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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Multi-scale Dynamics of Water Regulation by Bacteria in Synthetic Soil Microsystems (Final Technical Report)

The objective of this project was to develop a multifunctional in situ platform to link gene expression, regulation, and function with the spatiotemporal context of the whole cell environment. In particular, we focus on a synthetic rhizosphere microhabitat and spatial regulation of genes encoding production of exopolysaccharides, or EPS. We have fully met this objective and report results that support the hypothesis: microbial EPS production, acting at pore throats, limits water evaporation and promotes resilience of terrestrial soil systems.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Optical Microsystems for Molecular Sensing (CRADA Final Report)

As part of the Cyclotron Road program, NuSight Photonics sought to implement and investigate an optical Raman spectroscopy instrument for material and molecular analysis. Raman spectroscopy is widely used for quick and non-invasive material measurement when accurate results are needed – e.g., for monitoring manufacturing process in pharmaceutical plants, or identifying illicit substances and explosives by Law Enforcement. This technique is also growing rapidly in popularity as it is applied successfully to a broad range of applications, from pathology and non-invasive early cancer detection, to food and drug safety. The biggest challenge for Raman spectroscopy to achieve its full potential is the hardware cost, ranging from $\$ $25k to $\$ $250k, with the lower cost solutions significantly limited in sensitivity—or detection limit. NuSight Photonics aimed to tackle this obstacle through a novel hardware approach: Swept-Source Raman Spectroscopy.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1990

Volumetric imaging of space debris using sun microsystem's TAAC-1 application accelerator board

Analysis of space debris requires the researcher to have a three-dimensional spatial framework and understanding. By using computers to image and display the space debris volumes, the researcher is provided with an added visual analysis tool. This paper describes volumetric visualization of space debris. Two imaging approaches are used. The first method visualizes the cube faces of the volumetric image. The second method uses a ray-tracing technique to display surfaces within the volume. Three examples of space debris volumes are described.

Luetkemeyer, Kelly G.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Smart Microsystems with Photonic Element and Their Applications to Aerospace Platforms

The need to make manufacturing, operation, and support of airborne vehicles safer and more efficient forces engineers and scientists to look for lighter, cheaper, more reliable technologies. Light weight, immunity to EMI, fire safety, high bandwidth, and high signal fidelity have already made photonics in general and fiber optics in particular an extremely attractive medium for communication purposes. With the fiber optics serving as a central nervous system of the vehicle, generation, detection, and processing of the signal occurs at the peripherals that include smart structures and devices. Due to their interdisciplinary nature, photonic technologies cover such diverse areas as optical sensors and actuators, embedded and distributed sensors, sensing schemes and architectures, harnesses and connectors, signal processing and algorithms. The paper includes a brief description of work in the photonic area that is going on at NASA, especially at the Glenn Research Center (GRC).

Adamovsky, G.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Glennan Microsystems Initiative

During the 2001-2002 award period, we performed research on Pt/Ti/bare 6H-SiC and bare 4H-SiC interfaces in order to identify their electronic properties as a function of surface preparation. The overall aim of this work is to optimize the electronic properties of metal contacts to SiC as well as the active SiC material itself as a function of surface preparation and subsequent processing. Initially, this work has involved identifying bare surface, subsurface, and metal induced gap states at the metal-SiC contact and correlating energies and densities of deep levels with Schottky barrier heights. We used low energy electron-excited nanoluminescence (LEEN) spectroscopy, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), and Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) in order to correlate electronic states and energy bands with chemical composition, bonding, and crystal structure. A major development has been the discovery of polytype transformations that occur in 4H-SiC under standard microelectronic process conditions used to fabricate SiC devices. Our results are consistent with the stacking fault generation, defect formation, and consequent degradation of SiC recently reported for state-of-the-art ABB commercial diodes under localized electrical stress. Our results highlight the importance of -optimizing process conditions and material properties - anneal times, temperatures and doping to control such structural changes within epitaxial SiC layers. Thus far, we have established threshold times and temperatures beyond which 4H-SiC exhibits 3C-SiC transformation bands for a subset of dopant concentrations and process conditions. On the basis of this temperature time behavior, we have been able to establish an activation energy of approximately 2.5 eV for polytype transformation and dislocation motion. Work continues to establish the fundamental mechanisms underlying the polytype changes and its dependence on material parameters.

Brillson, Leonard J.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Fourier-transform optical microsystems

The design, fabrication, and initial characterization of a miniature single-pass Fourier-transform spectrometer (FTS) that has an optical bench that measures 1 cm x 5 cm x 10 cm is presented. The FTS is predicated on the classic Michelson interferometer design with a moving mirror. Precision translation of the mirror is accomplished by microfabrication of dovetailed bearing surfaces along single-crystal planes in silicon. Although it is miniaturized, the FTS maintains a relatively high spectral resolution, 0.1 cm-1, with adequate optical throughput.

NASA Discipline Environmental Health↗
NASA NTRS1998

NASA Center for Integrated Space Microsystems

Develop and maintain a world class, leading edge capability in Advanced Avionic Systems and Advanced Microelectronics Technologies for future highly integrated, miniaturized, autonomous spacecraft systems for deep-space and Earth orbiting missions.

CISM Avionics Microelectronics Miniaturization Aut↗
NASA NTRS2009

VLSI Microsystem for Rapid Bioinformatic Pattern Recognition

A system comprising very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuits is being developed as a means of bioinformatics-oriented analysis and recognition of patterns of fluorescence generated in a microarray in an advanced, highly miniaturized, portable genetic-expression-assay instrument. Such an instrument implements an on-chip combination of polymerase chain reactions and electrochemical transduction for amplification and detection of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

Fang, Wai-Chi↗
NASA NTRS2011

Biochip microsystem for bioinformatics recognition and analysis

A system with applications in pattern recognition, or classification, of DNA assay samples. Because DNA reference and sample material in wells of an assay may be caused to fluoresce depending upon dye added to the material, the resulting light may be imaged onto an embodiment comprising an array of photodetectors and an adaptive neural network, with applications to DNA analysis. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Lue, Jaw-Chyng↗