Wholly Aromatic Ether-Imides as n-Type Semiconductors

Some wholly aromatic ether-imides consisting of rod-shaped, relatively-low-mass molecules that can form liquid crystals have been investigated for potential utility as electron-donor-type...

Nuclear Reactor Cooling Valve Design Optimized With FEA

Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., a subcontractor of Societatea Nationala Nucleoelectrica S.A. (SNN) of Romania, contracted Badger Meter to model, test, and produce a set of precision...

Pulse-Flow Microencapsulation System

The pulse-flow microencapsulation system (PFMS) is an automated system that continuously produces a stream of liquid-filled microcapsules for delivery of therapeutic agents to target tissues. Prior...

Surface Acoustic Wave Sensor for Viscosity Measurement

Viscosity is a measure of the resistance of a liquid to flow, and is an important measurement requirement in industrial process control and OEM applications. Viscosity describes the...

Alignment Cube With One Diffractive Face

An enhanced alignment cube has been invented for use in a confined setting (e.g., a cryogenic chamber) in which optical access may be limited to a single line of sight. Whereas traditional...

Achieving Positioning Accuracy Goals

The task of choosing the correct mix of motion control components for a successful servo positioning system involves a combination of art, science, and experience. It also includes a little luck, but luck...

CNC Wood Routers Use Drive for Precision Control

The woodworking industry is as advanced and under pressure to deliver high-quality goods quickly as any. One of the most versatile tools devised to quicken production with flat panels of wood...

Drive Utilized in Filament Respooler

Optical fiber, now the mainstay of telecommunications as well as sensor, illumination, and imaging systems, is made by first pulling a large-diameter preform into a long, filimentous fiber. Then divided...

Guide Used in Leak-Testing System or Plastic Bottles

Container leaks can range from mildly annoying to potentially dangerous. To avoid faulty containers from ever leaving the production line, producers have installed testing devices as part...

Automatic Locking of Laser Frequency to an Absorption Peak

An electronic system adjusts the frequency of a tunable laser, eventually locking the frequency to a peak in the optical absorption spectrum of a gas (or of a Fabry-Perot cavity that...

Brushless Motor Drive

Intelligent Motion Systems (IMS, Marlborough, CT) released the MDrivePlus motion control system for brushless motor applications. The unit features 20 microstep resolutions to 51,200 (full step, degrees, metric, and arc...

Noise Source for Calibrating a Microwave

A correlated-noise source has been developed for use in calibrating an airborne or spaceborne Earth-observing correlation microwave polarimeter that operates in a pass band that includes a nominal...

Motor Drive Module

International Rectifier (El Segundo, CA) released the IRMCT3UF1 fully integrated high-reliability hybrid motor control modules enabling digital, sensor-free vector control of permanent magnet motors. The module combines...

Self-Passivating Lithium/Solid Electrolyte/Iodine Cells

Robust lithium/solid electrolyte/iodine electrochemical cells that offer significant advantages over commercial lithium/ iodine cells have been developed. At room temperature, these...

Hub-Fastening Gears

Sterling Instrument (New Hyde Park, NY) released the “S1268Z-...M” series of 84 combination aluminum-acetal gears. Coming in metric and imperial sizes, the gears are 20° pressure angled, AGMA Q10 and ISO Class 7....

Hybrid Deployable Foam Antennas and Reflectors

Hybrid deployable radio antennas and reflectors of a proposed type would feature rigid narrower apertures plus wider adjoining apertures comprising reflective surfaces supported by...

Translation Stage

Physik Instrumente (PI) LP (Auburn, MA) introduced the P-652 piezoelectric linear-motor driven translation stage, measuring 9.0 × 6.5 × 2.4 mm. Consisting of four parts (ultrasonic piezoelectric resonator, two lateral...

Gesture-Controlled Interfaces for Self-Service Machines

Gesture-controlled interfaces are software-driven systems that facilitate device control by translating visual hand and body signals into commands. Such interfaces could be especially...

