Award Data

"Busek's tandem Hall thruster can deliver precisely controllable, repetitive or single impulse bits of arbitrary magnitude, the latter dictated by the duration of the discharge pulse. To fully capitalize on the pulsed operation of a Hall thruster requiresa cathode capable of rapid starting to minimize the time from the command for thrust to the time the discharge pulse can be initiated. The most ...

"The development of a multi-functional system for release or jettisoning of structures on launch vehicles and spacecraft is proposed. The system acts as both a release mechanism and as a structural component of an assembly prior to release. The primaryinnovation is the use of a high-strength adhesive, recently developed at EIC Laboratories, that is rapidly disbonded from a metallic surface by the ...

"Advanced seeker systems for endo- and exo-atmospheric applications will utilize infrared and visible signature of ballistic threats in addition to LADAR ranging and imaging information for improved identification, discrimination and tracking. This futurecapability requires diffraction limited near visible performance for the optical system, while still maintaining the low cost production capabil ...

"Physical Sciences Inc. proposes the fabrication of novel composite cathode materials for lithium ion batteries based on vanadium pentoxide and conducting polymers. These composite electrodes are expected to utilize the polyvalent intercalation capabilitiesof V2O5, allowing access to all four of the available valence states in the active material. Currently, the high capacity available in V2O5 can ...

"This proposal describes an all-optical 32x32 low-loss cross-connect switch based on periodically-poled gratings in an electro-optic waveguide substrate. The gratings are arranged between parallel waveguide channels and serve to produce coupling of thedesired wavelength from a given input channel to the desired output channel. Because these gratings are produced electro-optically, they may be swit ...

"In this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I proposal, development of fully integrated stationary wave-guided NxN optical router switches is proposed. The new witches over perform the MEMs and conventional liquid crystal switch technologies. Madefrom the revolutionary liquid crystal based single layer switchable mirror, this new switch features low insertion loss, low cross-talk, low pola ...

"BMDO has a need for advanced propulsion and aerodynamic control technologies and systems that significantly reduce overall vehicle mass to permit substantial diverts and agile maneuvering in order to enhance the performance of missile interceptors. Acontrol system is proposed that utilizes durable fins, that are deployed and controlled using low-mass, solid-state, high-speed piezoceramic actuator ...

"Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) possess a unique combination of high strength, high modulus and high elongation. Before the benefits of these materials can be realized in BMD structural applications, SWNT fillers must be made compatible with thethermosetting resins traditionally used in these applications so that load transfer into the nanotubes can be accomplished. In the proposed progr ...

"Spire proposes to develop high-efficiency filterless silicon-based multi-color photodiode arrays suitable for spectroscopy and imaging applications in the UV to near-IR bands. The innovation, patented by Spire, is the use of a thin filmsilicon-on-insulator (SOI) structure in the active device region, which enables fabrication of wavelength-selective photodiodes. In these devices, the long cut-o ...

"Target recognition and tracking requires the solution of several hard problems. A target signature must be identified in sensor data, this data must be associated with prior information on the target, and the association must be used to gain understandingof the target. In the presence of countermeasures and clutter, each of these components is computationally onerous even when using suboptimal ...