Award Data

The region of the electromagnetic spectrum from 100 GHz to 400 GHz is currently underutilized but an area of exciting promise. Although atmospheric attenuation is higher in this region, the high frequency enables higher bandwidth operation. Transmit and receive components are also small resulting in the potential for lightweight miniature systems. Sub-millimeter waves also have the unique ability ...

PaneraTech is proposing a non-contact dual sensor for broadband and real-time characterization of thin nanofiber films during the manufacturing. Our solution offers several unique aspects that are ideal for this application. For instance, it uses a dual CPW sensor for low frequencies and free space transmission system for higher frequency band. Our proposed sensor system is also equipped with high ...

The goal of this SBIR project is to develop and demonstrate an electrokinetically driven nanofluidic sensor device of the physical size and shape that will allow integration with a THz spectroscopic instrument. The substrate and channel surfaces within t

A development program is proposed for a design automation software package that enables the generation of complex surfaces, with user defined or automated definition of point charge and hydrophobic/hydrophilic properties, using DNA origami as a presentation substrate. Building upon existing software for DNA origami design, this project will result in software able to optimize DNA staples and othe ...

The goal of this project is demonstration of a nanofluidic sensor platform effective for label-free"THz-frequency spectroscopic fingerprinting"of biological molecules for detection, identification, and classification applications. In the Phase I project, the work involved a conceptual design of the proposed nanofluidic sensor package and development of technology for enclosing and wetting of the c ...

Thin film multilayers of nanometer scale thickness are fundamental to the future of electronics and communications technologies. Chemical depth profiling by ion etching techniques are critical to the characterization of these structures. A fundamental problem with current ion etching technologies is that typical ion energies (~1k eV to 20 keV) create extensive damage and intermixing of nanometer t ...

There is an immediate need for real-time sensitive and selective detection of biological warfare agents (BWA) in air or water. Essential components of developmental biological and chemical sensors are the molecular receptors or recognition elements.Molecular imprinting of polymers has been used with promising results to create artificial chemical receptors. Echo Technologies, Inc. proposes to de ...

There exists a military and homeland security need for rapid, accurate and sensitive methods for the detection of organophosphates in cluttered environments. The in vitro modification and selection (IVMS) process under development by the Luna teamovercomes the limitations of current biosensor technologies by converting a known biomolecular sensor - the receptor for a steroid hormone - into a new ...

Next-generation smart machine tools are currently under research and development. Critical to the success of these tools will be the inclusion of smart sensors. These sensor suites will need to measure physical parameters such as temperature, vibration, pressure and so on. Luna Innovations has extensive experience in developing solar powered wireless systems to transmit sensor data. Luna proposes ...

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 project proposes to develop a femtosecond laser system optimized for optical clocks and other precision metrology applications. In principle, atomic optical transitions have the potential to provide radically higher-accuracy timekeeping, because of the very high frequency of an optical transition. The problem of counting, or down-counting, the oscill ...