Award Data

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will determine the feasibility and suitability of using a plasma enhanced hot filament chemical vapor deposition (PEHFCVD) technology as a manufacturing platform for the large scale deposition of ultra nanocrystalline diamond (UNCD) thin films. UNCD is synthesized today using a unique argon-rich plasma chemistry via microwave plasma ch ...

Processing of vegetable oils is complicated by the need to remove free fatty acids. Washing with caustic is a viable process but is inefficient because fatty acids and caustic form soaps which cause emulsions. These emulsions cause a yield loss of 1-1.5% or 160-240 Million lb/yr of soybean oil alone. The purpose of this project is to improve yields and energy efficiency in vegetable oil processing ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will study effective models for carrying out assessments employing challenging puzzle-like questions that incorporate distractor analyses in which meaning is assigned to complex responses. Such distractor analyses apply where there is the possibility that the test taker can give alternative correct, partially correct, and incorrect an ...

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project aims to investigate synthetic approaches to develop specialty glass microspheres based on aluminum phosphate compositions. The proposed approach is targeted toward synthesis of high emissivity hollow microspheres that are stable to elevated temperatures, which offer opportunities for their use in thermal protection/insulation systems. This is ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I research proposes to study the feasibility of automatic methods for analysis of counterexamples from formal verification of pipelined and superscalar microprocessors modeled at a high level of abstraction. Aries Design Automation has developed an automatic tool flow for formal verification of such designs that scales for very complex and elabo ...

Potentially insufficient corn stock supplies make necessary the development of industrial yeast strains for converting alternative cellulosic materials for renewable fuel sources. This project investigates the feasibility and develops the capability of using Holographic Optical Trapping as an automated manipulation tool for yeast cells, to characterize and evaluate yeast strains.

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project develops an automated compiler to translate software binary and assembly code of a general-purpose DSP processor into Register Transfer Level VHDL and Verilog code for subsequent mapping onto FPGA hardware. Recent advances in embedded communications and control systems for personal and vehicular environments are driving efficient hardw ...

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project aims to develop a sensitive and cost effective colorimetric bioassay for perchlorate determination in environmental samples. Perchlorate is known to affect thyroid hormone production potentially leading to neuropsychological development deficiencies. The technique proposed will take advantage of the reported ability of the nitrate reductase e ...

Rapid, exploratory diagnostics are needed for the identification of bacteria in complex food and water samples. This project focuses on development of a novel, rapid system for molecular identification of bacteria.

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project investigates a new type of electronically tunable RF passives for reconfigurable multi-band and multi-function RF front end radio systems. The front-end passives including antennas, filters, baluns, and transmission line inductors and capacitors are printed on an engineered metalized material (meta-materials) made on common printed-cir ...