Award Data

methyst Research Inc. will design, fabricate and test a high uniformity, large area, low noise infrared trap-detector detector for the 1- 4.5 μm wavelength range. This state of the art detector will have a large area (e.g., 1-1.8 cm diameter active area) with a spatial variability of internal quantum efficiency of less than 0.1 % between 1 μm and 4.5 μm. In addition, the internal quantum effici ...

This Phase II project will continue the prototype development of a pharmaceutical spray quality audit system. The spray quality audit system will estimate the planar mass distribution, mass flux, and drop size of pharmaceutical sprays that are used in functional coating applications and inhalers. A prototype tomography system will be designed and fabricated and evaluated using various fluorophore.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become a primary diagnostic tool in scientific research and clinical imaging. Despite the excellent image quality that can be obtained with today’s MRIs, images acquired using different MRI systems and during longitudinal studies are not reproducible, and hence can be difficult, if not impossible, to compare. To address this issue, a standardized test of the ...

The objective of this proposal is to establish the feasibility of developing an integrated decision support tool that transforms the current time-consuming and reactive (post-design) sustainability assessment into a real-time, proactive approach available in the early phases of product design. This tool, called Sustainability Integrated into Early Design (SIED), will define and capture lifecycle-w ...

The proposed research comprises design, analysis, and ultimate fabrication and operation of a microfabricated array of quadrupole mass spectrometers (QMS). The design capitalizes on recent advances in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and molecular-beam-epitaxy (MBE) technology so that the device can be mass-produced on a chip. In addition to analyzing a single element QMS in Phase 1, invest ...

We propose developing a prototype of a GUI-based wizard that: ¿ Guides users through the steps that are needed to define their processes using PSL in a visual/textual manner. ¿ Checks for consistency/correctness according to PSL ontology. ¿ Generates the PSL description. We believe that VISI-PSL will facilitate the generation of PSL descriptions to the extent that it will be used by process ...

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 ...

We propose to compare alternative architectures for phase noise measurement by directly sampling the RF waveform. Out of band modulation and cross correlation will reduce noise. The capabilities of each architecture will be determined using analysis and simulation. The results will be used to determine the feasibility of developing a commercially useful measurement instrument. If the results are p ...

The near chiral purity of the biosphere leads to a vast array of chiro-specific physiological responses. This chiro-specificity, in turn, gives rise to the need for the manufacturing of enantiomerically pure chiral chemicals, such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, food additives, pigments, etc. Critical to the efficacy of both chiro-specific biology and chiro-synthesis/separation are the interfacial ...

We will develop a compact external cavity stabilization system, which will employ independent electro-optic control over the optical path length of the cavity and a wavelength-selective element. The system should be able to cover a 30 nm range and give mode-hop-free tuning over 20 nm intervals. The design of the feedback system will be compatible with any commercially available laser diode from 63 ...