Latest Stories

Briefs
Photonics/Optics

NRL Research Physicists Explore Fiber Optic Computing Using Distributed Feedback

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) researchers have outlined a novel contribution in fiber optics computing in a paper recently published in Communications Physics Journal that brings the Navy one step closer to faster, more efficient computing technologies.

Feature Image

Articles
Semiconductors & ICs

Image Sensors and Cameras Based on Colloidal Quantum Dots for Defense Applications

This article reports on the image sensor technology and the VS20 camera product developed at Emberion. The article describes the image sensor design comprising the sensor stack based on a p-i-n photodiode implementation with PbS QDs sandwiched between thin-film hole transport (HTL) and electron transport (ETL) layers as well as the CMOS ROIC architecture and pixel front-end interfacing the photodiode stack.

Feature Image

INSIDER
Aerospace

This Avionics Computer Enables Image Data Processing, Payload Control for NASA IM-1 Mission

Aitech provided a complete avionics computer system to Intuitive Machines for the IM-1 Mission, that successfully landed on the Moon on February...

Feature Image

INSIDER
Electronics & Computers

New Video Card Enables Supersonic Vision System for NASA's X-59 Demonstrator

During a Jan. 12, 2024 rollout ceremony at Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, NASA debuted the new X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft....

Feature Image

Articles
Electronics & Computers

Certified Machine Learning-Based Avionics

Over the past few decades, aircraft automation has progressively increased. Advances in digital computing during the 1980s eliminated the need for onboard flight engineers. Avionics systems, exemplified by FADEC for engine control and Fly-By-Wire, handle lower-level functions, reducing human error.

Feature Image

Articles
Photonics/Optics

Physicists Develop a New Type of Antenna

This research and demonstration presents a simple technique for a remote Rydberg-atom-based RF sensor, which was verified for distances of up to 30 m between the passive sensing unit and the base station — currently limited by the length of the hallway used in the demonstration.

Feature Image

INSIDER
Aerospace

ATHENA Sensor Brings Generational Leap to Airborne MANPAD Protection

Since their introduction, Man-Portable Air Defense Systems – heat-seeking, shoulder-fired missiles – have been a persistent threat to U.S. Army aviation. Infrared...

Feature Image

Products
Manufacturing & Prototyping

New Products

See the new products, including the NDT 1000 inspection system, a PU-5200 certifiable display computer, RJ45 connectors, servers, and more.

Feature Image

Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Free-Space Quantum Communications in Harsh Environments

The project aims to explore the possibility of all-weather secure quantum communication using macroscopic quantum states of light.

Feature Image

Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Deep Image Prior Amplitude SAR Image Anonymization

Synthetic Aperture Radar images are a powerful tool for studying the Earth’s surface. They are radar signals generated by an imaging system mounted on a platform such as an aircraft or satellite. As the platform moves, the system emits sequentially high-power electromagnetic waves through its antenna.

Feature Image

Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Determining Optical Material Parameters With Motion in Structured Illumination

Ellipsometry measures the amplitude ratio and the phase difference between polarized light reflected from the surface of a film and determines the refractive index or thickness by fitting the experimental data to an optical model that represents an approximated sample structure.

Feature Image

Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Towards Greater Sensitivity: A Brief FTIR and Infrared-Based Cavity Ring Down Spectroscopy Comparative Study

Cavity Ring-Down spectroscopy (CRDS) is a newer IR absorption-based technique made possible by the use of tunable pulsed lasers. Rather than using a broadband (blackbody) emitter as is done with traditional IR techniques, a pulsed laser is tuned across wavelengths into an optical cavity.

Feature Image

Briefs
Imaging

Spatial Calibration for Accurate Long Distance Measurement Using Infrared Cameras

All commercially available camera systems have lenses (and internal geometries) that cannot perfectly refract light waves and refocus them onto a two-dimensional (2D) image sensor. This means that all digital images contain elements of distortion and thus are not a true representation of the real world.