Bi-Directional Motors

Oilgear Co. (Milwaukee, WI) introduced the MFW and MVW fixed and variable displacement bi-directional high-speed motors, offered in two frame sizes and four displacements. Features are: cylinder mounted in polymerous...

Domed, 40-cm-Diameter Ion Optics for an Ion Thruster

Improved accelerator and screen grids for an ion accelerator have been designed and tested in a continuing effort to increase the sustainable power and thrust at the high end of the...

Mini Servo Actuator

Harmonic Drive (Peabody, MA) introduced the FHA Mini Actuator, a hollow shaft, brushless servo actuator. The unit is a combination brushless DC servomotor and an encoder, with a through-bore up to 14 mm in diameter. The...

Digital Motion Controller

The EPOS P 24/5 from Maxon Precision Motors (Fall River, MA) is a programmable digital motion controller capable of position, velocity, and current mode. The unit’s supply voltage is 11 – 24 V DC; the controller...

3-Phase Motor Control

TURCK (Minneapolis, MN) released the BL20 xStart motor starter modules that allow 3-phase motor control to be connected to the same rack as standard I/O. The units may be mounted next to other BL20 modules, allowing...

Roller Bearings

AST Bearings (Montville, NJ) introduced the High Carbon Chromium Steel Tapered Roller Bearings line, comprised of the inner and outer rings, tapered rollers, and a cage (roller retainer). The rings and rollers carry the load;...

Magnetic Encoders

Baumer Electric (Southington, CT) released four magnetic encoders for harsh or contaminated environments. The devices come in diameters of 30 and 40 mm. The EcoMag 30 and EcoMag 40 are incremental encoders, offering...

Corrosion-Resistant Bearings

MRC Bearing Services (Kulpsville, PA) released the custom-engineered “HNCR” steel bearings made from high-nitrogen corrosion-resistant steel. The bearings display a hardness of 58 HRC, and have an extended...

DIN Motion Controller

From Trio Motion Technology (Pittsburgh, PA), the MC302X DIN rail-mounted motion controller features two axes; the first can be configured in software for servo (with encoder feedback) or high-speed stepper control. The...

Ball Splines

Released from THK (Schaumburg, IL), the SLS/SLF Ball Splines feature caged technology, allowing for smooth motion. A synthetic resin cage cradles each ball, separating it from others, while spaces between rolling elements retain...

Linear Actuator

From Exlar (Chanhassen, MN), the Tritex™ Series of electric linear actuators, combining a brushless servomotor, servo amplifier, and position control in one unit. Up to 500 watts of continuous power can be applied to the...

Ethernet Controller

Galil Motion Control (Rocklin, CA) released the DMC-40x0 Ethernet/RS232 controller family as part of the Accelera line, coming in 1- to 8-axis formats. Accepting encoder input frequencies up to 22 MHz and providing servo...

DC Gearmotor

Midwest Motion Products (Watertown, MN) released the Model No. MMP-S28-400A GP81-046 BR-015 DC gearmotor. The device accepts any 24 V DC source. The gearmotor is reversible; the output is rated for 61 Nm continuous torque at 43...

IP Engine Helps NASA Crew Visually Inspect Shuttle's Heat Tiles

iPORT PT1000-CL IP Engine
Pleora Technologies
Ottawa, ON, Canada
613-270-0625
www.pleora.com

Position Sensors Help Cassini Mission Provide Clues to Planetary Formation

Potentiometers
Novotechnik U.S.
Southborough, MA
508-485-2244
www.novotechnik.com

p1411A RF vector signal generator

PrecisionWave Corp., Colorado Springs, CO, has introduced the p1411A RF vector signal generator that includes a spectrum analyzer display and an internal IQ waveform generator.

It is available in both...

Dr. Michael Bicay, Science Director, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

Having served at both JPL as a member of the Project Office science staff for the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech where he...

30 Years of Computer Technology

Throughout 2006, we’ve been celebrating the 30th anniversary of NASA Tech Briefs with special feature articles highlighting the past 30 years of a different technology category each month. This month, we...

