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At least 289 records · Page 16

NASA Tech Briefs, June 2004

Topics covered include: COTS MEMS Flow-Measurement Probes; Measurement of an Evaporating Drop on a Reflective Substrate; Airplane Ice Detector Based on a Microwave Transmission Line; Microwave/Sonic Apparatus Measures Flow and Density in Pipe; Reducing Errors by Use of Redundancy in Gravity Measurements; Membrane-Based Water Evaporator for a Space Suit; Compact Microscope Imaging System with Intelligent Controls; Chirped-Superlattice, Blocked-Intersubband QWIP; Charge-Dissipative Electrical Cables; Deep-Sea Video Cameras Without Pressure Housings; RFID and Memory Devices Fabricated Integrally on Substrates; Analyzing Dynamics of Cooperating Spacecraft; Spacecraft Attitude Maneuver Planning Using Genetic Algorithms; Forensic Analysis of Compromised Computers; Document Concurrence System; Managing an Archive of Images; MPT Prediction of Aircraft-Engine Fan Noise; Improving Control of Two Motor Controllers; Electro-deionization Using Micro-separated Bipolar Membranes; Safer Electrolytes for Lithium-Ion Cells; Rotating Reverse-Osmosis for Water Purification; Making Precise Resonators for Mesoscale Vibratory Gyroscopes; Robotic End Effectors for Hard-Rock Climbing; Improved Nutation Damper for a Spin-Stabilized Spacecraft; Exhaust Nozzle for a Multitube Detonative Combustion Engine; Arc-Second Pointer for Balloon-Borne Astronomical Instrument; Compact, Automated Centrifugal Slide-Staining System; Two-Armed, Mobile, Sensate Research Robot; Compensating for Effects of Humidity on Electronic Noses; Brush/Fin Thermal Interfaces; Multispectral Scanner for Monitoring Plants; Coding for Communication Channels with Dead-Time Constraints; System for Better Spacing of Airplanes En Route; Algorithm for Training a Recurrent Multilayer Perceptron; Orbiter Interface Unit and Early Communication System; White-Light Nulling Interferometers for Detecting Planets; and Development of Methodology for Programming Autonomous Agents.

Source record↗

Memory Circuit Fault Simulator

Spacecraft are known to experience significant memory part-related failures and problems, both pre- and postlaunch. These memory parts include both static and dynamic memories (SRAM and DRAM). These failures manifest themselves in a variety of ways, such as pattern-sensitive failures, timingsensitive failures, etc. Because of the mission critical nature memory devices play in spacecraft architecture and operation, understanding their failure modes is vital to successful mission operation. To support this need, a generic simulation tool that can model different data patterns in conjunction with variable write and read conditions was developed. This tool is a mathematical and graphical way to embed pattern, electrical, and physical information to perform what-if analysis as part of a root cause failure analysis effort.

Sheldon, Douglas J.↗

Memory Technologies and Data Recorder Design

Missions, both near Earth and deep space, are under consideration that will require data recorder capacities of such magnitude as to be unthinkable just a few years ago. Concepts requiring well over 16,000 GB of storage are being studied. To achieve this capacity via "normal means" was considered incredible as recently as 2004. This paper is presented in two parts. Part I describes the analysis of data recorder capacities for missions as far back as 35 years and provides a projection of data capacities required 20 years from now based upon missions either nearing launch, or in the planning stage. The paper presents a similar projection of memory device capacities as baselined in the ITRS - the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors. Using known Total Ionizing Dose tolerance going back as far as a decade, a projection of total dose tolerance is made for two prime technologies out to the year 2028.

