Electronics & Software

Communications

Browse a wide range of solutions for challenges facing design engineers working with communication platforms that include applications in laser, acoustics, optical, tactile, and wireless communications. Find the latest technical briefs, articles, white papers, and webinars.

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Briefs: Communications
Reliable, long-range acoustic communications (LRAC) is an enabling technology for numerous applications of manned and unmanned underwater systems. For example, with the capability of communicating at...
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Briefs: Communications
A Smooth-Walled Feedhorn with Sub-30-dB Cross-Polarization Over a 30-Percent Bandwidth
The focus of this research was the design, optimization, and measurement of a monotonically profiled, smooth-walled scalar feedhorn with a diffraction-limited ~14° FWHM (full width at half maximum). It is an easier-to-manufacture, smooth-walled feed that...
Briefs: Communications
One of the limits of today's virtual reality (VR) headsets is that they must be tethered to computers in order to process data well enough to deliver high-resolution visuals. Wearing an HDMI cable reduces...
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Briefs: Communications
Wideband Retroreflector
There are many known methods of retransmitting radio wave signals intra-building and inter-building, as well as ground-to-aircraft or ground-to-satellite. Some techniques modulate the reflection coefficient of an antenna. Prior art has used frequency multiplication or field effect transistor (FET) mixing to modulate the...
Briefs: Communications
9-Meter Slaving System
The objective of the 9-Meter Slaving System is to transmit Launch Trajectory Acquisition System (LTAS) data from one of multiple incoming data streams to the 9-Meter antenna control unit using a synchronous serial modem. The data stream is determined by a 9-Meter telemetry operator's selection via a graphical user interface...
Briefs: Communications
Dielectric microspheres are optical structures that exhibit resonant properties, meaning they can be used to select very narrow wavelengths of an incoming light beam's...
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Briefs: Communications
Ad Hoc Selection of Voice Over Internet Streams
NASA seeks interested parties to license the Ad Hoc Selection for Voice Over Internet (VoIP) Streams technology developed by engineers at Johnson Space Center. This technology features the ability to select specific audio streams from one or more sources and then convert them into a multicast to the...
Briefs: Communications
NASA's Glenn Research Center invites companies to license a new concept design for terrestrial satellite dishes and communications systems. The Cellular Reflectarray Antenna (CRA) has been...
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Briefs: Communications
Deep-Space Positioning System
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has developed a compact, low-power, self-contained instrument that provides the equivalent of GPS throughout the solar system without the aid of an artificially provided infrastructure. The state-of-the-art X-ray navigation instrument is also able to determine the position of a...
Briefs: Communications
GPS Satellite Geometry Analysis Tool (GPSGEM)
The purpose of the GPS Satellite Geometry Analysis Tool (GPSGEM) is to evaluate GPS satellite geometry for a given Earth-fixed location or for a provided trajectory. The tool will generate a listing of all satellites in view, the best satellite combination defined by the most optimum Geometric Dilution...
INSIDER: Communications
A chip-scale optical device, developed by a team from the University of Sydney’s Australian Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, achieves radio frequency signal control at...
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Who's Who: Communications
In outdoor locations, firefighters and emergency responders can use GPS technology to track one another. Indoor environments like high-rises and...
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Question of the Week: Communications
In five years, will light-enabled Wi-Fi "find a home?"
This week’s Question: A PhD student at Eindhoven University of Technology has developed a way of using infrared rays to carry wireless data to a laptop or smartphone. The wireless data comes from central "light antennas" that could, for example, be mounted on a ceiling to direct the rays of...
Question of the Week: Communications
Would you use a flexible phone?
This week's Question: The Korea Herald reported last week that Samsung is developing a "fold-in" phone. The device's flexible display folds open into a 7-inch tablet. According to the article, the team is expected to ship more than 100,000 units during the third quarter of 2017. The paper reported that the...
Articles: Imaging
NASA Technology Parachute deployment is usually a fairly simple—if crucial—operation. A small pilot parachute tossed into the wind might pull free a pin securing the main...
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INSIDER: Nanotechnology
For wireless communication, we’re all stuck on the same traffic-clogged highway — it’s a section of the electromagnetic spectrum known as radio waves. Advancements have made the...
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INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
Scientists have developed a demonstrator that powers active implants wirelessly via ultrasound. Ultrasound waves have a broader range in the body, and they penetrate the implant’s metal...
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Articles: Aerospace
Technology often takes circuitous paths. A magnetron developed for precision bombing during World War II led to the microwave oven, and a battery-powered drill created for collecting samples...
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INSIDER: Energy
University of Massachusetts Amherst professors introduced a new radio technology that allows small mobile devices to take advantage of battery power in larger devices nearby for...
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Briefs: Communications
Heterogeneous Spacecraft Networks
Heterogeneous Spacecraft Networks (HSNs) are network environments in which spacecraft from different missions and institutions can communicate with each other at a low cost and with low impact on overall system resources. The technology of heterogeneous wireless networks has yet to be extended to space networks,...
Briefs: Communications
NASA has developed a new technology for space optical communications, including communications from the Earth to spacecraft in Earth orbit and in deep space, such as at the Moon and Mars. The...
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Briefs: Communications
Using a Power Grid as an Extremely Large Antenna for Geophysical Imaging
Geomagnetic storms drive geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) in high-voltage power transmission systems. GICs thus carry information about the near-space environment conditions. The U.S. high-voltage power transmission system was used as an extremely large antenna to...
Briefs: Communications
Hybrid Loop Element Design for Enhanced High-Frequency Reflector/Reflectarray Performance
The purpose of this invention is to provide a novel, low-loss, dual-band reflectarray element design that is transparent and low-loss across one frequency band (Ka-band in the initial application), and provides the phasing and beam collimation capability...
News: Medical
Using animal tissue samples, such as store-bought pork loin and beef liver, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated the possibility of real-time...
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Who's Who: Communications
On December 6, 2015, two small satellites, or CubeSats, successfully launched to the International Space Station. As part of NASA’s...
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INSIDER: Test & Measurement
Beachgoers may soon be able to know in a timely manner if the water is clean enough for swimming. The technology comes in the form of buoys that are deployed in the water near a beach. By combining...
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News: Communications
The Synergy of Engineering
At the Hannover Messe trade fair in Germany, Eplan Software & Service, with its affiliate company Cideon, introduced Syngineer, an innovative communication and information platform that integrates mechanical engineering, software engineering, and controls engineering through one mechatronic structure. Eplan, a sister...
News: Automotive
In the past, automobiles were made up of many independent electronic systems. Even the assembly lines that were used to manufacture the vehicles required the operation and management...
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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
Researchers are at the forefront of a revolution in microwave photonics, developing the first all-purpose programmable optical chips. Optical chips or processors are used in everything from...
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