Award Data

Higher efficiency solar cells are needed to reduce mass, volume, and cost of DoD space missions. However, to achieve higher efficiency and radiation hardness of the best to date multi-junction photovoltaic (PV) devices, several challenges must be addressed. This project aims to develop: 1) Quantum Well (QW)-based multi-junction cell that exhibits enhanced efficiency, and 2) Radiation-hardened PV c ...

High power microwave (HPM) sources have been developed over the past few decades for many important DoD missions ranging from electronic warfare to intentional EMI to impulse radar. In this proposal, we describe an integrated program that seeks to develop innovative solutions based on mesoband source and antenna technology to improve the effectiveness of HPM-based BMD systems. Our research will ...

Hypersonic missile defense systems are being designed to reach global threats. During flight, external surfaces are predicted to reach temperatures in excess of 2200C. As a result, innovative, high performance thermal protection systems (TPS) are of great demand. Among ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTC), it is well known that ZrB2- and HfB2-based materials have high melting temperatures and ...

The leakage of electromagnetic (EM) energy into air vehicles, and particularly into ordnance, poses a hazard that requires careful evaluation. Under current guidelines, such evaluations are primarily to be carried out through extensive testing of items under possible field conditions, a process that can be both time-consuming and costly. The scope of this STTR Phase I activity is to implement a h ...

Military operations in urban areas have increasingly become a key capability for our armed forces. The increased risk of use of the unique nature of large urban environments by hostile forces to their tactical advantage, and related civilian casualties, requires updated procedures, comprehensive training, and constantly evolving capabilities. Current training technologies fail to address the signi ...

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 ...

Toyon Research Corporation and Brown University propose to develop a complete real-time software solution which ingests multi-sensor ISR imagery and produces geo-specific, realistic simulated imagery for flight simulators and training devices. The technical innovations enabling this solution include fully automated 3-d model construction from sequences of ISR video frames, and geo-registration of ...

Military shelters currently use electrically driven Environmental Control Units (ECUs) to provide cooling for the air inside the shelter. The ECU is vapor compression cycle powered by a diesel generator, operating on JP-8 fuel. Other than fueling jet engines, the largest drain on U.S. military fuel supplies in current operations comes from running generators at forward operating bases. In hot cli ...

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 ...

A military without good leadership is a mob. Identification, preparation, guidance and mentoring of potential leaders are critical functions across all services. Leadership training and support can be substantially improved by refinement of theories and models on what constitutes good leadership, and what enables individual to be effective leaders. DoD needs better models of how leaders learn, ...