Award Data

Phase I has proven that the current setup achieves better than 8mm spatial resolution for 2.2MeV prompt gammas. However, 1mm spatial resolution presents a significant challenge for the current setup due in part to limited timing resolution and count rate. A new analog ASIC will be developed to replace the current analog ASIC that will have better timing resolution and deliver higher count rates. I ...

Industrial facilities, manufacturing plants, and electric power plants that burn fossil fuels exhaust the combustion products to atmosphere through their smokestacks. Stack pollutant emissions are quantified using manual testing methods developed in the 1960s, which are prone to error if non-axial flow exists in a stack.Recently, NIST has been working on an improved technique of performing 3D flow ...

We will develop a series of object manipulation primitives to pick up and assemble standard mechanical parts such as screws, gears and pulleys that can be configured without any programming skills. Building up on a smart robotic gripper, 3D perception and machine learning algorithms, we will design a graphical user interface for the Universal Robot E-Series that allows an user to label arbitrary 3 ...

To evaluate the technical feasibility of prompt gamma neutron activation (PGAA) as an alternative to a set of standard destructive tests of concrete petrography including aggregate type, water/cement ratio, aggregate/binder ratio, density, chloride content and chloride bulk diffusion constant; and to determine the specifications for the design of a dedicated commercial laboratory-based PGAA facili ...

Conventional characterization and test methods are increasingly ineffective when applied to structures less than 100 nanometers, causing challenges across R&D, process control and failure analysis. An increasing number of subtle defects become prominent drivers of failure as device size and operating margins decrease, e.g., processing anomalies in thin gate oxides, substrate problems related to do ...

There has been substantial development in data analytics. However, the complex mathematical formulation of “big data analytics” is difficult to populate in general manufacturing plants. There is a need for an SPC-like tool to enable the acceptance of the advanced data analytics and its visualization. The MD Compiler, a tool to bridge the gap between data available and the information demanded ...

A dual plane Compton imager prototype system with large volume pixelated CZT detectors will be built for spectrally resolved MeV gamma ray tomographic applications. These two planes will be operated at independent clocks and they will be synchronized via a common periodical pulse. The common periodical pulse is self-generated so it does not rely on external pulse generator. Each detector will be c ...

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a promising manufacturing technique for end-use parts that can solve challenges for American manufacturers in many industries, e.g. aerospace, defense, automotive, energy, and healthcare. However, despite the potential that AM offers, the rate of AM adoption in industry is very slow. This is because AM suffers from low repeatability and quality consistency issues, wh ...

ColdQuanta seeks to develop compact, stemless vapor cells designed specifically for high-accuracy RF electric field (E-field) metrology with Rydberg atoms. Sensors utilizing these vapor cells can take advantage of Rydberg atoms’ exceptional sensitivity to RF, microwave, and millimeter radiation between 1 and 1000 GHz. Featuring resolutions down to the uV/cm level, the accuracy of these devices w ...

Standards and specifications are widely used in government and industry to define requirements for products and processes and insure interoperability, safety, and quality of industrial and domestic products. Specifications and standards documents almost always cross-reference other standards and specification. Taken together, the web of interdependent standards forms an immensely important knowled ...