Tech Needs
Treatment System to Enable Re-Use of Waste Water
An organization seeks a low-cost way to render dirty, contaminant-filled water clean enough to use for washing or sanitary purposes. The treatment system should reduce dirt particles, lower pH levels, and remove surfactants like linear alkylbenzene sulphonate (LAS). A large water treatment plant...
Articles: Photonics/Optics
As recent events in Haiti and Argentina have highlighted, many urban buildings in seismically active regions worldwide are in need of reinforcement to resist earthquake damage. One challenge...
Who's Who: Aerospace
After a brief career teaching at University College London in the U.K., Dr. Robert Youngquist returned to the U.S. and went to work as a contractor...
Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
The Model 795 pneumatic dispensing valve from Tridak (Torrington, CT) dispenses very high-viscosity fluids, gels, and pastes that require high pressure to achieve suitable material flow. The valve can be used for silicone...
Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
DC Motors
Pittman® Series 8690™ brush-commutated DC motors from AMETEK Technical & Industrial Products (Kent, OH) are 26-mm motors for data storage, medical, semiconductor processing, automation, and other high-performance applications. The iron core DC motors incorporate bonded neodymium iron boron magnets, and include 7-slot skewed...
Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
The 1410 Series DC miniature diaphragm pump from Thomas Division (Sheboygan, WI) measures 3.3 × 1.2 × 2.1" and is designed for medical and other applications requiring high performance in a compact package. The pump features...
Products
MEN Micro, Ambler, PA, has introduced the RS3 managed Ethernet switch and RS4 unmanaged Ethernet switch, each built with an aluminum housing and M12 connectors with eight Fast...
Articles: Software
Data Device Corp.
Bohemia, NY
651-484-6544
www.ddc-web.com
To support the Ares-1, an in-line, two-stage rocket configuration topped by the...
Articles: Software
Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp.
Concord, MA
800-693-9000
www.solidworks.com
Software from Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. has been...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Coherent Frequency Reference System for the NASA Deep Space Network
The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) requires state-of-the-art frequency references that are derived and distributed from very stable atomic frequency standards. A new Frequency Reference System (FRS) and Frequency Reference Distribution System (FRD) have been developed, which...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
180-GHz I-Q Second Harmonic Resistive Mixer MMIC
An indium phosphide MMIC (monolithic microwave integrated circuit) mixer was developed, processed, and tested in the NGC 35-nm-gate-length HEMT (high electron mobility transistor) process. The MMIC mixers were tested and assembled in the miniature MMIC receiver module described in “Miniature...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Diamond Heat-Spreader for Submillimeter-Wave Frequency Multipliers
The planar GaAs Shottky diode frequency multiplier is a critical technology for the local oscillator (LO) for submillimeter-wave heterodyne receivers due to low mass, tenability, long lifetime, and room-temperature operation. The use of a W-band (75–100 GHz) power amplifier...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Power Amplifier Module With 734-mW Continuous Wave Output Power
Research findings were reported from an investigation of new gallium nitride (GaN) monolithic millimeter-wave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifiers (PAs) targeting the highest output power and the highest efficiency for class-A operation in W-band (75–110 GHz). W-band PAs are...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Ultra-Low-Noise W-Band MMIC Detector Modules
A monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) receiver can be used as a building block for next-generation radio astronomy instruments that are scalable to hundreds or thousands of pixels. W- band (75–110 GHz) low-noise receivers are needed for radio astronomy interfer- ometers and spectrometers,...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
338-GHz Semiconductor Amplifier Module
A 35-nm-gate-length InP, high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) with a high-indium-content channel as the key component was developed to produce an MMIC (monolithic microwave integrated circuit) power amplifier. With a shorter gate length than previous transistor generations, it allows for electrons to...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Update on Waveguide-Embedded Differential MMIC Amplifiers
There is an update on the subject matter of “Differential InP HEMT MMIC Amplifiers Embedded in Waveguides” (NPO-42857) NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 33, No. 9 (September 2009), page 35. To recapitulate: Monolithic microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) amplifiers of a type now being developed...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A multi-stage automated target recognition (ATR) system has been designed to perform computer vision tasks with adequate proficiency in mimicking human vision. The system is able to detect,...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Rapid Corner Detection Using FPGAs
In order to perform precision landings for space missions, a control system must be accurate to within ten meters. Feature detection applied against images taken during descent and correlated against the provided base image is computationally expensive and requires tens of seconds of processing time to do just...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Multiple Differential-Amplifier MMICs Embedded in Waveguides
Compact amplifier assemblies of a type now being developed for operation at frequencies of hundreds of gigahertz comprise multiple amplifier units in parallel arrangements to increase power and/or cascade arrangements to increase gains. Each amplifier unit is a monolithic microwave...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Single-Receiver GPS Phase Bias Resolution
Existing software has been modified to yield the benefits of integer fixed double-differenced GPS-phased ambiguities when processing data from a single GPS receiver with no access to any other GPS receiver data. When the double-differenced combination of phase biases can be fixed reliably, a significant...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Special Component Designs for Differential-Amplifier MMICs
Special designs of two types of electronic components — transistors and transmission lines — have been conceived to optimize the performances of these components as parts of waveguide-embedded differential-amplifier monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) of the type...
Briefs: Software
Planetary Image Geometry Library
The Planetary Image Geometry (PIG) library is a multi-mission library used for projecting images (EDRs, or Experiment Data Records) and managing their geometry for in-situ missions. A collection of models describes cameras and their articulation, allowing application programs such as mosaickers, terrain...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Systems that measure the angles of arrival of ultra-wideband (UWB) radio signals and perform triangulation by use of those angles in order to locate the sources of those signals are undergoing...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Propulsion Design With Freeform Fabrication (PDFF)
The nation is challenged to decrease the cost and schedule to develop new space transportation propulsion systems for commercial, scientific, and military purposes. Better design criteria and manufacturing techniques for small thrusters are needed to meet current applications in missile defense,...
Briefs: Software
Automation Framework for Flight Dynamics Products Generation
XFDS provides an easily adaptable automation platform. To date it has been used to support flight dynamics operations. It coordinates the execution of other applications such as Satellite TookKit, FreeFlyer, MATLAB, and Perl code. It provides a mechanism for passing messages among a...
Briefs: Software
Product Operations Status Summary Metrics
The Product Operations Status Summary Metrics (POSSUM) computer program provides a readable view into the state of the Phoenix Operations Product Generation Subsystem (OPGS) data pipeline. POSSUM provides a user interface that can search the data store, collect product metadata, and display the results...
Briefs: Software
Mars Terrain Generation
A suite of programs for the generation of disparity maps from stereo image pairs via correlation, and conversion of those disparity maps to XYZ maps, has been updated. This suite implements an automated method of deriving terrain from stereo images for use in the ground data system for in-situ (lander and rover) cameras....
Briefs: Software
Application-Controlled Parallel Asynchronous Input/Output Utility
A software utility tool has been designed to alleviate file system I/O performance bottlenecks to which many high-end computing (HEC) applications fall prey because of the relatively large volume of data generated for a given amount of computational work. In an effort to reduce...
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