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
Focal-plane-array (FPA) hybrids of quantum-well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) thinned to the membrane level are undergoing development. The developmental QWIPs in question are of the...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
An electronic engine-health-monitoring system is based on (1) computation of frequency-phase-normalized (FPN) spectra from the digitized outputs of vibration sensors and (2) the use of...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Embedded CMOS A/D Converters for High-Speed Operation
Sarnoff Corporation has announced the development of four new analog-to-digital (A/D) converter macro cells for embedding in CMOS designs in which high-precision, high-speed operation at low power is important. The 8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit, and dual 6-bit designs are available for licensing by...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A proposed improved code-division multiple-access (CDMA) detector would achieve high resistance to jamming of weak ("far") received signals by strong ("near") ones. The problem of such...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Multiple-quantum-well AlxGa1 - xAs photodetectors that exploit transitions of electrons from quantum-well bound states to quasi-bound states are undergoing development for use at...
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Briefs: Materials
By combining patented digital Silver-in-Glass® and analog conductive plastic technologies in a single environmentally sealed unibody package, Spectrol Electronics' DigiSense™...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A "smart" video camera, called the "GI-Eye," generates digital image data that are automatically tagged with georegistration meta-data to indicate the precise position and attitude of the camera...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Signal Preprocessor for Determining Time of Arrival
A proposed analog/digital circuit would improve the accuracy of determining the time of occurrence of a peak in an analog waveform. In the past, the time of occurrence of the peak was determined by comparing the magnitude of digital data samples. The time or clock pulse associated with the peak...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The Viewing Imager/Gimballed Instrumentation Laboratory and Analog Neural Three-Dimensional Processing Experiment (VIGILANTE) is a "smart" optoelectronic sensor system that features...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A laser Doppler velocimeter (LDV) system has been developed for use on practical gas-turbine engines. The system has been used to measure inlet and exhaust velocities on an F-100 EMD...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Self-Checking Circuitry for Detecting Single-Event Latchups
High-performance electronic circuits would incorporate self-checking features for detection of radiation-induced single-event latchups (SELs), according to a proposal. The basic SEL-detection scheme calls for redundant circuitry and a current-voting scheme similar to voting schemes that...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A single-block fixture enables the rapid and accurate electrical characterization of planar microwave electronic components, by use of the through-reflect-line (TRL) technique, in air...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Experiments have revealed that stable breakdown-voltage characteristics can be achieved in silicon carbide rectifiers. Stable breakdown-voltage characteristics are essential to the...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A simple technique for extending the dynamic range of a charge-coupled-device (CCD) video camera involves the use of photochromic material — the same material used in...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Single-Event Latchup Protection of Integrated Circuits
Many commercially available advanced-technology CMOS and bipolar integrated circuits are susceptible to single-event latchup (SEL) effects caused by heavy ions or protons from cosmic rays or solar flares, making them unsuitable for satellite applications. Remanufacturing the integrated circuits...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The term "inverse rectenna" may seem like an oxymoron at first glance. However, preliminary experiments have demonstrated that a rectenna of suitable design can be made to operate in an...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
As electronic circuits become more densely packaged and higher in power, maintaining them within permissible temperature ranges becomes a major issue. This is especially true in the case of...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
SQUID-Based Asymmetric Planar Gradiometer
Berkeley Laboratory researchers have demonstrated a novel superconducting gradiometer that helps to reduce ambient magnetic field noise generated by relatively distant sources in favor of tiny magnetic signals generated by a local source. This is another step toward the operation of SQUID-based instruments...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
An electronic system that comprises airborne and ground-based subsystems generates data for a global real-time interactive map (GRIM) that displays the current position and velocity...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A method for reducing the number of bits of quantization of synaptic weights during training of an artificial neural network involves the use of the cascade back-propagation learning...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A data-communication and -processing network of compact, laptop-computer-based portable stations communicating via the World Wide Web (WWW) has been proposed as a relatively inexpensive...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A focal-plane array (FPA) of GaAs-based quantum-well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) that would detect images in two wavelength bands simultaneously is undergoing development. From ratios...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Delta-Doped CCDs for Measuring Energies of Positive Ions
Research closely related to that reported in the preceding article has shown that δ-doped charge-coupled devices (CCDs) could be used to detect incident protons and perhaps other positive ions, and to measure the kinetic energies of the ions, down to about 1.25 keV. Prior to the development...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Charge-coupled devices (CCDs) of a type developed previously for imaging in ultraviolet light have been found to be useful as detectors of electrons and other charged particles with kinetic...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A hardware-command-decoding application-specific integrated circuit (HCD ASIC) is designed to decode digital command signals transmitted from a ground station to a spacecraft (uplink commands). Implemented in the...
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Briefs: Materials
A portable, self-contained, compact instrument measures and records transient electric fields generated by nearby lightning strikes. This instrument complements, and in many respects is...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The column-loading input chip (CLIC) is a conceptual integrated-circuit chip that would serve as an interface between (1) any of various sources of image data and (2) a three-dimensional...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The figure illustrates a dc-excited Anderson-loop circuit that includes (1) thermocouples for measuring the temperature of the strain gauge and (2) a signal-conditioning circuit that...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Estimating Attitude From GPS Measurements on One Antenna
A technique for estimating the boresight direction of a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver antenna involves utilization of the relationship between the strengths of received signals and the direction-dependent antenna gain pattern. The technique is fundamentally different from, and...

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