Electrical/​Electronics

Access our comprehensive library of electrical and electronics technical briefs from engineering experts at NASA and major government, university, and commercial laboratories.

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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A proposed wireless- communication and data-processing system would exploit recent advances in radio- frequency identification devices (RFIDs) and software to establish information lifelines between...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Electrostatically actuated nano- electromechanical switches based on carbon nanotubes have been fabricated and tested in a continuing effort to develop high-speed switches for a variety...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A power converter now undergoing development is required to operate at a DC input potential ranging between 5.5 and 10 kV and a DC output potential of 400 V at a current up to 25 A. This...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The figure shows a prototype radial power-combining waveguide structure, capable of operation at frequencies from 31 to 36 GHz, that features an unusually large number (N = 24) of combining...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A submillimeter-wave monolithic integrated- circuit (S-MMIC) amplifier has been designed and fabricated using an indium phosphide (InP) 35-nm gate-length high electron mobility transistor (HEMT)...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
All-solid-state electrochemical power cells have been fabricated and tested in a continuing effort to develop batteries for instruments for use in environments as hot as 500 °C. Batteries of this...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Using Transponders on the Moon to Increase Accuracy of GPS
It has been proposed to place laser or radio transponders at suitably chosen locations on the Moon to increase the accuracy achievable using the Global Positioning System (GPS) or other satellite-based positioning system. The accuracy of GPS position measurements depends on the accuracy of...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A digital control system based partly on an extremum-seeking control algorithm tracks the changing resonance frequency of a piezoelectric actuator or an electrically similar...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Coaxial electric heaters have been conceived for use in highly sensitive instruments in which there are requirements for compact heaters but stray magnetic fields associated with heater electric currents would adversely...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A proposed holographic memory system would be capable of storing data at unprecedentedly high density, and its data-transfer performance in both reading and writing would be...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A recently developed breadboard version of an advanced signal processor for arraying many antennas in NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) can accept inputs in a 500-MHz-wide frequency band from...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The software of a commercially available digital radio receiver has been modified to make the receiver function as a two-channel low-noise phase meter. This phase meter is a prototype in the continuing development...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Nano- multiplication- region avalanche photodiodes (NAPDs), and imaging arrays of NAPDs integrated with complementary metal oxide/semiconductor (CMOS) active-pixel-sensor integrated...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Bombardment with tightly focused electron beams has been suggested as a means of electrically disabling selected individual carbon-nanotubes (CNTs) in electronic devices. Evidence in...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Coupling of light into and out of whispering- gallery-mode (WGM) optical resonators can be enhanced by designing and fabricating the resonators to have certain non- axisymmetric shapes...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Measurements by a Vector Network Analyzer at 325 to 508 GHz
Recent experiments were performed in which return loss and insertion loss of waveguide test assemblies in the frequency range from 325 to 508 GHz were measured by use of a swept-frequency two-port vector network analyzer (VNA) test set. The experiments were part of a continuing effort to...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Dot-in-well (DWELL) quantum-dot infrared photodetectors (QDIPs) [DWELL-QDIPs] are subjects of research as potentially superior alternatives to prior QDIPs. Heretofore, there has not existed a...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Integrated microbatteries have been proposed to satisfy an anticipated need for long-life, low-rate primary batteries, having volumes less than 1 mm3, to power electronic circuitry in...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
An electrolyte additive has shown promise as a means of increasing the sustainable rates of discharge and, hence, the discharge capacities, of lithium- poly (carbon monofluoride) electrochemical...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Lead and its compounds have been widely used for many years in the electronics industry. However, the global demand to reduce the use of hazardous materials has compelled...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Robot Electronics Architecture
An electronics architecture has been developed to enable the rapid construction and testing of prototypes of robotic systems. This architecture is designed to be a research vehicle of great stability, reliability, and versatility. A system according to this architecture can easily be reconfigured (including expanded...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A class of inertial- sensor systems with drift compensation has been invented for use in measuring the orientations of human heads (and perhaps other, similarly sized objects). These systems...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A proposed microstrip Yagi antenna would operate at a frequency of 8.4 GHz (which is in the X band) and would feature a mechanically simpler, more elegant design, relative to a prior...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Tunable microwave devices based on metal terminals connected by thin ferroelectric films (see Figure 1) can be made to perform better by patterning the films to include suitably...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A four-port magic-T hybrid waveguide junction serves as the central component of a high-efficiency two-way power combiner circuit for transmitting a high-rate...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Switched Band-Pass Filters for Adaptive Transceivers
Switched band-pass filters are key components of proposed adaptive, software- defined radio transceivers that would be parts of envisioned digital-data- communication networks that would enable real-time acquisition and monitoring of data from geographically distributed sensors. Examples of...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Systems to provide improved tactile feedback to aircraft pilots are being developed to help the pilots maintain harmony between their control actions and the positions of aircraft control surfaces,...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A waveguide structure for combining the outputs of four amplifiers operating at 35 GHz (Ka band) is based on a similar prior structure used in the X band. The structure is designed to function with low...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Waveguide Calibrator for Multi-Element Probe Calibration
A calibrator, referred to as the "spider" design, can be used to calibrate probes incorporating multiple acoustic sensing elements. The application is an acoustic energy density probe, although the calibrator can be used for other types of acoustic probes. The calibrator relies on the use of...

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