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: 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: Information Technology
Spiking Neurons for Analysis of Patterns
Artificial neural networks comprising spiking neurons of a novel type have been conceived as improved pattern- analysis and pattern- recognition computational systems. These neurons are represented by a mathematical model denoted the state- variable model (SVM), which among other things, exploits a...
Briefs: Information Technology
Symmetric Phase-Only Filtering in Particle-Image Velocimetry
Symmetrical phase-only filtering (SPOF) can be exploited to obtain substantial improvements in the results of data processing in particle- image velocimetry (PIV). In comparison with traditional PIV data processing, SPOF PIV data processing yields narrower and larger amplitude correlation...
Briefs: Software
Simulating Operation of a Complex Sensor Network
Simulation Tool for ASCTA Microsensor Network Architecture (STAMiNA) ["ASCTA" denotes the Advanced Sensors Collaborative Technology Alliance.] is a computer program for evaluating conceptual sensor networks deployed over terrain to provide military situational awareness. This or a similar program is...
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: Semiconductors & ICs
A regio-regular poly (3-hexylthiophene) (RRP3HT) thin-film transistor having a split-gate architecture has been fabricated on a doped silicon/silicon nitride substrate and characterized....
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Briefs: Information Technology
Supplier Management System
Supplier Management System (SMS) allows for a consistent, agency-wide performance rating system for suppliers used by NASA. This version (2.0) combines separate databases into one central database that allows for the sharing of supplier data. Information extracted from the NBS/Oracle database can be used to generate...
Briefs: Information Technology
Improved CLARAty Functional-Layer/Decision-Layer Interface
Improved interface software for communication between the CLARAty Decision and Functional layers has been developed. [The Coupled Layer Architecture for Robotics Autonomy (CLARAty) was described in "Coupled-Layer Robotics Architecture for Autonomy" (NPO-21218), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 26,...
Briefs: Information Technology
JAVA Stereo Display Toolkit
This toolkit provides a common interface for displaying graphical user interface (GUI) components in stereo using either specialized stereo display hardware (e.g., liquid crystal shutter or polarized glasses) or anaglyph display (red/blue glasses) on standard workstation displays. An application using this toolkit will...
Briefs: Information Technology
PyPele Rewritten To Use MPI
A computer program known as "PyPele," originally written as a Python-language extension module of a C++ language program, has been rewritten in pure Python language. The original version of PyPele dispatches and coordinates parallel- processing tasks on cluster computers and provides a conceptual framework for...
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: Semiconductors & ICs
A split-block waveguide circuit that rotates polarization by 90° has been designed with WR-3 input and output waveguides, which are rectangular waveguides used for a nominal...
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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: RF & Microwave Electronics
A directional, catheter-sized cylindrical antenna has been developed for localized delivery of microwave radiation for heating (and thus killing) diseased tissue without excessively...
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Briefs: Information Technology
A closed-loop pattern-recognition system is designed to provide guidance for maneuvering a small exploratory robotic vehicle (rover) on Mars to return to a landed spacecraft to deliver...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Orchestrator Telemetry Processing Pipeline
Orchestrator is a software application infrastructure for telemetry monitoring, logging, processing, and distribution. The architecture has been applied to support operations of a variety of planetary rovers. Built in Java with the Eclipse Rich Client Platform, Orchestrator can run on most commonly used...
Briefs: Information Technology
Scheme for Quantum Computing Immune to Decoherence
A constructive scheme has been devised to enable mapping of any quantum computation into a spintronic circuit in which the computation is encoded in a basis that is, in principle, immune to quantum decoherence. The scheme is implemented by an algorithm that utilizes multiple physical spins to...
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: Semiconductors & ICs
Error-Detecting Counters for FPGA and ASIC State Machines
Error-detecting counters have been proposed as parts of fault-tolerant finite state machines that could be implemented in field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and application-specific integrated circuits that perform sequential logic functions. The use of error-detecting counters would...
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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