Tech Briefs

Electronics & Software

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

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Briefs: Energy
Innovators at NASA’s Glenn Research Center have developed a variable-frequency, alternating current (AC) power system to enable turbo-electric and hybrid electric propulsion....
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Briefs: Propulsion
Batteries and combustion engines each have distinctive benefits and limitations. Batteries have simple construction and operate silently; however, their energy density (i.e., the energy per unit volume) is poor, and...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
High-Energy Lithium Flow Cells with Sulfur Anodes
Li-ion batteries offer considerable advantages such as high gravimetric and volumetric energy densities, and good calendar life and shelf life compared to aqueous systems such as Pb-acid, Ni-Cd, and Ni-MH. Various Li-ion chemistries with different Li-intercalating cathodes have attained significant...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Every complex human tool has contained multiple materials wedged, tied, screwed, glued, or soldered together. But the next generation of tools, from autonomous squishy robots to flexible...
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Detecting Unauthorized Device Access by Comparing Multiple Independent Spatial-Time Data Sets from Other Devices
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has developed a method to collect suspicious data and analyze them without extensive costs. A common challenge in complex computer systems is the identification of unauthorized use, which can be...
Briefs: Imaging
Method and Associated Apparatus for Capturing, Servicing, and De-Orbiting Earth Satellites Using Robotics
Engineers at Goddard Space Flight Center have overcome limitations plaguing the satellite sector since its inception through the development of a robotic system allowing for the autonomous capture and servicing of in-orbit satellites. By...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Secure Optical Quantum Communications
NASA’s Glenn Research Center has developed a method of using entangled-photon pairs to produce highly secure mobile communications that require mere milliwatts of power. Conventional gas Argon-ion laser sources are too large, expensive, and power-intensive to use in portable applications. By contrast,...
Briefs: Energy
Researchers have developed yarns that generate electricity when they are stretched or twisted. The “twistron” yarns are constructed from carbon nanotubes — hollow cylinders of carbon...
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Briefs: Software
Selective Access and Editing in a Database
NASA has developed a method and system that provides selective access to different portions of a database by different subgroups of database users. In this system, two or more members of a given access subgroup can simultaneously edit a document accessible to each member. This database system provides...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Researchers have developed a lithium-ion battery that uses a water-salt solution as its electrolyte — reaching the 4.0- Volt mark for electronics such as laptops — without the fire and explosive...
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Briefs: Software
Integrated Genomic and Proteomic Information Security Protocol
The evolving nature of the Internet will require continual advances in authentication and confidentiality protocols. Nature provides some clues as to how this can be accomplished in a distributed manner through molecular biology. Cryptography and molecular biology share certain aspects...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Pressure Sensor Mechanism
The Pressure Sensor Mechanism is designed to measure or monitor tactile pressure. It is based on passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) sensor tags and is applicable to a variety of systems. As RFID sensors transmit information wirelessly, they eliminate many challenges associated with traditional wired systems such...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Ultra-Sensitive Temperature Sensor
A temperature sensor with practically no effect at all on the temperature of the object measured has been created in the laboratory by researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) and the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and is awaiting a patent for commercial production.
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
In London's St. Paul's Cathedral, a whisper can be heard far across the circular whispering gallery as the sound curves around the walls. Now, an optical whispering gallery mode resonator developed by Penn...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A temperature sensor was developed that runs on 113 picowatts of power — about 10 billion times smaller than a Watt. The technology could enable devices that can be powered by harvesting energy from...
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A low-cost sensor technology, called Chemical Identification by Magneto-Elastic Sensing (ChIMES), uses target response materials (TRMs) as actuators in magneto-elastic (M-E) sensors...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Remote Detection of Electronic Devices
Non-Linear Junction Detection is a well-known technique for detecting electronics that utilize semiconductor (solid-state) junctions. The current state of the art for finding hidden electronics — such as electronic eavesdropping devices — using this technology has a maximum range of about 2 m, and more...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
It's difficult to see the details of atomic and topographical changes that lead to battery failure. However a team of researchers developed a method to see reactions leading to a...
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Briefs: Energy
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is building a small CubeSat that uses an 85-m2 solar sail deployed from a central location to capture the push of photons from the Sun as...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The advent of cryocooler technology ushers in an era where a cryogenic environment is created and maintained locally. It is no longer necessary to transport cryogen from a factory where it is produced to the...
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Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
System and Method for Identifying Electrical Properties of Integrated Circuits
Integrated circuit (IC) design can be divided into three stages: circuitry as specified, circuitry as designed, and circuitry as manufactured. Circuitry as specified is a somewhat abstract circuit design made with knowledge of the latest state-of-the-art integrated...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Computers use different kinds of memory technologies to store data. Long-term memory — typically a hard disk or flash drive — needs to be dense in order to store as much data as...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A new, flexible, silicon-on-polymer chip was developed to augment new networked realities such as the Internet of Things. Typical silicon-based integrated circuits are brittle, rigid components packaged in a...
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Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Inspired by brains, neural networks are composed of neurons (or nodes) and synapses, which are the connections between nodes. To train a neural network for a task, a neural network takes in a...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Shape memory alloys (SMAs) have the unique ability to recover large deformations in response to thermal, mechanical, and/or magnetic stimuli. This behavior occurs by virtue of a crystallo-graphically...
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Briefs: Nanotechnology
High-tech refrigerators have been used to reach temperatures as close to absolute zero as possible — 0 kelvin or -273.15 °C. Physicists aim to cool equipment to as close to absolute zero as possible,...
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Briefs: Aerospace
NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed a landing gear cavity modification that reduces noise produced during aircraft approach and landing. The modification is an innovative stretchable mesh...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
In multi-layer and multi-fluid plate and fin heat exchangers, fluid ports are required to be located on the side of the heat exchanger....
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
New graphene printing technology can produce electronic circuits that are low-cost, flexible, highly conductive, and water-repellent. Low-cost, inkjet-printed graphene can...
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