Award Data

A need exists for polarization interrogating and discriminating Ladar systems to detect and discriminate defilade targets. In the proposed effort, Aerius, and our partner at the University of Illinois, will apply photonic crystal technology to extend Aerius’ high power, high wall plug efficiency, Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL) results to develop a stable polarization switched VC ...

Cost effective semiconductor processing tools that enable the high-resolution nano-fabrication of low-volume electronics are needed by the DOD. The printing of ultra-fine gratings on silicon wafers using interference immersion lithography is envisaged as a first maskless process step in the fabrication of advanced application specific integrated circuits. Next generation interference immersion lit ...

Pressure gain combustion has the potential to significantly improve the specific fuel consumption for gas turbine engines by realizing a pressure rise through the combustor as opposed to a pressure drop. One drawback to this form of combustion is the cycl

Pressure gain combustion (PGC) offers means to a more efficient energy use in propulsion and power generation devices. Integrating PGC concepts in gas turbine engines often results in highly unsteady flow conditions at turbine inlet. Further, the backpres

In this Phase II proposal, the main thrust is to build a hardware MCICD prototype, and validate the FAR/FNR through real vehicle testing. By leveraging the existing LADAR based sensing platform in CMU, we expect to shorten the development cycle and reduce the overall cost. Extensive real vehicle testing is expected both in staged scenarios and in normal traffic. In this Phase II program, we also p ...

Inertial navigation systems (INS) are a critical asset to the DoD in environments where GPS is either denied or unavailable. At the heart of these systems are precision acceleration and rotation sensors. Recently, MEMS-based accelerometers have found wide

Early detection of virulent infectious pathogens is critical to blocking the devastating epidemic spread of the pathogen and the potential harm this could have on our armed forces and general populations. In Phase I, we have utilized the state-of-the-art QuantiGene 2.0 technology to establish an assay for the sensitive quantification of SARS (epidemic spread in 2001) and assessing plasma DNA level ...

NextGen Aeronautics (NextGen) and University of Southern California (USC, RI) team of experienced composite materials, structural design, and analyses personnel are responding to the opportunity to develop stochastically verified composite structural desi

Ziva Corporation in collaboration with UCSB will assess the feasibility of developing a directly modulated polarization switching laser based on the Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) geometry with a 3dB frequency of at least 10 GHz. This will be a major breakthrough in the ability to cost effectively fabricate directly modulated lasers (even in 2-D arrays) with polarization diversity ...

The development of compact, ultra-low drive voltage optical phase modulators is a critical key component for passive antenna remoting applications, a strategic area, part of a number of current and upcoming DARPA initiatives. With the development of sufficiently low V-pi modulators, passive front-ends can be constructed with a low figure even for a moderate optical pumping power. The combination o ...