Strauss, Karl F↗

Digital Beamforming Scatterometer

This paper discusses scatterometer measurements collected with multi-mode Digital Beamforming Synthetic Aperture Radar (DBSAR) during the SMAP-VEX 2008 campaign. The 2008 SMAP Validation Experiment was conducted to address a number of specific questions related to the soil moisture retrieval algorithms. SMAP-VEX 2008 consisted on a series of aircraft-based.flights conducted on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Delaware in the fall of 2008. Several other instruments participated in the campaign including the Passive Active L-Band System (PALS), the Marshall Airborne Polarimetric Imaging Radiometer (MAPIR), and the Global Positioning System Reflectometer (GPSR). This campaign was the first SMAP Validation Experiment. DBSAR is a multimode radar system developed at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center that combines state-of-the-art radar technologies, on-board processing, and advances in signal processing techniques in order to enable new remote sensing capabilities applicable to Earth science and planetary applications [l]. The instrument can be configured to operate in scatterometer, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), or altimeter mode. The system builds upon the L-band Imaging Scatterometer (LIS) developed as part of the RadSTAR program. The radar is a phased array system designed to fly on the NASA P3 aircraft. The instrument consists of a programmable waveform generator, eight transmit/receive (T/R) channels, a microstrip antenna, and a reconfigurable data acquisition and processor system. Each transmit channel incorporates a digital attenuator, and digital phase shifter that enables amplitude and phase modulation on transmit. The attenuators, phase shifters, and calibration switches are digitally controlled by the radar control card (RCC) on a pulse by pulse basis. The antenna is a corporate fed microstrip patch-array centered at 1.26 GHz with a 20 MHz bandwidth. Although only one feed is used with the present configuration, a provision was made for separate corporate feeds for vertical and horizontal polarization. System upgrades to dual polarization are currently under way. The DBSAR processor is a reconfigurable data acquisition and processor system capable of real-time, high-speed data processing. DBSAR uses an FPGA-based architecture to implement digitally down-conversion, in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) demodulation, and subsequent radar specific algorithms. The core of the processor board consists of an analog-to-digital (AID) section, three Altera Stratix field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), an ARM microcontroller, several memory devices, and an Ethernet interface. The processor also interfaces with a navigation board consisting of a GPS and a MEMS gyro. The processor has been configured to operate in scatterometer, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), and altimeter modes. All the modes are based on digital beamforming which is a digital process that generates the far-field beam patterns at various scan angles from voltages sampled in the antenna array. This technique allows steering the received beam and controlling its beam-width and side-lobe. Several beamforming techniques can be implemented each characterized by unique strengths and weaknesses, and each applicable to different measurement scenarios. In Scatterometer mode, the radar is capable to.generate a wide beam or scan a narrow beam on transmit, and to steer the received beam on processing while controlling its beamwidth and side-lobe level. Table I lists some important radar characteristics

Rincon, Rafael F.↗

A Case for Bundle Protocol in Space

NASA, through the Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) project, is investing in the development and infusion of delay tolerant networking (DTN) protocols for use on future space flight missions. The cornerstone of the DTN suite is the Bundle Protocol which provides network layer addressing and routing of data blocks. In 2017, the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, and Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission was selected as the first in-house robotic science mission to implement the Bundle Protocol for downlink of housekeeping telemetry. One year into the design and incorporation of the Bundle Protocol on PACE, this presentation makes a case for using the Bundle Protocol for communication with future space assets. Specifically, the use of the Bundle Protocol (1) simplifies relaying data through store and forward routing and custody transfer; (2) simplifies downlink management through delivery guarantees; and (3) simplifies storage services through block level interactions with memory devices.

Swinski, J. P.↗

A Low-Memory Spectral-Correlation Analyzer for Digital QAM-SRRC Waveforms

Cyclostationary signal processing (CSP) provides the ability to estimate received waveforms' statistical features blindly. Quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM) waveforms, when filtered by the square-root-raised cosine (SRRC) pulse shape function, have cyclic features that CSP can exploit to detect waveform parameters such as symbol rate (SR) and center frequency (CF). The estimation of these SR-CF pairs enables a cognitive radio (CR) to perform spectrum sensing techniques such as spectrum sharing and interference mitigation. Here, we investigate a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) application of a blind symbol rate-center frequency estimator. First, this study provides a background on the theory behind the cyclic spectral density function (CSD), spectral correlation analyzers (SCA), and spectrum sensing. Following this is a discussion on the motivation for CubeSat spectrum sensing. An SCA implementation for low-memory devices, such as FPGA-based CubeSat, is then describes. The paper concludes by reporting the performance characteristics of the newly developed streaming-based SCA.

