Materials & Manufacturing

A methodology has been devised for accounting for uncertainties in the strengths of silicon carbide structural components of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The methodology enables prediction of the probabilistic strengths of complexly shaped MEMS parts using data from tests of...

Creating the future is about change, creativity, and risk - the core building blocks that foster innovation. For the past five years, Emhart Teknologies has partnered with NASA Tech Briefs in challenging the engineering community through our “Create the Future”...

Engineers at Moteur Developpment International (MDI, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg) have designed a prototype car that is powered by compressed air. The vehicle has a tubular chassis that is glued together, a fiberglass body, and uses wireless communication between its components. The engine weighs less than half that of a standard car....

Nanotech Briefs® magazine is accepting nominations for its third annual Nano 50 awards competition. The Nano 50 recognizes the top 50 technologies, innovators, and products with the greatest potential to advance the commercialization of nanotechnology.

A coating that is hard and has a high modulus of elasticity is needed for application to polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) optical films. Excellent coating adhesion and optical transparency are mandatory. The coating must withstand a force greater than 13,000 MpA, and offer a pencil hardness of B or over.To respond to this Tech Need...

A self-biased solar cell is available that provides improved conversion efficiency. Loss of carriers at the back surface of the battery is decreased, and open circuit voltage and quantum efficiency near a long wavelength are increased. View this technology here.

A technology for monitoring protein growth -- developed in part through NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding from Marshall Space Flight Center -- is noninvasive, nondestructive, rapid, and more cost effective than x-ray analysis. The partner for this SBIR, Photon-X, Inc. (Huntsville, AL), developed spatial-phase...

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a new class of gas sensors using a chemical process that converts the silica (silicon dioxide) found in the shells of diatoms into the semiconductor material silicon. Silicon is normally produced from silica at temperatures well above the silicon melting point...

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have come one step closer to making fusion energy possible by showing that their magnetic plasma chamber, called a stellarator, can overcome a major barrier in plasma research by retaining the needed temperature for fusion to be possible. Past stellarators lose too much energy to reach the...

Printable Biosensor for On-Site, Online Measurements -- Bioactive Hybrid Materials for Photonic Microsystems It allows samples to be analyzed on site within a few minutes by integrating biotechnology, information technology, electronics, physics, and chemistry to realize small and cost-effective bio-photonic microsystems....

University of Delaware researchers have developed an inexpensive, nonchlorine- based technology that can remove harmful microorganisms, including viruses, from drinking water. The patented technology incorporates highly reactive iron in the filtering process to deliver a chemical "knock-out punch" to a host of notorious...

A way is sought to allow consumers to connect and disconnect two rubber-impregnated cloth surfaces in a consistent manner that is easy to assemble and disassemble. The cloth surfaces are in close proximity; the length of the connection will be about two meters. The connection must exhibit longterm...

A company is looking for environmentally inert methods to change the moisture management properties of conventional apparel textiles. The moisture management effect changes the way in which water vapor, moisture, and other liquids move through textiles, and can be activated via pH, temperature,...

Three families of liquid-crystal polyester are available that can be used in the form of shaped articles, and can be prepared from the melt phase by extrusion, injection molding, compression molding, or other convenient means. View this technology here.

A ceramic paste that can be applied relatively easily, either by itself or in combination with one or more layer(s) of high temperature ceramic fabrics, such as silicon carbide or zirconia, has been invented as a means of patching cracks or holes in the reinforced carbon-carbon forward surfaces...

A method of imparting relatively hard protective outer skins to aerogel monoliths has been developed. Even more than aerogel beads, aerogel monoliths are attractive as thermal-insulation materials, but the commercial utilization of aerogel monoliths in thermal-insulation panels has been inhibited by their...