Award Data

This Phase I project has two primary objectives. The first objective is to evaluate the feasibility of a fully ion implanted fabrication process based on the heterodimensional 2-D MESFET. The new device, the 2-D JFET, will have p+ ion implanted sidegates which laterally modulate a thin, highly doped n-type conducting channel. The 2-D JFET should have excellent high speed, low power characteristics ...

Currently, thermal spray (flame and plasma spray) is the only single step method of applying most metal and non-oxide ceramic coatings to large objects. These coatings are usually of a low quality, and thin films cannot be applied. An in situ deposition technique that inexpensively and easily applies nitrides, carbides and other non-oxide thin or thick films in an environmentally friendly manner i ...

Currently vacuum based methods of PVD and CVD are the only processes for forming GaN thin films and coatings. These methods are usually expensive and are not applied in a production friendly manner. An atmospheric deposition technique that inexpensively and easily applies GaN thin or thick films in an environmentally friendly manner is a priority for any number of DOD and commercial applications. ...

The primary goal of Phase I work is to demonstrate the feasibility of synthesizing gallium nitride (GaN) powder. Secondarily, this powder will be used to grow high-purity single crystals of GaN from a liquid GaN phase. This would be accomplished using a proprietary variation of the skull melting technique. Since GaN demonstrates peritectic-type decomposition at atmospheric pressure, the entire sku ...

The proposed effort will apply advanced methods of hybrid learning to problems of detection and identification of sensory events (e.g., boost phase evens). Our approach aims at building a vision system capable of hybrid learning, in which symbolic (rule-based) and subsymbolic (neural network) strategies are integrated to achieve high efficiency and accuracy both in learning human comprehensible se ...

Reconfigurable computing architectures based on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) offer extaordinary real time processing rates in inexpensive programmable hardware. The key to using FPGAs for reconfigurable computing is to reformulate algorithms in terms of parallel operations that are easily implemented with chains of simple processing elements. Currently available commercial integrated cir ...

We propose to design and fabricate an adaptive beam expander that can be switched between two magnifications. Specifically, the beam expander provides diffraction-limited performance for laser radar beams with diameters of 1 mm and 3 mm. The adaptive beam expander is lightweight, and it has no moving parts. Because the beam expander is an afocal system, it operates on both outgoing and incoming be ...

Aluminum nitride is as an ideal thermal management material since it has a very high thermal conductivity and its electrical resistivity is comparable to that of ceramic insulators. Aluminum nitride has thermal conductivity five times greater than alumina and has mechanical strength twice that of alumina and beryllium oxide. The current methods of synthesizing and consolidating aluminum nitride re ...

MicroFab Research (MFR, Inc.) proposes to apply the techniques of micromachining to aid in the fabrication of millimeter wave components, thereby reducing manufacturing expenses. Many microwave applications such as radar and communication systems would be improved by shifting to higher frequencies, provided new lower cost manufacturing techniques can be found. A manufacturing technique is presente ...

Microwave Technologies Incorporated is proposing the development of a very compact radio-frequency (rf) electron beam accelerator which appears to be well-suited for BMDO's directed energy applications. This novel concept employs a single short rf cavity operating in circular polarization to accelerate a low-energy ma ~netized pencil beam to energies that range from 2 to 10 MeV. The proposed accel ...