Briefs: Physical Sciences
This miniature or micro-sized semi-conductor sensor design provides direct, nonintrusive measurement of skin friction or wall shear stress in fluid flow situations in a...
Briefs: Materials
Variable Emittance Electrochromics Using Ionic Electrolytes and Low Solar Absorptance Coatings
One of the last remaining technical hurdles with variable emittance devices or skins based on conducting polymer electrochromics is the high solar absorptance of their top surfaces. This high solar absorptance causes overheating of the skin when facing...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Recently, there has been a considerable effort to study the Casimir and van der Waals forces, enabled by the improved ability to measure small...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Measurement of the Length of an Optical Trap
NASA Glenn has been involved in developing optical trapping and optical micromanipulation techniques in order to develop a tool that can be used to probe, characterize, and assemble nano and microscale materials to create microscale sensors for harsh flight environments. In order to be able to...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Wavefront Correction for Large, Flexible Antenna Reflector
A wavefront-correction system has been proposed as part of an outer-space radio communication system that would include a large, somewhat flexible main reflector antenna, a smaller subreflector antenna, and a small array feed at the focal plane of these two reflector antennas. Part of...
Application Briefs: Imaging
Boston Micromachines Corp.
Cambridge, MA
617-868-4178
www.bostonmicromachines.com
Boston Micromachines has been selected...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The space-frame lunar lander is a conceptual spacecraft or spacecraftlike system based largely on the same principles as those of the amorphous rover and the space-frame antenna described in the two immediately...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A proposed mobile robot, denoted the amorphous rover, would vary its own size and shape in order to traverse terrain by means of rolling and/or slithering action. The amorphous rover was conceived as a robust, lightweight...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Ultra-Compact, High-Resolution LADAR System for 3D Imaging
An eye-safe LADAR system weighs under 500 grams and has range resolution of 1 mm at 10 m. This laser uses an adjustable, tiny microelectromechanical system (MEMS) mirror that was made in SiWave to sweep laser frequency. The size of the laser device is small (70×50×13 mm). The LADAR...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Light-driven polymeric bimorph actuators are being developed as alternatives to prior electrically and optically driven actuators in advanced, highly miniaturized devices and systems exemplified by...
Briefs: Imaging
Improving the Visible and Infrared Contrast Ratio of Microshutter Arrays
Three device improvements have been developed that dramatically enhance the contrast ratio of microshutters. The goal of a microshutter is to allow as much light through as possible when the shutters are in the open configuration, and preventing any light from passing...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Silicon Wafer-Scale Substrate for Microshutters and Detector Arrays
The silicon substrate carrier was created so that a large-area array (in this case 62,000+ elements of a microshutter array) and a variety of discrete passive and active devices could be mounted on a single board, similar to a printed circuit board. However, the density and...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
GPS/MEMS IMU/Microprocessor Board for Navigation
A miniaturized instrumentation package comprising a (1) Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, (2) an inertial measurement unit (IMU) consisting largely of surface-micromachined sensors of the microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS) type, and (3) a microprocessor, all residing on a single...
Articles: Electronics & Computers
Capacitive sensors can be used to measure many different physical parameters that are important when monitoring the health of patients. In particular, the technical advances made by sensor...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
An effort to develop large-aperture, wide-angle-scanning reflectarray antennas for microwave radar and communication systems is underway. In an antenna of this type as envisioned,...
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Reactive, avoidable equipment repairs are a leading contributor to lost productivity in industrial manufacturing operations. Parts with an average selling price of just a few...
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Recent advances in motion control and machine vision technologies present tremendous opportunities for Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) systems. Thanks to recent developments in these fundamental...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A method of fabricating Bi2–xSbxTe3-based thermoelectric microdevices involves a combination of (1) techniques used previously in the...
Briefs: Medical
Telemetry systems of a type that have been proposed for the monitoring of physiological functions in humans would include the following subsystems:
Surgically implanted...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
A proposed method of design and fabrication of vacuum-packaged microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and of individual microelectromechanical devices involves the use of multiple...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A new sensor (see figure) provides an absolute position measurement. The figure presents a schematic view of a motorized linear- translation stage that contains, at each end, an electronic...
Briefs: Medical
Printed multi-turn loop antennas have been designed for contactless powering of, and reception of radio signals transmitted by, surgically implantable biotelemetric sensor units operating...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) of a proposed type would be designed and fabricated to effect lateral and vertical alignment of optical fibers with respect to optical,...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
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...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
RedShift Systems, Waltham, Massachusetts
The desire to “see” in complete darkness or through obscurants such as smoke or fog has driven the development and adoption of thermal...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Research on microelectromechanical system (MEMS) resonators dates back to the mid-1960s, but MEMS timing references are only now being introduced commercially. In this time, two...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
A proposed noninvasive method of monitoring the cure path and the state of cure of an epoxy or other resin involves measurement of the concentration(s) of one or more compound(s) in...
Application Briefs: Imaging
Boston Micromachines Corp.
Watertown, MA
617-926-4178
www.bostonmicromachines.com
Briefs: Physical Sciences
In one of the first real-world applications of photonic crystals, two companies partnered to produce a photonic crystal enhanced (PCE) micro-hotplate device with...
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