Award Data

Liquid rocket engine performance can be dramatically improved by increasing the wall temperatures for operation concurrent with a reduction in the component weight. The bipropellant fuel combustion temperatures are between 3000 "approx" 3500 C. The conventional thrusters and exit nozzles made of niobium alloys have a maximum operating temperature limit of 1600 C. A regenerative cooling technolo ...

SiC has exceptionally high thermal conductivity and low linear expansion coefficient to resist thermal distortion, high elastic modulus to resist pressure and bowing distortion. It is lightweight and wear resistant. It also has excellent corrosion resistance and outstanding load bearing characteristics at elevated temperatures. Its hardness is only surpassed by diamond, CBN and boron carbide. As ...

As electronic packaging densities increase, more heat is being generated per unit area. The reliability of electronic components is, therefore, increasingly dependent on the ability to transfer heat. Current chip performance is limited in keeping up with the increased power densities, 30% of which is attributed to packaging materials. The disadvantages of current methods of fabrication of thermal ...

This Phase I project has two primary objectives. The first objective is to evaluate the feasibility of a fully ion implanted fabrication process based on the heterodimensional 2-D MESFET. The new device, the 2-D JFET, will have p+ ion implanted sidegates which laterally modulate a thin, highly doped n-type conducting channel. The 2-D JFET should have excellent high speed, low power characteristics ...

Unexpected coupling between nuclear reaction cross sections and the solid state of metal deuterides has been demonstrated in layered Pd-PdO deuterided structures. As a result, high rates of charged particle and neutron measurements have been observed through a reaction initiated by altering the chemical state of the system. Moreover, the system acts as an amplifier of fast neutrons, with a 200-to- ...

The development of a microwave curing method for resin matrix composites and jointing/bonding epoxy is proposed. This technique will take advantage of the ability of vapor-grown carbon fiber (VGCF) to absorb microwave energy with high efficiency. By adding VGCF to resin matrix composite material and epoxy, we hope that the materials can be processed by microwave irradiation in a manner that result ...

Essential Research, Inc. proposed to develop an ultra-high efficiency, dislocation-free, monolithic two-terminal, two-junction InGaP/InGaAs on Ge solar cells for space applications. The energy bandgap (Eg) values for the top and bottom cells will be 1.7 eV and 1.1 eV, respectively. These bandgaps are theoretically optimal for a two-junction tandem cell configuration. This solar cell will have a pr ...

Novel ionic self-assembled monolayer (ISAM) processes for the fabrication of advanced electronic materials and devices will be developed through this program. Revolutionary ISAM methods to create nanostructured multi-layer inorganic/organic thin-films offer major advantages over conventional manufacturing processes, since the process is simple, low-cost and environmentally friendly in that no vola ...

F&S and Virginia Tech will cooperatively develop high performance protective ionic self-assembled monolayer (ISAM) organic/inorganic coatings for space-based optical and structural components, and work with Litton to upscale practical coating manufacturing. Revolutionary ISAM methods of creating multi-layer protective nanopartwcle films offer major advantages over con-ventional coating processes, ...

Current rare earth permanent magnets have proven to be in adequate for higher temperatures (300-500_C) military and Air Force applications. Development of permanent magnetic materials which can operate in high temperature regime will enable design of simpler, more efficient magnetic systems. The More Electric Aircraft (MEA) concept pursued by the US Air Force drives this need. We propose a novel p ...