Electrical, Electronics, and Avionics

Stories

116
1559
0
120
30
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Using Spare Logic Resources To Create Dynamic Test Points
A technique has been devised to enable creation of a dynamic set of test points in an embedded digital electronic system. As a result, electronics contained in an application specific circuit [e.g., gate array, field programmable gate array (FPGA)] can be internally “probed,” even when...
Briefs: Medical
Electronic biosensing technology could someday displace the multi-welled microplate, long a standard tool in biomedical research and diagnostic laboratories. Essentially arrays of...
Feature Image
Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping
The Create the Future Design Contest was launched in 2002 by the publishers of NASA Tech Briefs to help stimulate and reward engineering innovation. The competition has attracted...
Feature Image
Articles: Lighting Technology
Solid-state lighting (SSL) is rapidly emerging as a major segment of the lighting fixture industry. What was once a simple electrical device has now been...
Feature Image
Briefs: Materials
Thermally Conductive Tape Based on Carbon Nanotube Arrays
To increase contact conductance between two mating surfaces, a conductive “tape” has been developed by growing dense arrays of carbon nanotubes (CNTs, graphite layers folded into cylinders) on both sides of a thermally conductive metallic foil. When the two mating surfaces are brought...
Research News: Lighting
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia Keon Jae Lee, a professor in KAIST's Department of Materials Science and...
Feature Image
Briefs: Aerospace
Distributed Aerodynamic Sensing and Processing Toolbox
A Distributed Aerodynamic Sensing and Processing (DASP) toolbox was designed and fabricated for flight test applications with an Aerostructures Test Wing (ATW) mounted under the fuselage of an F-15B on the Flight Test Fixture (FTF). DASP monitors and processes the aerodynamics with the...
Briefs: Information Technology
Efficient Web Services Policy Combination
Large-scale Web security systems usually involve cooperation between domains with non-identical policies. The network management and Web communication software used by the different organizations presents a stumbling block. Many of the tools used by the various divisions do not have the ability to...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A method gathers scene information from a low-cost camera system. Existing surveillance systems using sufficient cameras for continuous coverage of a large field necessarily generate enormous...
Feature Image
Articles: Motion Control
EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) comes in different forms, frequencies, and levels. Electronic equipment has different categories for both emissions and susceptibility. Under normal...
Feature Image
Briefs: Information Technology
Guaranteeing Failsafe Operation of Extended-Scene Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensor Algorithm
A Shack-Hartmann sensor (SHS) is an optical instrument consisting of a lenslet array and a camera. It is widely used for wavefront sensing in optical testing and astronomical adaptive optics. The camera is placed at the focal point of the lenslet array and...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Pixelized Device Control Actuators for Large Adaptive Optics
A fully integrated, compact, adaptive space optic mirror assembly has been developed, incorporating new advances in ultralight, high- performance composite mirrors. The composite mirrors use Q-switch matrix architecture- based pixelized control (PMN-PT) actuators, which achieve high-...
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Electric Actuators Deliver Energy Efficient, Low Maintenance Solutions
Machine designers and end users find themselves balancing sometimes opposing priorities such as improving energy efficiency while minimizing adverse impact on the environment, at the same time ensuring performance (e.g., precision, reliability) is not compromised. A key trend...
Briefs: Software
Framework for ReSTful Web Services in OSGi
Ensemble ReST is a software system that eases the development, deployment, and maintenance of server-side application programs to perform functions that would otherwise be performed by client software. Ensemble ReST takes advantage of the proven disciplines of ReST (Representational State Transfer — a...
Articles: Electronics & Computers
More and more devices in our modern world come with a multitude and variety of embedded systems. An obvious example of this trend is today’s vehicles, which have dozens of electronic control units (ECUs) that control...
Feature Image
Articles: Photonics/Optics
Film cameras were traditionally manufactured by discrete assembly, which means each component was fabricated as an individual item, tested if necessary, and then assembled into the final working product. The advent...
Feature Image
Articles: Electronics & Computers
While today’s multi-discipline mechatronic systems significantly outperform legacy systems, they are also much more complex by nature, requiring close cooperation between multiple design disciplines...
Feature Image
Application Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Off-highway tractors slog through mud, muck, and other rough terrain on a daily basis. Achieving high reliability and performance in spite of these...
Feature Image
Articles: Electronics & Computers
For decades military platforms have included electronics for avionics, vehicle controls, radios, radar, sonar and fire control. From a computational standpoint most of these systems could be accomplished with...
Feature Image
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Update on Development of SiC Multi-Chip Power Modules
Progress has been made in a continuing effort to develop multi-chip power modules (SiC MCPMs). This effort at an earlier stage was reported in “SiC Multi-Chip Power Modules as Power-System Building Blocks” (LEW-18008-1), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 31, No. 2 (February 2007), page 28.
Articles: Electronics & Computers
Software defined radio technology has been widely adopted for new military and aerospace platforms, government signal intelligence and homeland security systems, and now more extensively in commercial...
Feature Image
Articles: Electronics & Computers
The complexity of military and aerospace systems is growing — more components, interfaces, power, bandwidth, processing, features, and data — and these systems are being...
Feature Image
Articles: Electronics & Computers
In the electronics industry today there are two commonly used high-speed memory types: static RAM (SRAM) and dynamic RAM (DRAM). Traditionally, SRAM embedded memory has been the designer's choice for fast memory, but since a typical SRAM...
Feature Image
Application Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
The Onyx guided parachute designed and manufactured by Atair Aerospace (Brooklyn, NY) is an autonomous precision airdrop system. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) uses motors and planetary...
Feature Image
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A method of fabricating flexible assemblies comprising flexible integrated circuits bonded onto or into flexible membranes has been developed. The method provides for bonding of thinned...
Feature Image
Articles: Electronics & Computers
With a laundry list of design constraints, including a combination of real-time requirements, reliability/durability requests, and functionality and performance needs, it’s not...
Feature Image
Articles: Electronics & Computers
The evolution of technology and the never-ending thirst for higher bandwidth from industries and applications are pushing the limits of existing standards. The latest processors run faster and...
Feature Image
Application Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Increasingly dependent on continuous video monitoring and recording, even today's more sophisticated security surveillance systems are often plagued by reliability...
Feature Image
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
SiC Multi-Chip Power Modules as Power-System Building Blocks
The term “SiC MCPMs” (wherein “MCPM” signifies “multi-chip power module”) denotes electronic power-supply modules containing multiple silicon carbide power devices and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) control integrated-circuit chips. SiC MCPMs are being developed as building blocks...

Videos