Award Data

This proposed effort will focus on the design, development and analysis of a high voltage BST based varactor for tunable filter applications. The high voltage BST varactor will enable wide tuning range filters with high quality factor and increased power handling and linearity. Advanced filter design techniques will also be leveraged to increase the effective quality factor of the filter resonator ...

The Air Force needs tunable laser systems with high average power in the mid-infrared region of the spectrum for military applications including defense against heat-seeking missiles.Currently-fieldedlaser systems, based on nonlinear frequency conversion in periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN), have limited optical power at wavelengths between 4 m and 5 m because of intrinsic absorption in th ...

Nutronics, Inc. and Montana State University propose to develop an approach for non-linear control of hysteresis and incorporate (if necessary) integrated Multi-Input-Multi-Output real time control with this capability.Our control systems already include a proven high speed real time control approach to determine the optimal set of actuator commands that satisfy inter-actuator stroke limitations.O ...

Adaptive optics (AO) system performance is hindered by the mechanical limits of the deformable mirror (DM), namely stroke limits, interactuator stroke limits, and mechanical resonance.The nature of the multi-in multi-out (MIMO) control system does not lend itself well to notch filters to combat the mechanical resonances, and the stroke limits introduce non-linearities to the system.The traditional ...

This SBIR project will develop and demonstrate efficient electron emitter based on carbon nanotubecopper (CNT-Cu) composite for passive discharging of spacecraft in plasma environment. A spacecraft moving through harsh plasma environment collects electrons, which leads to the spacecraft charging up to several kilovolts. High voltage between different parts of the spacecraft can ignite arcing, whic ...

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes the development of a composite laminate cathode coating based largely on consumer off the shelf (COTS) industrial materials functionalized to possess a low work function, negative electron affinity surface. The cathode coating is applicable to any surface of a spacecraft, regardless of shape or material, and allows passive one wire operation for spacecraft cha ...

Oceanit proposes to develop a system to characterize weak electromagnetic fields for the investigation of the effect of both thermal and non-thermal RF/magnetic fields on biological material, and to detect resulting biological impact of the energy deposited.

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) can be reliably used to perform on-line health monitoring of any type of structures with minimal human involvement. Current SHM systems can perform the functions required but are heavy, bulky and difficult to integrate with the structure to provide on-board real-time structural integrity assessment. Embedding of currently available sensors and electronics used by ...

The Air Force is seeking solutions for a sun-tracking millimeter wave radiometer to measure atmospheric attenuation over a high dynamic range. The V- and W- bands have rarely been used for space communications and telemetry applications, but rapidly increasing government and commercial bandwidth needs will require future solutions within these bands. Our team, comprised of experienced scientists, ...

This Phase I STTR proposal describes the development of a dual frequency millimeter-wave sun tracking radiometer designed to measure total atmospheric attenuation from ground level to the top of the atmosphere.The suns brightness temperature, which is on the order of 10,000K at millimeter-wavelengths, provides an ideal background reference allowing high dynamic range estimation of total atmospheri ...