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
Robust lithium/solid electrolyte/iodine electrochemical cells that offer significant advantages over commercial lithium/ iodine cells have been developed. At room temperature, these cells...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Hybrid deployable radio antennas and reflectors of a proposed type would feature rigid narrower apertures plus wider adjoining apertures comprising reflective surfaces supported by open-cell...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Gesture-controlled interfaces are software-driven systems that facilitate device control by translating visual hand and body signals into commands. Such interfaces could be especially...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Improved accelerator and screen grids for an ion accelerator have been designed and tested in a continuing effort to increase the sustainable power and thrust at the high end of the...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The figure shows an instrument incorporating an infrared camera for detecting small hydrogen fires. The instrument has been developed as an improved replacement for prior infrared and ultraviolet...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
In a modified configuration of a coaxial probe feed for a layered printed-circuit antenna (e.g., a microstrip antenna), the outer conductor of the coaxial cable extends through the thickness of...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Because such wavelengths are comparable to the characteristic dimensions of terrain features associated with negative hazards, a significant amount of diffraction would occur at such features. In...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Pseudorandom Switching for Adding Radar to the AFF Sensor
A document describes the proposed addition of a radar function to the Autonomous Formation Flying Sensor, making possible coarse relative-position control to prevent collisions in the event of failure of one of the spacecraft. According to the proposal, in addition to tracking GPS-like...
Briefs: Information Technology
Hybrid Terrain Database
A prototype hybrid terrain database is being developed in conjunction with other databases and with hardware and software that constitute subsystems of aerospace cockpit display systems (known in the art as synthetic vision systems) that generate images to increase pilots’ situation awareness and eliminate poor visibility...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The NASA Ames hyperwall is a display system designed to facilitate the visualization of sets of multivariate and multidimensional data like those generated in complex engineering and...
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Briefs: Data Acquisition
A facility that includes a probe station and a scanning open-ended waveguide probe for measuring near electromagnetic fields (see figure) has been added to Glen Research Center's suite...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A control system strives to maintain the correct alignment of a laser beam in an interferometer dedicated to measuring the displacement or distance between two fiducial corner-cube...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A three-dimensional (3D) x-ray luggage- screening system has been proposed to reduce the fatigue experienced by human inspectors and increase their ability to detect weapons and other contraband. The system...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Photodetector Arrays for Multicolor Visible/Infrared Imaging
Monolithic focal-plane arrays of photodetectors capable of imaging the same scenes simultaneously in multiple wavelength bands in the visible and infrared spectral regions have been proposed. In prior visible/infrared imaging systems, it has been standard practice to use separate optical...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A multichannel dielectric-resonator oscillator (DRO), built as a prototype of a local oscillator for an X-band transmitter or receiver, is capable of being electrically tuned among and within...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
An Alternative for Emergency Preemption of Traffic Lights
An electronic communication and control system has been developed as a prototype of advanced means of automatically modifying the switching of traffic lights to give priority to emergency vehicles. This system could be used alternatively or in addition to other emergency...
Briefs: Transportation
The purpose of this article is to describe, in more detail, the transponder installed in each vehicle that participates in the emergency traffic-light-preemption system described in the...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The figure shows an intersection monitor that is a key subsystem of an emergency traffic-light-preemption system that could be any of the systems described in the three immediately...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Automated Announcements of Approaching Emergency Vehicles
Street intersections that are equipped with traffic lights would also be equipped with means for generating audible announcements of approaching emergency vehicles, according to a proposal. The means to generate the announcements would be implemented in the intersection-based subsystems of...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Digital Front End for Wide-Band VLBI Science Receiver
An upgrade to the very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) science receiver (VSR) — a radio receiver used in NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) — is currently being implemented. The current VSR samples standard DSN intermediate frequency (IF) signals at 256 MHz and after digital...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A proposed free-space optical communication system would operate in a full-duplex mode, using a single constant-power laser beam for transmission and reception of binary signals at both...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Optical oscillators that exploit resonantly enhanced four-wave mixing in nonlinear whispering- gallery- mode (WGM) resonators are under investigation for potential utility as low-power,...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A scheme for stabilizing the frequency of a microwave signal is proposed that exploits the operational characteristics of a coupled optoelectronic oscillator (COEO) and related...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
IMU/GPS System Provides Position and Attitude Data
A special navigation system is being developed to provide high-quality information on the position and attitude of a moving platform (an aircraft or spacecraft), for use in pointing and stabilization of a hyperspectral remote-sensing system carried aboard the platform. The system also serves to...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Figure 1 depicts a switching circuit that drives a piezoelectric pump at a high voltage with a polarity that alternates at the desired mechanical pump frequency. This circuit offers...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Developing Signal Pattern Recognition Programs
Pattern Interpretation and Recognition Application Toolkit Environment (PIRATE) is a block-oriented software system that aids the development of application programs that analyze signals in real time in order to recognize signal patterns that are indicative of conditions or events of interest. PIRATE...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Networks of video cameras, meteorological sensors, and ancillary electronic equipment are under development in collaboration among NASA Ames Research Center, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The development and evaluation of new hybrid and solid rocket motors requires accurate characterization of the propellant surface regression as a function of key operational parameters. These...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Optoelectronic sensors of a proposed type would perform the functions of both electronic cameras and triangulation- type laser range finders. That is to say, these sensors would both (1) generate ordinary video or...
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