Award Data

This SBIR project will address the combined effects of aerothermal heating, rain erosion, and moisture and gas diffusion on the degradation of interceptor missile radomes designed for hypersonic travel. A novel method of protecting hypersonic interceptor missiles from the rigors experienced at velocities several times the speed of sound is proposed. The technology is based on the conversion of a ...

Next generation ballistic missile warning, defense and surveillance systems need to anticipate, through modeling and simulation, the background radiation of the battlespace environment, including geometries that intercept the ocean background. This objective requires prior knowledge of the environmental radiance conditions for development of optimal sensors and detection approaches. Much work has ...

We propose novel, more compact and inexpensive active sensors designed to operate interactively with passive IR seekers to provide enhanced performance in a number of important missile defense scenarios. We have identified a new approach to laser radar (ladar) design that exploits emerging monolithic laser concepts to produce a highly integrated, easily manufactured ladar components designed for ...

The development of Libration Management System’s (Libration Systems) SGLS compatible mobile ground station will allow for a low cost solution to support micro and small satellite missions operations, provide 3-D tracking of spacecraft, allow for in-field direct communication to a satellite using DoD approved waveforms, and to allow fusion of multiple data links (K and S/L bands) for these satell ...

NanoSonic has developed Shape Memory Metal Rubber™ (SM-MR) skins that exhibit reconfigurable and durable RF properties and can be repeatedly and severely morphed without loss of EMI shielding (-88dB). Recently, it was found that SM-MR exhibits greater gamma ray attenuation relative to commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) radiation shielding materials, and does not emit harmful secondary radiation un ...

This Phase I project has two primary objectives. The first objective is to evaluate the feasibility of a fully ion implanted fabrication process based on the heterodimensional 2-D MESFET. The new device, the 2-D JFET, will have p+ ion implanted sidegates which laterally modulate a thin, highly doped n-type conducting channel. The 2-D JFET should have excellent high speed, low power characteristics ...

Novel ionic self-assembled monolayer (ISAM) processes for the fabrication of advanced electronic materials and devices will be developed through this program. Revolutionary ISAM methods to create nanostructured multi-layer inorganic/organic thin-films offer major advantages over conventional manufacturing processes, since the process is simple, low-cost and environmentally friendly in that no vola ...

F&S and Virginia Tech will cooperatively develop high performance protective ionic self-assembled monolayer (ISAM) organic/inorganic coatings for space-based optical and structural components, and work with Litton to upscale practical coating manufacturing. Revolutionary ISAM methods of creating multi-layer protective nanopartwcle films offer major advantages over con-ventional coating processes, ...

We propose to design and fabricate an adaptive beam expander that can be switched between two magnifications. Specifically, the beam expander provides diffraction-limited performance for laser radar beams with diameters of 1 mm and 3 mm. The adaptive beam expander is lightweight, and it has no moving parts. Because the beam expander is an afocal system, it operates on both outgoing and incoming be ...

Aluminum nitride is as an ideal thermal management material since it has a very high thermal conductivity and its electrical resistivity is comparable to that of ceramic insulators. Aluminum nitride has thermal conductivity five times greater than alumina and has mechanical strength twice that of alumina and beryllium oxide. The current methods of synthesizing and consolidating aluminum nitride re ...