Award Data

Sample preparation has been recognized as the single most important challenge to be faced in the development of detect-to-warn (DTW) systems (NRC, 2005). Available commercial sample preparation technologies are expensive, slow (30 min to 2 hours) and require trained laboratory technicians for operation. Addressing this need, we propose to design, fabricate, demonstrate, and validate a novel integr ...

Current bioaerosol monitoring and evaluation systems are largely based on collection of airborne pathogens in a liquid medium, followed by the detection of the targets of interest. While available aerosol collection technologies employ large collection volumes, biosensors are capable of processing only a small fraction of the collection volume. Our overall objective is to design and demonstrate a ...

This Starfire Industries Phase I SBIR project specifically addresses the need to replace Am-Be sources for the well-logging industry and other applications where sealed radioactive sources are being used. Market factors inhibiting DT fusion neutron generators from replacing Am-Be sources are: (1) still use radioactive tritium (licensing/export), (2) tube lifetimes are measured in hundreds of hours ...

The development of sophisticated anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities by our adversaries requires us to develop long range capabilities to mitigate this A2/AD threat. Extending the range of Over The Horizon Radars beyond their conventional single hop operating mode will potentially provide coverage out to 10000 km and beyond. We propose combining existing state-of-the art HF radar ray prop ...

Gun-launched applications currently expose inertial measurement units (IMUs) to harsh acceleration, shock, and vibration environments. Furthermore, as they become smarter, they present tighter constraints on size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C), while still requiring high levels of performance. New accelerometer technology must reduce SWaP-C while operating through high-g acceleration environmen ...

Mission times for high velocity projectiles (HVP) are very short and detection and discrimination of targets must happen quickly and decisively. One way to achieve this is through the enhanced contrast resulting from polarized sensing, which tends to highlight manmade objects and suppress natural background clutter. Thermal polarimetric sensing in a small package has been demonstrated already but ...

The capability to reliably and remotely detect and track tactical surface targets in a high-velocity projectile after launch is a critical need. The discrimination of man-made objects can be assisted by the detector technology, with options including two-color detectors and polarimetric filtering in the thermal infrared bands. The level of complexity in the focal plane array affects its survivabil ...

Protecting the effectiveness of US advanced weapon systems and the technology they rely on is a national priority. Unfortunately, individuals tasked with this mission are met with disjointed guidance, no training, and competing processes to consider. It is no wonder adversaries continue to exploit these weaknesses in the Department of Defense (DOD); stealing our Critical Program Information (CPI) ...