Award Data

Owing to a unique set of intellectual property and core expertise, this Phase II team, led by Traycer Diagnostic Systems, will build and characterize a packaged, 16x16 terahertz focal plane array (FPA) for broadband video-rate imaging at frequencies up to 1.3 THz. Traycer’s competitive advantage is based on its record-performing detectors, novel antennas, and array architectures that permit a d ...

Current modeling of Lunar and Martian soil erosion and debris transport caused by rocket plume impingement lacks essential physics from the peculiar granular characteristics of highly irregular regolith particles. Current granular mechanics models are based on mono-disperse spherical particles empiricism unsuitable for capturing the poly-disperse irregularly shaped grain mechanics. CFDRC and the U ...

The design of future hypersonic vehicles requires detailed understanding of flow regimes ranging from rarefied to continuum. Hypervelocity flows are characterized by high temperatures, real gas effects, nonequilibrium chemistry, and ionization. The goal of this project is to develop unified kinetic/continuum solution methods with automatic domain decomposition for a wide range of Air Force applic ...

Currently large capacity cryostats, capable of hosting experiments for many qubits, require expensive and hard to obtain liquid cryogens. A few small cryo-free systems exist but they are non-ideal for this use. An opportunity exists for a large scale, c

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II project is a study to expand the high speed addressing work conducted under Phase I using monochrome Plasma-spheres to color Plasma-spheres. Plasma-spheres are hollow transparent shells that encapsulate a selected pressurized gas. When a voltage is applied across the shell, the gas ionizes and glows. Plasma-spheres are applied to flexible, el ...

Our team proposes to develop, test, and commercialize a Micro Air Vehicle Tether Recovery APparatus (MAVTRAP). This system operates by deploying an instrumented MAV capture device attached via a tether system from a mothership unmanned air vehicle (UAV). The instrumented MAV capture device contains an integrated avionics suite. Our team will determine and control the precise mother ship UAV loi ...

This Small Business Technology Transfer program will develop a spectroscopic polarimeter-on-a-chip using novel plasmonic resonant cavities sensitive to linear polarization over a narrow wavelength range. Spectral selection will be possible through geometric scaling, with this work concentrating on the visible to near infrared wavelength band. Dielectric gratings with subwavelength period will act ...

We are proposing to develop a highly parallel, rapid prototyping system for the manufacture of microfluidic devices. In this phase II proposal we will build a complete system for making such devices for continued research on fieldable microfluidic systems for use in the military, and in hospitals. The project will also allow manufacturing in widely different materials, and structures, without an ...

Bright coherent light sources in the soft x-ray region of the spectrum are useful for a variety of applications of interest to DOE in the basic sciences, nanoscience and biology, and for technological applications. At Free-Electron Laser Facilities, peak power output of the x-ray pulses is enhanced by using a mid-infrared laser pulse instead of a near-infrared pulse. The current front end for mid- ...

The Keystone and MSU team propose to build on the successful feasibility demonstration conducted during Phase I to complete the development of solid-state joining of high strength and temperature alloys utilizing the Thermal Stir Welding process. The focus alloy for this project is Haynes 230; the alloy of choice typically utilized in rocket engine nozzel skirts. This class of alloy is difficult t ...