Technical Briefs, Design Engineering News

Keyword: Aluminum

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Versatile Transparent-Melt Crystal-Growth Systems for Organic Nonlinear Optical Materials Using Bridgman-Stockbarger Technique

Single crystals of benzil, benzil aniline, and salicylidene-aniline have been successfully grown using a modified...

Briefs: Physical Sciences

Optical Remote Detection of Ice on Aircraft Surfaces

An imaging spectroscopic technique is undergoing development for use in remote detection of ice and mapping of the thickness of ice on aircraft surfaces. The technique is based on the...

Briefs: Physical Sciences

Aircraft-Skin-Rivet Thermocouple

The aircraft-skin-rivet thermocouple is designed for measuring the temperature on the outer surface of an airplane wing under icing conditions. More specifically, its design was motivated by the need to measure the temperature near 32 °F (0 °C) on an aluminum wing skin, with an error of no more than 1 °F (0.6...

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Magnetron Plasma Etching of SiC for Microfabrication

Magnetron plasma etching has been found to be a promising technique for micromachining of single-crystal silicon carbide to fabricate microscopic structures comprising integrated...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Optoelectronic Oscillators Based on Brillouin Scattering

An improved type of optoelectronic oscillator is based on Brillouin amplification. An oscillator of this type converts light energy into an electro-optical oscillation, typically at a...

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Wheel Drive of Mars Rover

A brief report summarizes the design of the lightweight, high-torque wheel drive of a small robotic vehicle used to explore the surface of Mars. Planetary gearing was selected for compactness and high torque capability. The input stages were fitted with ball bearings to survive the cold (down to -100 °C) Martian...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Fabricating Diffusion-Cooled Hot-Electron-Bolometer Elements

Microbridges that constitute the superconducting-transition sensory elements of electron-diffusion-cooled hot-electron bolometers can now be fabricated in increased yield and...

Briefs: Materials

Sputter Deposition of Pure and Fluoropolymer-Filled Al₂O₃

Experiments have shown that nonreactive ion-beam sputtering can be used to deposit a transparent film of aluminum oxide on a polycarbonate, silicon, or fused-silica substrate....