Feature Image

Articles
RF & Microwave Electronics

How Laser Communications Innovation is Finally Coming of Age and Driving Innovation in Defense

Though laser technology has advantages over radio, and those advantages are growing as innovation accelerates, what is essential to realize is that they need not be in competition.

Feature Image

Articles
Imaging

Shaking Outside the Box to Advance Flight Research

A technique called Shake the Box predicts the positions of already-tracked particles and then corrects errors using image matching. The algorithms triangulate the positions of new particles in the measurement domain, enabling scientists to look at higher-particle densities with greater positional accuracy.

Feature Image

INSIDER
AR/AI

AI-Enabled Detection System Set To Replace Aging Airspace Awareness System

Execution of new fielding and funding strategies will lead to the delivery of a cutting-edge surveillance, identification, and tracking system that monitors and...

Feature Image

Application Briefs
Aerospace

Ultraviolet Spacecraft Camera

Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory is building two key flight camera systems for a NASA spacecraft that will explore the layer of the atmosphere where Earth meets space.

Feature Image

INSIDER
Defense

Teledyne FLIR to Produce 1,000 Pocket-Sized Drones for Use in Ukraine

Norway's Ministry of Defense (MOD) has placed an order with Teledyne FLIR Defense to procure Black Hornet 3 Personal Reconnaissance Systems for use in Ukraine. The...

Feature Image

INSIDER
Electronics & Computers

Euclid Space Telescope Begins Mission to Study Dark Energy and Matter

ESA’s Euclid spacecraft lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, on July 1, 2023. The successful launch marks the...

Feature Image

INSIDER
Photonics/Optics

Filtered Rayleigh Scattering Enables Laser-Optical Measurement of Turbofan Thrust

Pratt & Whitney and Virginia Tech announced a pioneering new technology for calculating thrust using lasers to enable high-fidelity measurement of key...

Feature Image

Briefs
Imaging

Automated Atmospheric Correction of Nanosatellites Using Coincident Ocean Color Radiometer Data

Researchers present a machine-learning-based method for utilizing traditional ocean-viewing satellites to perform automated atmospheric correction of nanosatellite data.

Feature Image

Briefs
Communications

Context-Aware Visual Search Using a Pan-Tilt-Zoom Camera

Introduced here is the formal PTZ Search Problem. In the PTZSP, a fixed PTZ camera starts at a given PTZ position and must move through the continuous 3D space of PTZ coordinates to detect as many objects of interest as possible as quickly as possible.

Feature Image

Articles
Imaging

3D Scanning Provides Key Weapon for Aerospace and Defense Manufacturing

While AI, AR, and IIoT are increasing production efficiency and time to market, 3D scanning still has not been exploited by aerospace and defense manufacturers for its full potential to do the same.

Feature Image

Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Electro-Optic Materials Research

Here, a summary of the main lines of effort for the Electro-Optics Materials Research program including its goals and major accomplishments of the past five years.

Feature Image

Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Overcoming Performance Limitations of Distributed Brillouin Fiber Laser Sensors

Distributed fiber sensors are a powerful tool for structural health monitoring and environmental sensing due to their ability to remotely monitor the strain at 1,000s of locations using low-cost optical fiber.

Feature Image

Articles
Imaging

High-Speed Midwave Infrared Cameras Enable Military Test Range Tracking System

Infrared thermography consists of three specific wavelengths, including short-wave infrared, midwave infrared, and long wavelength infrared.

Feature Image

Articles
Aerospace

Using an Open Architecture Approach to Military Avionics

The system was developed to reduce the high number of controlled flight into terrain accidents in the southeast region of Alaska.

Feature Image

INSIDER
Software

New HPC4EI Project to Create 'Digital Twin' Models for Aerospace Manufacturing

A partnership involving Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory aimed at developing “digital twins” for producing aerospace components is one of six new...

Feature Image

INSIDER
Imaging

Ball Aerospace Starts Final Assembly of Space Force's Next Generation Operational Weather Satellite

Ball Aerospace completed the spacecraft bus for the Weather System Follow-on-Microwave (WSF-M) satellite, the U.S. Space Force's...

Feature Image