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: Information Technology
Electronic Bulletin Board Publishes Schedules in Real Time
Real Time Schedule Publisher (RTSP) is a computer program that generates a report of the current schedules of as many as about 25 users within an organization. The report is refreshed every 5 minutes and displayed in a common area on a flat-panel computer monitor that serves as an...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
An experimental traveling-wave photomixing device generates narrow-band electromagnetic radiation at frequencies up to a few terahertz. The device is, potentially, a prototype of...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A proposed monolithic planar array of miniature dipole antennas, diodes, and associated input/output circuitry would serve as a prototype of image sensors for submillimeter-wavelength video cameras (see Figure...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A special-purpose communications subsystem provides a push-to-talk signal to a communication system as if the individual was directly wired to the system. The subsystem also permits...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A three-stage power amplifier has been developed, capable of operating without tuning, over a wide frequency band ranging well above 100 GHz. The original intended application of this...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A humidity interlock has been developed to prevent damage that could be caused by condensation of water on a delicate and expensive laser crystal that must be maintained at a temperature...
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Briefs: Software
Software Guides Aeroelastic-Systems Design
Accurately and efficiently predicting the unsteady dynamics of coupled, fluid-structure systems significantly reduces the cost of designing, testing, and maintaining fixed-wing aircraft, rotorcraft, and turbomachinery. It also improves safety. Organizations can realize substantial savings by understanding...
Briefs: Software
Postprocessing Software for Micromechanics Analysis Code
The Micromechanics Analysis Code Post-Processing (MACPOST) computer program is designed primarily to serve as an improved means of processing the output of the Micromechanics Analysis Code With Generalized Method of Cells (MAC/GMC) computer program. [MAC/GMC was described in "Comprehensive...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Simulation System is a computing system capable of large-scale mathematical modeling for real-time simulation of the behavior of a complex system that could include many different...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Small electric power cells based on the direct conversion of kinetic energy of alpha particles into electricity have been proposed. These cells are expected to function continuously over...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
"PR-2" denotes a proposed spaceborne radar system for measuring three-dimensional rainfall profiles and rainfall velocities. The PR-2 system would incorporate a number of...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A system for determining the locations of nearby lightning strikes from electric-field and acoustic measurements has been developed. This system evolved from the system described in...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
High-Performance Photodetector Circuit for Doppler Lidar
A photodetector circuit has been built for use in the receiver portion of a continuous-wave infrared Doppler lidar system for atmospheric research. As in nearly all Doppler lidar systems, the detection of the return signal in this system involves heterodyning, in a photodetector, with a...
Briefs: Information Technology
An improved method of processing two- and three-dimensional image data to locate known shapes called "geometric primitives" involves (1) extraction of edges and other relevant image...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Program for Displaying Large, Coregistered Images
DataSlate is an easy-to-use Java-language computer program for displaying coregistered raster images representing large sets of data. The program includes a main viewing module that can display image data that have been converted into a special DataSlate format called "SimpleStruct" by use of an...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A method of automated synthesis of electronic circuits involves the use of a linear (as defined below) genome representation of circuit elements and of connections among them, plus a...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Thyristors (semiconductor controlled rectifiers) made from silicon carbide have been fabricated and tested as prototypes of power-switching devices capable of operating at temperatures up to 350 °C. The...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Small Lidar Altimeter Would Operate at Low Light Levels
A lidar apparatus called a microaltimeter has been proposed for use aboard a spacecraft in orbit around the Earth for mapping land and sea surfaces, including such features of special interest as ice, tree canopies, and flood plains. The microaltimeter is short for "microlaser altimeter" and...
Briefs: Software
Program Computes Tone Fan Noise From a Turbofan Engine
TFaNS is a computer program that predicts the tone noise that emanates from the fan stage of a turbofan engine. With the help of this program, engineers working to reduce fan tone noise can study the effects of proposed design changes and are thus more likely to be successful in their...
Briefs: Software
Software for Generating 100-by-100-km Images From SAR Data
SAR Processing System Precision Processor (SPS PP) is one of the computer programs used in the Alaska SAR Facility (ASF) [where "SAR" means "synthetic-aperture radar"] to generate image data products. SPS PP ingests data that have been received from the RADARSAT (a Canadian...
Briefs: Software
Sequencing and Job-Control Software for Processing SAR Data
The SAR Processing System Control Processor (SPS CP) computer program performs sequencing and job-control functions within the Alaska SAR Facility (ASF) [where "SAR" means "synthetic-aperture radar"]. SPS CP interacts with the Product-Distribution-and-Management (PDM) system of the...
Briefs: Software
Software for Processing RADARSAT ScanSAR Data Into Images
SAR Processing System ScanSAR Processor (SPS SSP) is a computer program that is used in the Alaska SAR Facility (ASF) to processes scanSAR downlink data from the RADARSAT (a Canadian Earth-observation satellite) into a suite of image data products. ["SAR" means "synthetic-aperture...
Briefs: Software
Software for Wafer-Level Testing of Microfabricated Devices
Prober Assistant Measurement System (PAMS) is a computer program that automates the time-consuming process of testing microfabricated devices (integrated circuits and/or microelectromechanical systems) at the wafer level. PAMS was written specifically for use with the Karl Suss probe...
Briefs: Information Technology
A method of forward error correction by Reed-Solomon (RS) coding has been devised to increase the link margins of data-communication systems that must handle variable-length frames or...
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Briefs: Information Technology
A recently developed algorithm saves encoding and decoding time in the operation of data-communication systems that utilize the NRZM code, which is derived from the better-known...
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Briefs: Information Technology
The NACA Technical Report Server (NACATRS) is both a node in the NASA Technical Report Server and a stand-alone World Wide Web (WWW) site. The NACATRS is dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of reports...
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Briefs: Software
Program Predicts Jet Noise
MGBK is a computer program that predicts the mixing noise and the shock noise generated by a subsonic or low-supersonic jet, given input data on the mean flow and turbulence fields as predicted by a suitable state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program. More specifically, MGBK can be regarded as a...
Briefs: Software
Program for Analyzing Static Transmission Error of Helical Gears
The computer program HeliStat performs finite-element analysis to simulate meshing of helical gears. This program is a logical extension of the program DANST, which applies to spur gears. [DANST was described in "Computing Stresses in Spur Gears (LEW-15420), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 19,...
Briefs: Software
Software for Multidisciplinary Analysis of Optical Systems
Integrated Modeling of Optical Systems (IMOS) is a MATLAB™ computer program that provides many functions for analysis of a system represented by mathematical models of its thermal, structural, control, and/or optical aspects. For example, IMOS can be used to study thermal distortion of...

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