Briefs: Aerospace
Exhaust Plume Analyzer
Exhaust plumes emanating from smoke stacks at power plants or other industrial facilities can have adverse impacts on local aviation during periods of calm winds. Adverse impacts can be exacerbated if the temperature is low or the atmosphere is unstable. While low oxygen concentrations and elevated temperatures inside the...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Rapid Nucleic Acid Isolation Method and Fluid Handling Devices
Gene expression analysis measures the activity of genes and reveals valuable information about the internal states of living cells. NASA Ames has developed a novel system for...
Briefs: Imaging
Computer Detects and Understands Body Language
Detecting the nuances of nonverbal communication between individuals will allow robots to serve in social spaces, enabling them to perceive what people around them are doing, what moods they are...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Gateway Integrates Wireless Sensors with Existing Aircraft Systems
In traditional hardwired avionics systems, sensor integration requires installation of literally tons of physical cable that significantly increases vehicle weight and the...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Pilot-Assisted Check Valve for Low-Pressure Applications
Check valves are traditionally designed as a simple poppet/spring system where the spring is designed to equal the force created from the sealing area of the valve seat multiplied by...
Briefs: Internet of Things
Platform Enables Modeling of a Human Heart on an Engineered Chip
Prescription drugs have enabled millions of Americans with chronic medical conditions to live longer and more fulfilling lives, but many promising new drugs never make it to...
Briefs: Materials
Method and Means to Analyze Thermographic Data Acquired During Automated Fiber Placement
Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) machines can be susceptible to tow-tape defects such as gaps and overlaps. These can reduce strength between 7% and 32%....
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Wearable “Microbrewery” Monitors Radiation Exposure
Radiology workers are regularly exposed to low doses of radiation when they obtain patient imagery such as X-rays. While protective gear largely keeps workers within a safe range of...
Products: Electronics & Computers
New on the Market: January 2019
Eurocom, Nepean, ON, Canada offers Sky “C” Series laptop computers based on the Z370 Intel chipset and using CPU-upgrade-able, LGA1151 socket-based processors. They support up to...
Products: Test & Measurement
New Products: December 2018, Motion Design
Advanced Micro Controls (Terryville, CT) offers a size 17 PLC-based SMD Series integrated stepper motor/drive/controller system. The integrated solutions are suited...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Sensor Combination Detects People by Smell
Trained rescue dogs are the best disaster workers — their sensitive noses help them track down people buried by earthquakes or avalanches. But dogs need breaks. A new measuring device is always...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Ionization-Based Multidirectional Flow Sensor
One significant area of research in fuel cell technology includes systems in which a fuel cell is combined with another power generation device (a turbine, for example) to create a hybrid system that combines the advantages of the two standalone systems, resulting in a high fuel-to-electricity...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Real-Time Ion Mobility Sensor System
A real-time ion mobility sensor developed to detect contaminants and explosives is reliable, sensitive, robust, and inexpensive. The technology improves sensitivity and reduces false alarms for threat agents, and can identify chemicals with a sensitivity of five parts per billion.
Briefs: Data Acquisition
Optimetric Measurements Over Coherent Free-Space Optical Communication
High-precision ranging (optimetric) instruments are highly desired for both space navigation and communications as well as gravitational-based science missions. Traditionally, these measurements are made with instruments solely dedicated to ranging (i.e. Doppler shift of a...
Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
Gated Chopper Integrator (GCI)
Microvolt-level signals require gains of at least a thousand. Offsets and noise in the amplifier chain will be amplified by the same amount, which can saturate the amplifier or swamp the signal so it is not resolvable. Other methods use chopping and/or autozero techniques to lower the offset and noise. The key...
Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Vote for Product of the Year 2018
Each December, we ask our readers to cast their votes in the annual Tech Briefs’ Readers’ Choice Product of the Year Awards. Each month, our editors choose a Product of the Month...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Wide-Area Chemical Sensor
The detection and localization of gas releases, such as methane from leaking natural gas pipelines or nitrogen oxides from failing electrical equipment, require high sensitivity to the target gas and insensitivity...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Device Detects Subatomic-Scale Motion
It is relatively easy to measure small movements of large objects, but is much more difficult when the moving parts are on the scale of nanometers, or billionths of a meter. The ability to accurately...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Portable Acousto-Optic Spectrometers
Spectrometers are widely used for applications such as chemical analysis, remote sensing, quality control, environmental monitoring, spaceborne measurements, and optical measurements. Most spectrometers...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Inductive Non-Contact Position Sensor
The Inductive Non-Contact Position Sensor is a highly accurate sensor for motion control applications. The sensor was designed to monitor the precise movements of an optical inspection system that...
Facility Focus: Research Lab
Facility Focus: Ames Laboratory
Ames Laboratory is a government-owned, contractor-operated national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), operated by and located on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, IA. For more than...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Active Pointing Monitor for a 2-Axis Optical Control System
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has developed a pointing measurement detection and control system that monitors the real-time optical axis motions (such as tip and tilt) that affect image quality in aerial platforms. To date, there is no known real-time optical image alignment and...
Products: Electronics & Computers
Product of the Month: December 2018
Yokogawa Corporation of America, Newnan, GA, released the WT5000 power analyzer that achieves accuracy of ±0.03% at 50/60 Hz, allowing precision evaluation of power consumption, loss, and...
Blog: Test & Measurement
After a Successful Landing, What’s Next for the InSight Mission?
INSIDER: Test & Measurement
Enabling “Internet of Photonic Things” with Miniature Sensors
A team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis was the first to successfully record environmental data using a wireless photonic sensor resonator with a...
Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Inside Story: S. Himmelstein and Company
S. Himmelstein and Company (Hoffman Estates, IL) has been designing and manufacturing torque measurement transducers and instrumentation since 1960. The company’s products offer significant...
Articles: Electronics & Computers
Smart Sensor Technology for the IoT
Internet of Things (IoT) applications — whether for city infrastructures, factories, or wearable devices — use large arrays of sensors collecting data for transmission over the Internet to a central,...
Articles: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Products of Tomorrow: November 2018
This column presents technologies that have applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the products of tomorrow. To learn more about each technology, see the contact information provided for that...
Products: Sensors/Data Acquisition
New on the Market: November 2018
Advanced Thermal Solutions, Norwood, MA, announced the tvLYT™ liquid crystal thermography system that provides a portable solution for temperature measurement of...
Top Stories
Blog: Unmanned Systems
Experts Weigh In: How Will a Robotic Future Impact Nature?
INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
Orbiting Instrument Hints That Stored Magnetic Energy Heats Solar...
Videos: Motion Control
Test System Could Enable Reduced Helicopter Vibration
Podcasts: Materials
Videos: Automotive
New Lithium Metal Batteries ‘Build Themselves’
Blog: Transportation
CES 2021: How COVID-19 Turned the Car into a Personal 'Second Space'
Webcasts
Upcoming Webinars: Automotive
Reducing the Cost of Quality in Automotive BiW
Upcoming Webinars: Automotive
Electric-Vehicle Transmission Development Priorities
Upcoming Webinars: Sensors/Data Acquisition
The Critical Role of Fiber Optic Temperature Sensors in Medical...
Upcoming Webinars: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Zinc Die Casting Concepts to Achieve Precision, Performance, and...
Upcoming Webinars: Test & Measurement
Radar Measurements: Triggering, Analysis, and Generation
Upcoming Webinars: Materials
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Combining Electronic, Photonic Chips Enables Super-Fast Quantum Light Detection
Application Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Motion Solutions for Electric Expansion Valves
Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Special Section: The Winners of the 2020 'Create the Future' Design Contest
Briefs: Energy
Solid-State Technology Enables Smaller, Safer Batteries
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Double-Vacuum-Bag Process for Making Resin-Matrix Composites