Flexible Absorbent Binder

The Flexible Absorbent Binder (FAB), is a liquid coating that, once dry, forms a cross-linked, water absorbent hydrogel film on many substrates. The coating binds glass, metal, plastics, cellulose, and...

Multi-Fabric Switching Enables New Architectures for Military Systems

With multiple switched interconnects gaining momentum in the embedded space, selecting just one to address a wide range of military systems requirements is not...

Multicores Affect Algorithm Choices

Design engineers soon will need to bridge the growing gap between hardware reality and software capabilities in the high-performance computing (HPC) realm as the use of multicore microprocessors grows. If...

Multi-Processor VME64x Computer With PowerPC Processor

Themis Computer (Fremont, CA) has introduced the TPPC64 multi-processor VME64x computer using IBM's 970FX Superscalar RISC processor. It can be configured with one or two 1.8-GHz PowerPC...

High-Speed Ethernet Communication for PLCs

AutomationDirect (Cumming, GA) has released the H4-ECOM100 Ethernet communication module for the DirectLOGIC DL405 PLC. The H4-ECOM100 can be inserted into any I/O slot of any local DL405 base,...

Ultraminiature Microswitches Offer Long Life Ratings

ALCOSWITCH ultraminiature SPDT microswitches from Tyco Electronics (Harrisburg, PA) have extended cycle life ratings up to 1 million cycles. The PC-mount product is available with straight...

FPGA-Based Carrier Card Reduces Processor Board Count

TEK Microsystems (Chelmsford, MA) has announced the PowerRACE® 3A carrier card combining highdensity FPGAs, an onboard switched fabric, PowerPCs, and PMC interfaces. High-speed I/O...

PowerPC Single-Board Computer for Mil/Aero Applications

Cornet Technology Communications (Springfield, VA) has introduced the Celero CVME-7448S PowerPC single-board computer available for the commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)...

Load Switches Offer Thermal & Packaging Performance for Portables

Fairchild Semiconductor (South Portland, ME) offers the FPF100x family of IntelliMAX™ load switches featuring WL-CSP or MLP packaging, integration (slewrate control, ESD...

Gigabit Ethernet Test Solution for Compact Platform

EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering (Quebec City, Canada) has launched the FTB-8510 Packet Blazer Ethernet test module for the FTP-200 Compact Platform. The combination of the Ethernet test...

Embedded Software Verification for Early Device Testing

S2 Technologies (San Diego, CA) has released the STRIDE 2.0 embedded software verification platform providing infrastructure and tools that enable development teams to perform testing,...

Low-Profile Surface-Mount Inductors for Small PCBs

Datatronic Distribution (Romoland, CA) offers the DR331-5 surface-mount inductor for designers of small, compact, or portable electronic equipment with limited printed circuit board (PCB)...

Ethernet Switch With Port-Based VLAN Support

The PRV-1059 VLAN-enabled 5-port PC/104 Ethernet switch from Parvus Corp. (Salt Lake City, UT) is designed and tested to MIL-STD-810F, and features low power consumption of 1.5 watts and...

Inferring Gear Damage From Oil-Debris and Vibration Data

system for real-time detection of surface- fatigue-pitting damage to gears for use in a helicopter transmission is based on fuzzy-logic used to fuse data from sensors that measure...

Forecasting of Storm-Surge Floods Using ADCIRC and Optimized DEMs

Increasing the accuracy of storm-surge flood forecasts is essential for improving preparedness for hurricanes and other severe storms and, in particular, for optimizing...

Four-Quadrant Analog Multipliers Using G⁴-FETs

Theoretical analysis and some experiments have shown that the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) 4-gate transistors known as G⁴-FETs can be used as building blocks of four-quadrant analog...

Carbon-Nanotube-Carpet Heat-Transfer Pads

Microscopic thermal-contact pads that include carpetlike arrays of carbon nanotubes have been invented for dissipating heat generated in integrated circuits and similarly sized single electronic...

Temperature Sensing for Oil, Gas, and Structural Analysis

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

With retirement of the space shuttle imminent, and the commercial space industry burgeoning, NASA is searching for safe and innovative...