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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
GaAs-based, sub-harmonically pumped Schottky diode mixers offer a number of advantages for array implementation in a heterodyne receiver system. Since the radio...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Hardware for Accelerating N-Modular Redundant Systems for High-Reliability Computing
A hardware unit has been designed that reduces the cost, in terms of performance and power consumption, for implementing N-modular redundancy (NMR) in a multiprocessor device. The innovation monitors transactions to memory, and calculates a form of sumcheck...
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Finite element representations of crash test dummies are widely used in the simulation of vehicle safety systems. The biofidelity of such models is strongly dependent on the...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Discontinuous Mode Power Supply
A document discusses the changes made to a standard push-pull inverter circuit to avoid saturation effects in the main inverter power supply. Typically, in a standard push-pull arrangement, the unsymmetrical primary excitation causes variations in the volt second integral of each half of the excitation cycle that...
Application Briefs: Imaging
The NASA-sponsored space exploration project, PICTURE (Planet Imaging Concept Testbed Using a Rocket Experiment), seeks to obtain a direct image of an extra-solar giant...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Optimal Dynamic Sub-Threshold Technique for Extreme Low Power Consumption for VLSI
For miniaturization of electronics systems, power consumption plays a key role in the realm of constraints. Considering the very large scale integration (VLSI) design aspect, as transistor feature size is decreased to 50 nm and below, there is sizable increase in the...
Application Briefs: Materials
Plastic-molded components produced by Diversified Plastics are currently speeding through space towards Jupiter aboard NASA’s Juno Space Probe. The craft was launched August 5, 2011, and is...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Self-Nulling Lock-in Detection Electronics for Capacitance Probe Electrometer
A multi-channel electrometer voltmeter that employs self-nulling lock-in detection electronics in conjunction with a mechanical resonator with non-contact voltage sensing electrodes has been developed for space-based measurement of an Internal Electrostatic Discharge...
Application Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Redfern Integrated Optics was awarded a Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract for further development of its single-frequency, narrow- linewidth semiconductor laser...
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Briefs: Energy
Imidazolium-Based Polymeric Materials as Alkaline Anion-Exchange Fuel Cell Membranes
Polymer electrolyte membranes that conduct hydroxide ions have potential use in fuel cells. A variety of polystyrenebased quaternary ammonium hydroxides have been reported as anion exchange fuel cell membranes. However, the hydrolytic stability and conductivity of...
NASA Tech Needs: Energy
The United States National Research Council (NRC) has identified Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) as a high-priority NASA Space Technology Roadmap Area. NTP could be an enabling technology to...
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Briefs: Materials
New and improved blocking filters (see figure) have been developed for microcalorimeters on several mission payloads, made of high-transmission polyimide support mesh, that...
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Articles: Electronics & Computers
AdvancedTCA (ATCA) continues to evolve to meet not just the market demands for the telecom central office, but networking, data center, medical, and military communications applications. The two...
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Briefs: Materials
High-Thermal-Conductivity Fabrics
Heat management with common textiles such as nylon and spandex is hindered by the poor thermal conductivity from the skin surface to cooling surfaces. This innovation showed marked improvement in thermal conductivity of the individual fibers and tubing, as well as components assembled from them.
Articles: Electronics & Computers
With more than a year under its belt since it was officially ratified by PICMG in March of 2011, CompactPCI Serial (PICMG CPCI-S.0) has proven to be a good example of how an industry standard...
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Briefs: Materials
Electrospun Nanofiber Coating of Fiber Materials: A Composite Toughening Approach
Textile-based composites could significantly benefit from local toughening using nanofiber coatings. Nanofibers, thermoplastic or otherwise, can be applied to the surface of the fiber tow bundle, achieving toughening of the fiber tow contact surfaces, resulting in...
Articles: Electronics & Computers
Embedded system designers often find themselves trapped by CPU design choices they made years earlier, since switching costs can be astronomical. Hardware development often involves...
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Briefs: Medical
The objective of this research was to design, build, and test an experimental apparatus for studying the parameters of atmospheric entry heating, and...
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Briefs: Medical
Saliva Preservative for Diagnostic Purposes
Saliva is an important body fluid for diagnostic purposes. Glycoproteins, glucose, steroids, DNA, and other molecules of diagnostic value are found in saliva. It is easier to collect as compared to blood or urine. Un for tunately, saliva also contains large numbers of bacteria that can release enzymes,...
Briefs: Software
POSTMAN: Point of Sail Tacking for Maritime Autonomous Navigation
Waves apply significant forces to small boats, in particular when such vessels are moving at a high speed in severe sea conditions. In addition, small high-speed boats run the risk of diving with the bow into the next wave crest during operations in the wavelengths and wave speeds...
Products: Electronics & Computers
The TCB1000 series communication board from Tri-M Technologies (Vancouver, BC, Canada) integrates CANbus controllers, serial ports, and wireless functionality into a single board solution. The TCB1000 can be used in...
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Briefs: Imaging
Aerosol and Surface Parameter Retrievals for a Multi-Angle, Multiband Spectrometer
This software retrieves the surface and atmosphere parameters of multi-angle, multiband spectra. The synthetic spectra are generated by applying the modified Rahman-Pinty-Verstraete Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) model, and a single-scattering...
Products: Electronics & Computers
The Virtex®-7 X690T FPGA device from Xilinx (San Jose, CA) uses 80 GTH serial transceivers that run up to 13.1 Gbps to break the 2 Tbps single FPGA bandwidth barrier. The FPGA enables scalable chip-to-chip serial interfaces, 10GBASE-KR...
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Briefs: Software
LogScope
LogScope is a software package for analyzing log files. The intended use is for offline post-processing of such logs, after the execution of the system under test. LogScope can, however, in principle, also be used to monitor systems online during their execution. Logs are checked against requirements formulated as monitors expressed in a...
Products: Electronics & Computers
FCI (Etters, PA) has released the FCI MezzoStak™ 0.5-mmpitch mezzanine connector, a “mates-to-self” design that uses the same part number for both mated sides. Guidance features assist users with handling, dual-point...
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Briefs: Information Technology
TraceContract
TraceContract is an API (Application Programming Interface) for trace analysis. A trace is a sequence of events, and can, for example, be generated by a running program, instrumented appropriately to generate events. An event can be any data object. An example of a trace is a log file containing events that a programmer has found...
Products: Electronics & Computers
Zilog® (Milpitas, CA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of IXYS Corporation, has introduced ZGATE™, a pioneering joint technology solution utilizing Icon Labs’ (Des Moine, IA) Floodgate™ Packet Filter, a complete...
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Briefs: Software
AIRS Maps From Space Processing Software
This software package processes Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) Level 2 swath standard product geophysical parameters, and generates global, colorized, annotated maps. It automatically generates daily and multi-day averaged colorized and annotated maps of various AIRS Level 2 swath geophysical...
Products: Electronics & Computers
QRC Technologies (Fredericksburg, VA) has announced the QPADD™, a customizable, semi-rugged tablet with 55 watt expansion bay. QPADD’s expansion bay provides OEM customers with power and multiple interface/connection options...
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