Latest Stories

Tech Transfer Reports
Software

Scheduling Software Enables On-Time Aircraft Deliveries

Building next-generation aircraft may be a daunting task logistically, but using new software developed with Missile Defense Agency (MDA) funding could save manufacturers time, cost, and...

Feature Image

Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

Demodulating Over-the-Air Communications

Today, modern radio designs have made a predominant shift to the software-defined radio architecture. From cellular handsets to military communications devices, the flexibility to use multiple wireless...

Feature Image

Application Briefs
RF & Microwave Electronics

High-Cycle Life Testing of RF MEMS Switches

MEMS switch technology has many potential benefits over conventional electronic devices for switching microwave and millimeter-wave signals. MEMS switches possess very low insertion loss, miniscule...

Feature Image

Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

Synthetic Aperture Radar Image Recognition

Synthetic radar image recognition and classification are areas of interest for both the military and civilian communities. These tasks have significance in automatic target recognition, air traffic...

Feature Image

Articles
Aerospace

Middleware Offers Integration Framework for Dynamic UAV Applications

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) like the MQ-1 Predator have excelled in the theaters of war in which they have been deployed. However, the ability of those controlling the UAV...

Feature Image

Articles
Aerospace

Interaction Methods for Virtual Reality Applications

The potential of Virtual Reality (VR) technology has not been fully realized because the user interfaces are not designed to effectively support the user. One of the most critical interface...

Feature Image

Tech Transfer Reports

Imaging System Analyzes Crop Health

Farmers could soon reduce water, energy, and labor costs by using imaging technology that analyzes crop health. Opto-Knowledge Systems, Inc. (OKSI) of Torrance, CA has developed modeling and simulation...

Feature Image

Briefs
Sensors/Data Acquisition

Microfabrication and Testing of a Thermoelectric Device for Generating Mobile Electrical Power

Several attractive features of thermo-electric (TE) technology include no moving parts, light weight, modularity, covertness, silence, high power...

Feature Image

Briefs
Physical Sciences

Detector Module for Testing Silicon Carbide Semiconductor Devices

Long-term stress testing of silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductor devices is required to determine suitability for power electronics applications. During testing, preventable...

Feature Image

Briefs
Electronics & Computers

Automated Data Acquisition for a Prognostics and Diagnostics Health Monitoring System

A highly flexible automated prognostics and diagnostics sensor module (PDSM) prototype is presently under development to be incorporated for data acquisition...

Feature Image

Briefs
Materials

Wettability Tests of Polymer Films and Fabrics

High-strength polymer materials are useful components in many multifunctional materials applications. However, because of low reactivity, their use is inhibited in many processing techniques....

Feature Image

Briefs
Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Using a Steering Shaping Function to Improve Human Performance in By-Wire Vehicles

Currently, there is a performance issue regarding vehicle control at higher speeds for some indirect-vision, by-wire military vehicles; that is, those vehicles...

Feature Image

Briefs
Manufacturing & Prototyping

Manufacturing Cylindrical Parts Using Deep Draw Technology

In applications where product performance is mission critical, commercial, military, and aerospace companies require technology to manufacture deep- drawn cylindrical product...

Feature Image

Briefs
Physical Sciences

Advanced Lithium Ion Systems for Military Vehicles

The higher energy and power density of Li-Ion battery technology offers a significant reduction in the weight and volume for hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) battery systems compared to lead acid and nickel metal hydride technologies. Saft’s High Power Li-ion battery technology has demonstrated...

Briefs
Photonics/Optics

MEMS-Based Optical Limiter

Protecting optical sensors and detectors against excessive input signals is not only important for dealing with unintentional overloads, but also central for protecting sensors against intentional high-intensity...

Feature Image

Briefs
Physical Sciences

Reducing Thicknesses of PbZrₓTi₁₋ₓO₃ Films in Capacitors

A document describes experiments performed to determine effects of reducing the thicknesses of films of lead zirconate titanate (PbZrxTi1-xO3, wherein 0<x<1) used as ferroelectric dielectric layers in some capacitors. The fabrication of specimen capacitors for the experiments...

Briefs
Software

Virtual Network Computing Software for DataWall Remote Display

VNC (Virtual Network Computing) is open-source software that allows a user to view and interact with a remote computer (known as the VNC server) from a local computer (known as the VNC viewer/client). VNC is used to display multiple remote desktops on the DataWall. The original VNC...

Briefs
Software

Software Suite for a Large Defense System

A suite of software tools was developed to enable networks composed of many hundreds, thousands, or even millions of commodity computers to protect themselves against a variety of security threats. These tools include Anagram, a content-based anomaly detection (AD) tool; ASSURE, which provides automatic...

Application Briefs
RF & Microwave Electronics

New All-Digital RF Technology Simplifies the Radio Environment

The concept of a software or “cognitive” radio has been around for about 20 years, and has progressed to the point where open-source software code is available. A cognitive radio is “smart” in the sense that it is continuously aware of changes in radio frequency (RF) spectrum...

Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

Wireless Sensor Network with Geolocation

Maintaining situational/positional awareness in indoor and urban environments is difficult because buildings, walls, and other obstacles obstruct vision and RF propagation. Propagation channels are...

Feature Image

Articles
Aerospace

2D Laser Profiling Scanner for Detecting Targets

The Radiometric Sensor Development and Applications Team of the Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate (SEDD) at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) has developed a 2D laser profiling...

Feature Image

Briefs
Electronics & Computers

Heterogeneous System-on-a-Chip for Self-Powered Wireless Sensor Networks

A new dimension of system architecture design is emerging where hundreds to thousands of ultralight (

Briefs
Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Sensing for Controls and Propulsion Health Management in Turbine Engines

Advances in engine performance and reliability require sensor components that operate reliably under extreme engine operating conditions (e.g., takeoff, max thrust) and in...

Feature Image

Briefs
Sensors/Data Acquisition

Tightly Coupled INS, GPS, and Imaging Sensors for Precision Geolocation

To address the issue of poor georegistration performance for small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), navigation and target-location accuracy improvements achievable by tightly integrating an image-based feature-tracking algorithm with Global Positioning System (GPS) and a...

Briefs
Manufacturing & Prototyping

Fabricating Biologically Inspired Artificial Haircell Sensors

As electronics packaging and equipment have decreased in size and weight, so have the potential dimensions of unmanned aircraft. Specifically, a classification of micro air vehicles...

Feature Image

Briefs
Electronics & Computers

Polypeptide-Based Molecular Electronics

Polypeptide supramolecules that will self assemble from solution and will form molecular wires that exploit quantum mechanical transport mechanisms can enable the formation of molecular devices such as...

Feature Image

Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Photon-Counting Chirped Amplitude Modulation Ladar

This work is a follow-on to an effort to develop a method using Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode (GM-APD) photon-counting detectors in the U.S. Army Research Laboratory’s chirped amplitude...

Feature Image