Award Data

Budgetary constraints on defense spending have highlighted the importance ofprograms aimed at extending the service life of aging aircraft. Nondestructiveinspection is a key component of such programs. One important capabilityis the detection of cracking and corrosion around fastener holes. Phased arrayultrasonics offer a novel and powerful solution. They can steer an ultrasonic beamat various ang ...

A compact, reliable, efficient and inexpensive crycooler requiring less than 1kW of power for 2W of colling at 10K will be developed and demonstrated. This performance is at least twice as efficient as the best current state-of-the-art for smalllow-temperature crycoolers. The proposed technical approach, whose feasibility has been investigated and confirmed in Phase I of this project, is to appl ...

The military services are currently considering advanced imaging systems with extremely large fields of view (hemispherical or greater) for inclusion in next generation seekers for missile defense. By necessity, these panoramic imaging systems will havelarge distortions and the resolution will vary across the field of view. In other words, the imaging systems in question are highly non-isoplanat ...

Advanced Optical Systems, Inc. (AOS) offers an innovative approach to the development of universal, inexpensive optics for uncooled IR applications with their Night Owl design. The requirements of small f-number optics and variable focal length to ensureuniform testing of various uncooled IR detectors are investigated. The proposed Cassegrain style optics offers a multi-spectral system in a ligh ...

Until recently, the cost of high performance electro-optical systems such as missile seekers have been dominated by the cost of the focal plane array. Recent developments are improving the affordability of arrays, with the result that the optical andopto-mechanical subsystems are emerging as the cost drivers. We have addressed this problem through the development of opto-mechanical systems built ...

One of the primary processes used for device patterning in the electronics industry is deep ultaviolet photolithography. However, the highly reflective substrates require reduction of this reflectivity to minimize standing waves and to maintain tightdimensional control. Most of te industry uses anti-reflective coatings (ARCs) which are applied using the spin coating technique. Unfortunately, spi ...

The capability to optically project virtual LADAR scenes would maximize the effectiveness of Hardware-in-the-Loop (HWIL) simulation in the design, development, and testing of LADAR seekers. The goal of this research is to develop a LADAR scene projectorto meet the demands of closed-loop weapon testing in a Multi-mode HWIL simulation environment. During the Phase I effort, a preliminary design of ...

Terrain data needs on the battlefield are generating greater military requirements for new, rapid feature mapping capabilities. Unfortunately, current methods are woefully inadequate to meet the needs of the modern digitized battlefield in which thecommander must have the ability to rapidly obtain accurate terrain information and topographic products. Terrain Reasoning methods will allow more ra ...

Reusable launch vehicles currently being designed by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration require innovative structural components that are both light weight and able to withstand the severe thermal environmentsof reentry without time consuming and expensive refurbishment prior to the next flight. This project will investigate combining state-of-the-art ...

This proposal addresses full digital control of the Line of Sight (LOS) Stabilization system required for advanced infra-red (IR) seekers employing strap down sensors and inertially stabilized optics, while maintaining the LOS degrees of freedom to supportmissile interceptor requirements.The effort proposed is an extension of a proof of concept demonstration conducted by Aero Thermo Technology, In ...