Award Data

The recent emergence of the Silicon Drift detector (SDD), for use in energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry (EDS), has made possible x-ray event streams with count rates as high as 1-10 Mcps. A problem with existing digital signal processing, as applied to SDDs, is the significant presence of coincidence peaks above the x-ray background. These coincidence peaks occur with amplitudes comparable to lo ...

Applied Quantum Technologies along with its university partner Duke University propose a coded-aperture, multi-aperture snapshot Raman imager. By combining an innovative optical design and advanced compressed sensing algorithms, a snapshot system provides dwell times much shorter than conventional slit-based or tunable-filter based spectral imagers. A short-wave infrared excitation source allows f ...

The vertical water vapor profile into the atmosphere is measured around the world using balloon-borne radiosondes that take measurements twice a day when the balloons are launched. The objective of this proposal is to establish the feasibility of measuring the amount of water vapor vertically, in the atmosphere as a function of altitude using a Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) operating in the ...

Kyma Technologies together with the two subcontractors at Princeton University and Lehigh University aim to develop III-Nitride QCL at near 1.55 µm based on native GaN substrates and strain-compensation heterostructures engineering. We intent to employ new approaches, aiming to overcome the challenges in realization intersubband emission in III-Nitride structures. High quality native GaN substrat ...

Kyma Technologies will develop InGaN growth technologies using the hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) process, and will combine this with a proven GaN epitaxial growth technology to enable aggressive cost reduction for InGaN-based devices. This approach will enable a reduction in the required MOCVD growth steps in the fabrication of LEDs for solid state lighting, leading to a significant reductio ...

The goal of the proposed work is to evaluate the viability of printing integrated circuits using Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWNTs) as the base material. Commercially, the impact of advanced printing electronics technology is significant. These technologies have the potential to reduce manufacturing costs and ultimately lead to an industry- wide improvement in manufacturing time efficiency. ...

Ocean Farm Technologies, Inc. (OFT) proposes to continue investigating using ocean wave energy in the form of compressed air to power open ocean aquaculture operations. In Phase I, OPT designed, built and began testing an affordable and efficient wave energy converter (WEC) that generated and stored compressed air. In Phase II OFT will demonstrate using compressed air from an improved WEC desig ...

The objective of this Phase I proposal is to perform a theoretical exploration of the fundamental and practical limits of detection by fluctuation enhanced sensing and statistical inference based sensing methods when applied to an electrostatic-based trigger for non-fluorescent biological warfare threats. To enable < 1000 ACPLA detection levels of bacterial spores in real-time, these statistical ...

Through this NIST SBIR program, Tex Tech Industries is developing furniture and mattress fire blocking materials. Fire barrier methods are necessary to protect furniture and mattresses from fire. In Phase I, Tex Tech used a variety of fibers to make and evaluate fibers for fire barriers. In Phase II, Tex Tech proposed to continue to develop a fire protection barrier from textiles that can potentia ...

MCNC PROPOSES A FEASIBILITY STUDY AND EVALUATION OF THREE PROMISING APPROACHES TO THE FABRICATION OF SURFACE TEST STRUCTURES ON SILICON. SURFACE FEATURES ON THE FIRST STRUCTURE WILL BE PRODUCED BY CONTROLLABLY ETCHING THERMALLYGROWN OXIDES. FEATURES ON THE SECOND WILL BE MADE BY ETCHING PIEZOELECTRIC THIN FILMS. USING THE PIEZOELECTRIC FILM AS PART OF A CAPACITOR, STEP-HEIGHT CAN BE VARIED AND PRO ...