T2SLs, likely performance, and issues related to scaling up device structure to form arrays for LWIR imaging. In P ...

Sb-based III-V semiconductor Type-II superlattice (T2SL) materials with band structure-engineered device architectures are groundbreaking for infrared detectors and focal plane arrays (FPAs). T2SL FPAs have become very attractive candidates for various MDA/DOD sensor platforms including air, space, ships, and missiles. T2SL wafers, the starting materials of FPAs, are grown on large substrates usin ...

American Energy Technologies Company, a woman-owned small business concern out of Arlington Heights, Illinois will conduct the modeling, technology development and prototyping of the specialized carbon-based ram jet nozzle inserts aimed at maximizing the combustion performance of new-generation solid rocket fuels. The primary objective of the inserts will be to prevent condensation of oxide phase ...

The goal of this proposed Phase II effort is to design and demonstrate a monolithic architecture for two-dimensional, all-electronic beam steering of a high power, mid-infrared laser. A photonic integrated circuit architecture is described which contains a widely tunable, mid-infrared quantum cascade laser integrated with a phase-adjustable amplifier array and a high efficiency grating outcoupler. ...

Type II superlattices (T2SL) represent a promising material system capable of delivering very producible, large-format broadband MWIR and LWIR focal plane arrays (FPAs). High temperature operation of current MCT based FPAs is limited by inherent defects in the II-VI material and strong Auger recombination. T2SLs are based upon mature III-V materials and would provide high material quality, lower s ...

In Phase I, SpaceWorks Enterprises, Inc. conducted an extensive Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) and selected a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)-aided INS solution to meet the Navy SSP’s requirements for a GPS alternative for reentry (see the Phase I Final Report for an overview of this solution). The proposed MachSAR system was able to improve position and velocity prediction accuracy by 100x compa ...

A Free Space Optical Communication Systems (FSOCS) enables broadband inter-connectivity among mobile platforms.  A key feature of an FSOCS is the low probability of intercept and the low probability of detection (LPI-LPD).  Furthermore, it is unhindered by RF jamming or frequency contention.   When augmented by a passive range detection capability, it also enables precise location knowledge, a ...

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are advanced adsorbents with applicability to military and civilian applications including but not limited to chemical biological protection, chemical warfare agent decontamination, toxic industrial chemical remediation, medical oxygen delivery, and energy storage. These materials have been produced in ton-scale quantities and have seen commercial use in the electro ...