Award Data

Free Space Optical (FSO) communication systems provide many benefits for satellite communications, including high data rates and low Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) compared to traditional RF communication systems.Additionally, FSO systems operate without RF emissions and are inherently immune to RF interference and jamming.The narrow optical beams and small Field-of-View of the optical receivers al ...

The objective of this program is to develop, demonstrate and implement a low reconfigurable, reliable Free Space Optical (FSO) link supporting high bandwidth communications for satellite to satellite or satellite to ground communication. The FSO Transceiver (Transmitter/Receiver) to be implemented will be small Size, Weight, Power and Cost (SWaP-C) such that it can be easily carried by compact spa ...

Target detection and recognition is a challenging problem because of changes in appearance, viewing direction, occlusion and other covariates. Systems that can accurately and efficiently detect and track objects can provide several benefits in surveillance, monitoring and other applications. As part of this effort, we propose to develop a robust learning-based approach to detect, track and recogni ...

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 ...

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 ...

A diagnostic is proposed for obtaining instantaneous three-dimensional volumetric distributions of density in a flow field at velocities ranging from subsonic to supersonic. Multiple Sheet Filtered Rayleigh Scattering (MSFRS) will be developed, which enables a series of two-dimensional images to be rapidly obtained making up a volumetric image while suppressing background scattering from wind tunn ...

Current scene projection hardware is challenged to simultaneously meet the requirements for high peak temperature (> 2000K), high resolution (2Kx2K), response time < 4 ms, cryogenic and temporally uniform photon flux. MEMS, Resistor arrays, liquid crystals, and photonic crystals all suffer in one or more areas. MEMS suffer from flicker and low dynamic range. Resistor arrays suffer from low frame r ...

Advanced imaging techniques and, novel intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) methods are of great interest to the U.S. Air Force and other Department of Defense (DoD) agencies, but associated high-costs of III-V and II-VI MWIR and SWIR materials prohibit their practical widespread deployment and integration with other optoelectronic devices. In this program, we intend to investigate ...

A Battlefield Airman (BA) has one of the most challenging positions in the military. BA personnel are tasked with the dual roles of being warfighters as well as Combat Controllers, Pararescuemen, Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) members and Special Operations Weather Technicians often while behind enemy lines. These complex duties require high fidelity training. In some cases, such as Pararescuem ...