FPGA↗

P-ACTIVE Project Report

The Phase change material-based actively-tunable filter (P-ACTIVE, Dr. Hyun Jung Kim, the Principal Investigator / PI) project is a NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC)-led research endeavor that began as a NASA CIF (Center Innovation Fund) project in 2019. The goal of P-ACTIVE is to develop all-solid-state tunable optical filters that can serve as low-Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) replacements to the ubiquitous filter wheel technology current in use, and serve as a starting point for completely new optical component technologies. By using materials commonly used in electronic memory devices, namely chalcogenide phase-change materials (PCMs), in conjunction with nanostructured surfaces with exotic, tailored optical responses (“metasurfaces”), the P-ACTIVE filters are able to tune their optical transmission/reflection behavior in real-time. Because of this new functionality, P-ACTIVE filters are highlighted for NASA science and space programs such as next generation Lidar, landing system (SLS) thermal monitoring, thermal imaging, imaging spectroscopy, and disaster monitoring (e.g., volcanic eruption observations from SmallSats). This document intends to serve as a compendium of the P-ACTIVE project. We begin by describing the project from background science and assume no prior knowledge of the subject. We then address experimental and theoretical results of P-ACTIVE device performance, as well as recent results obtained from the MISSE-14 mission related to space qualification of P-ACTIVE devices and constituent materials. We conclude with a prospective view of the P-ACTIVE technology, and discuss the potential for these filters and other similar metasurface devices to serve NASA’s mission.

metamaterial↗

Solid State Drive Radiation Assurance With Active Testing

Automotive and industrial grade SSDs were tested for TID and SEE response at the assembly level to investigate radiation tolerance trends and explore radiation hardness assurance best practices in commercial memory devices. SSDs were installed in passive NVMe extenders to place only the drive in the beam line. A digital I/O module connected to the test computer provided inhibit signals to block both facility beam delivery and power while attempting recovery from any device failure conditions (e.g., failed write, failed read, or unresponsive device).

Edward P Wilcox↗

Materials and methods for the preparation of nanocomposites

Disclosed herein is an isolable colloidal particle comprising a nanoparticle and an inorganic capping agent bound to the surface of the nanoparticle, a method for making the same in a biphasic solvent mixture, and the formation of structures and solids from the isolable colloidal particle. The process can yield photovoltaic cells, piezoelectric crystals, thermoelectric layers, optoelectronic layers, light emitting diodes, ferroelectric layers, thin film transistors, floating gate memory devices, phase change layers, and sensor devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Graph Neural Network-based Tracking as a Service

Recent studies have shown promising results for track finding in dense environments using Graph Neural Network (GNN)-based algorithms. However, GNN-based track finding is computationally slow on CPUs, necessitating the use of coprocessors to accelerate the inference time. Additionally, the large input graph size demands a large device memory for efficient computation, a requirement not met by all computing facilities used for particle physics experiments, particularly those lacking advanced GPUs. Furthermore, deploying the GNN-based track-finding algorithm in a production environment requires the installation of all dependent software packages, exclusively utilized by this algorithm. These computing challenges must be addressed for the successful implementation of GNN-based track-finding algorithm into production settings. In response, we introduce a ``GNN-based tracking as a service'' approach, incorporating a custom backend within the NVIDIA Triton inference server to facilitate GNN-based tracking. This paper presents the performance of this approach using the Perlmutter supercomputer at NERSC.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Using predictions of outcomes of cache memory access requests for controlling whether a request generator sends memory access requests to a memory in parallel with cache memory access requests

