Award Data

Sensors based on chip-scale atomic devices (CSADs) offer portability, manufacturability, and high performance for precision navigation and timing (PNT) missions. Key systems for PNT including atom interferometric gyroscopes (AIG) and atomic clocks. Ongoing advances and innovations in photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are directly relevant to CSADs. Different material bases have been used in PICs ...

Assess the feasibility of a novel technology which automatically generates human-understandable explanations of an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm’s decisions – for example, a deep neural network’s (DNN’s) classification decisions. Our technology, called EMERALD (Explainable Machine Reasoning through the Application of Linked Data), is designed to improve trust a ...

A growing number of electronic applications within the Air Force, such as devices for power conditioning and distribution, RF power amplification, and high power lasers have been identified for increased heat transfer requirements to maintain operational temperatures at acceptable levels while increasing the performance through higher power. However, this same target research that requires increas ...

Quantum computer technology is so critical and strategic that the Air Force Research Laboratory is itself working on a quantum bit focused on the trapped ytterbium (Yb+) ion. The current technology based on entangling electrons, photons, or ions are challenging to put together in multiple qubits. To make a qubit stable, it is essential to protect it from outside interferences that can disrupt the ...

The proliferation and capabilities of hobbyist off-the-shelf drone systems poses a direct and immediate threat to U.S. national security. This proposal is a cUAS system to track unwanted UAS in the vicinity using stealthy radars that are AJ. The project will start with an understanding of customer needs and how we can adapt our proposal to best meet the needs of the Air Force.

Exosonic is developing a quiet Mach 1.8, 4500 nmi range supersonic civil aircraft that uses aerodynamic shaping techniques to mute its sonic boom. Exosonic is teamed up with Stanford University Prof. Juan Alonso's Aerospace Design Lab to apply the lab's low boom shape optimization tools to design this aircraft to meet future low-boom regulatory standards. The aircraft's primary customers are comme ...

hazardous chemicals such as JP8, chromium, and byproducts of led-free frangible ammunition and to hazardous environments. Of the many dangers Airmen face, the hypoxia-like unexplained physiological events pilots face are some of the most dangerous and elusive. Current wearable sensors cannot decouple complex, interdependent in vivo response. We propose to develop (design, fabricate, test, and demo ...

Virtual EM and Case Western Reserve University are teaming to propose a standoff cardiopulmonary sensing technology to aid remote monitoring of airman and others ' physiological state of health both in the field and in the office environments. While the pulmonary sensing unit could be operated meters away, the cardio signals are picked up in closer proximity to the body.

Epirus presents a high powered microwave source that leverages ultra high power density solid state materials, called Leonidas, to meet all of the government’s objectives for the vehicle stop and vessel stop mission. The Leonidas unit has already achieved over 10 kW of effective radiated power (ERP) in laboratory tests using software definable solid state technology and we show how this scales t ...

Vescent Photonics and MIT Lincoln Labs (MIT-LL) propose to develop a quantum-based vector magnetometer with low size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP+C) for Navy applications. The proposed system will rely on probing magnetically-sensitive, atomic-like transitions of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond to provide stable, high-bandwidth readout of the vector magnetic field with sub-picotesla sen ...