Award Data

In this Phase II SBIR effort we will dramatically reduce the size, weight, and power requirements of a passive millimeter wave imaging system based on optical upconversion. To this end, we will integrate custom silicon-germanium low noise amplifiers that have been designed to efficiently couple with our high performance lithium niobate upconversion modules. In Phase I we analyzed the design requ ...

Commodity graphics processing units (GPUs) offer tremendous computational throughput for relatively little cost. They have been shown to outperform microprocessors in the important metrics of FLOPS/dollar, FLOPS/Watt, and FLOPS/unit space and have already been applied to a wide range of numerically intense problems. In Phase I of this project, we demonstrated their potential to enhance complex C ...

Under the DARPA sponsored Naval Advanced Amorphous Coating (NAAC) program, a novel, thermal sprayed amorphous metal coating has been developed. Such a coating has demonstrated superior mechanical and corrosion resistance properties. Although the coating is designed to be life-of-ship, the application and operational conditions may compromise the integrity of the coating. For example, the applicati ...

MOUTHSTICKS OR ORTHODONTIC ORTHOSES ARE WIDELY USED BY PEOPLE WITH SPINAL CHORD INJURIES OR SIMILAR DISABILITIES TO INCREASE CONTROL OVER THEIR ENVIRONMENT. PEOPLE WITH THE ADDITIONAL LIMITATION OF LITTLE OR NO ANTERIOR/POSTERIOR HEAD MOTION MAY BENEFIT FROM AN EXTENDIBLE MOUTHSTICK. HOWEVER, COMMERCIAL EXTENDIBLE MOUTHSTICKS SUFFER IN THAT THEIR ACTION IS OFTEN SLOW, EXTENDIBILITY IS LIMITED, OR ...

THE GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO PRODUCE A SIGN-LANGUAGE TELEPHONE PROVIDING VISUAL COMMUNICATION TO THE HEARING IMPAIRED. CURRENTLY THEIR ONLY ACCESS TO TELEPHONE CONVERSATION IS WITH TYPED MESSAGES USING TELEPHONE FOR THE DEAF AND DISABLED. SIGN-LANGUAGE IS A MORE APPROPRIATE AND EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION MEDIUM THAN IS WRITTEN ENGLISH. PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF THE EXISTING TELEPHONE NETWORK PRECLUDE ...

CERAMICS HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO BE VERY EFFECTIVE IN THE DEFEAT OF A WIDE RANGE OF KINETIC ENERGY (KE) THREATS. HOWEVER, THE USE OF CERAMICS IN ARMORED VEHICLES HAS BEEN LIMITED DUE IN MOST PART TO THEIR HIGH COST. CERAMIC PARTICULATE REINFORCED METAL MATRIX COMPOSITES (MMCS) PRODUCED BY PRESSURELESS LIQUID METAL INFILTRATION ARE INEXPENSIVE RELATIVE TO MONOLITHIC CERAMICS DUE TO THE LOWER COST OF THE ...

In this SBIR effort we will design (Phase I) and demonstrate (Phase II) an integrated silicon electronic-photonic upconversion receiver that when used with our photonic backend will allow for a highly sensitive, real-time, and economical millimeter wave (mmW) imaging system. The development of this chip leverages recent progress in CMOS and SiGe HBT high speed analog circuit design and integrates ...