An electronic device handles memory access requests for data in a memory. The electronic device includes a memory controller for the memory, a last-level cache memory, a request generator, and a predictor. The predictor determines a likelihood that a cache memory access request for data at a given address will hit in the last-level cache memory. Based on the likelihood, the predictor determines: whether a memory access request is to be sent by the request generator to the memory controller for the data in parallel with the cache memory access request being resolved in the last-level cache memory, and, when the memory access request is to be sent, a type of memory access request that is to be sent. When the memory access request is to be sent, the predictor causes the request generator to send a memory request of the type to the memory controller.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Bubble domain technology for spacecraft onboard memory

Bubble device technologies for spacecraft onboard memory offer improved reliability and memory functional characteristics. Recent advances include Permalloy gap devices (commercially available) whose improved performance and higher density are attributable to an asymmetric chevron pattern. Secondly, an order of magnitude increase in density at less power than the Permalloy technology is possible with the ion implant technology. A third technology, the self-structured current access system, offers another order of magnitude improvement in density and data rate, and is being studied. Capacity estimates for Permalloy gap, ion implant, and self-structured current access systems are, respectively, 10 to the 8th, 10 to the 9th, and 10 to the 10th bits, and power per unit data rate efficiencies are 140, 60, and 2 W/Mbps. A flexible modular organization system, compatible with all of these device technologies, is analyzed, and, as the system is contained in a bubble, relatively simple retrofitting is foreseen.

Hayes, P. J.↗

Shape-memory polymer foam device for treating aneurysms

A system for treating an aneurysm in a blood vessel or vein, wherein the aneurysm has a dome, an interior, and a neck. The system includes a shape memory polymer foam in the interior of the aneurysm between the dome and the neck. The shape memory polymer foam has pores that include a first multiplicity of pores having a first pore size and a second multiplicity of pores having a second pore size. The second pore size is larger than said first pore size. The first multiplicity of pores are located in the neck of the aneurysm. The second multiplicity of pores are located in the dome of the aneurysm.

Ortega, Jason M.↗

High Density Memory Based on Quantum Device Technology

We explore the feasibility of ultra-high density memory based on quantum devices. Starting from overall constraints on chip area, power consumption, access speed, and noise margin, we deduce boundaries on single cell parameters such as required operating voltage and standby current. Next, the possible role of quantum devices is examined. Since the most mature quantum device, the resonant tunneling diode (RTD) can easily be integrated vertically, it naturally leads to the issue of 3D integrated memory. We propose a novel method of addressing vertically integrated bistable two-terminal devices, such as resonant tunneling diodes (RTD) and Esaki diodes, that avoids individual physical contacts. The new concept has been demonstrated experimentally in memory cells of field effect transistors (FET's) and stacked RTD's.

vanderWagt, Paul↗

A study of nitride devices for computer memory applications

Metal-nitride-oxide-silicon /MNOS/ capacitors act like metal-nitride-silicon /MNS/ capacitors with extra interface where sheet of charge can be stored in slow states. Flatband voltage shifts over a wide range by adjusting store charge density.

Raburn, W. D.↗

Near-Field Heat Transfer Enabled Nanothermomechanical Memory and Logic Devices

A thermomechanical memory/logic device is disclosed. In embodiments, the thermomechanical device includes a first thermally controlled terminal (e.g., hot terminal); a second thermally controlled terminal (e.g., cool terminal/base); a stem or other structure that can be thermally expanded connected to the cool terminal; and a thermal conductive head coupled to the stem. The head can exchange heat with the hot terminal. The stem and head are between the first thermally controlled terminal and the second thermally controlled terminal, wherein the stem expands or contracts in response to heat absorbed or given off by the thermal conductive head, causing the head to move towards the first thermally controlled terminal or towards the second thermally controlled terminal until a stable state is reached. For example, bistable thermal states can be used to implement logic states (e.g., ZERO or ONE states).

Ndao, Sidy↗