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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 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Physical Compact Model for Three-Terminal SONOS Synaptic Circuit Element

A well-posed physics-based compact model for a three-terminal silicon–oxide–nitride–oxide–silicon (SONOS) synaptic circuit element is presented for use by neuromorphic circuit/system engineers. Based on technology computer aided design (TCAD) simulations of a SONOS device, the model contains a nonvolatile memristor with the state variable QM representing the memristor charge under the gate of the three-terminal element. By incorporating the exponential dependence of the memristance on QM and the applied bias V for the gate, the compact model agrees quantitatively with the results from TCAD simulations as well as experimental measurements for the drain current. The compact model is implemented through VerilogA in the circuit simulation package Cadence Spectre and reproduces the experimental training behavior for the source–drain conductance of a SONOS device after applying writing pulses ranging from –12 V to +11 V, with an accuracy higher than 90%.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Next-Generation Marine Energy Software Needs Assessment

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office’s (WPTO) initial investment in marine energy software was driven by needs identified over a decade ago. WPTO-funded research was first launched because of a U.S. congressional mandate that called for the DOE to officially research marine energy technologies, which also established the DOE WPTO in 2008. A congressional mandate requested the WPTO to evaluate a variety of marine energy devices, establish baseline levelized cost of energy estimates, and provide an overall report to Congress. This congressional mandate led to the Reference Model Project (RMP), for which WPTO funded a national multi-laboratory team to develop these reference models, based on state-of-the-art designs of six marine energy converter archetypes that consisted of three current energy converters and three wave energy converters (WEC). Each device was designed to operate for a specific marine resource, thus allowing the devices to serve as reference models for future studies. The RMP congressional report cited the need for improved marine energy software to handle a variety of device designs, as well as a need to standardize performance outputs. Without validated software packages and established metrics, information presented to the WPTO by technology developers could be incorrect or inaccurate and result in misleading conclusions. The recommendation to coordinate WPTO investment in software for numerical modeling and analysis was given a high priority because it would directly fill needs at the time, and focused funding would amplify impact. By sponsoring software development, WPTO would provide industry developers, university researchers, and national laboratories software that could be used, customized, and advanced, thus supporting the overall advancement of marine energy.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2026

A Mobile Hot Cell for Conditioning Disused Sealed Radioactive Sources for Storage or Transportation

An innovative Mobile Hot Cell (MHC) has been developed for conditioning Disused Sealed Radioactive Sources (DSRS) category 1 and 2 for storage or transportation. The MHC is designed to provide both Radiological and Biological containment with a maximum capacity of 1000 Ci Co60 or 5000Ci Cs137 source and can be transported via standard cargo containers. This project has been supported through the National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) Offsite Source Recovery Program (OSRP). The project is intended for the international community rather than domestic although domestic use is a possibility. Many countries have significant stockpiles of these devices that are often stored in less-than-optimal circumstances. This necessitates that these devices be addressed expeditiously, and the sources secured. The MHC utilizes robotics, automation, and other non-traditional methods for disassembling, characterizing, and packaging these sources that have reached end of life or are otherwise not needed. These innovative approaches are necessary to facilitate an expedited timeline to efficiently and safely secure these sources in a non-proliferation effort. Conditioning efforts include disassembling the device such as a teletherapy head used for cancer treatment, or blood/research irradiators such that the radioactive sources may be removed safely. The sources are then characterized. Leak checks are performed, dimensions are verified, and serial numbers are confirmed. Upon completion, the sources are typically placed into a Standard Forms Capsule which is seal welded closed. It is leak tested and placed into a Long-Term Storage Shield (LTSS) which can either be secured for storage directly or loaded into an appropriate cask for transportation. Further innovations include multiple deployment scenarios that include a full deployment of MHC components, deployment of the MHC automation internal components to an existing hot cell, deployment of minimally required MHC components and incorporation of sand for shielding, and integration of the MHC for Silo Storage, or Bore Hole Storage efforts. The MHC has evolved from a very specific use case to a “Swiss Army Knife” type of a tool in that it can be readily adapted to a large variety of situations. Innovative approaches such as the use of robotics, Computer Numeric Control (CNC) machining centers, automated welding equipment, HDMI Cameras, and LED lighting are some of the developed technologies incorporated into the MHC design. Shielding is accomplished with a steel walled Base Box which is surrounded by four nesting doll shield shells which when combined limits the external dose rate to 5mr/hr when a 1000 Ci Co60 source is exposed inside.

99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Wind Supply Chain Security: Hardware Enumeration and Analysis

This project, undertaken by Idaho National Laboratory (INL) for the Department of Energy (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO), focused on the enumeration and analysis of six key devices important to wind technologies. The devices analyzed included Beckhoff Bus Terminal Controllers (BK1120 and BC9000), a Beckhoff Economy Built-in Panel PC (CP6231), an N-Tron Managed Industrial Ethernet Switch (711FX3), a Bachmann M1 Gateway, and a Bachmann Smart Power Plant Controller. Device selection was driven by availability and budget constraints, with several components sourced from existing wind farms and others procured through a co-agreement with another WETO-funded project. The project's primary objective was to create a hardware bill of materials (HBOM) for each device, identifying and documenting all components to assess potential security and supply chain risks. A detailed analysis revealed over 750 unique components across the six devices, with 80% successfully identified and accompanied by datasheets. Notably, Texas Instruments emerged as the leading supplier, providing over 16% of the components, followed by ON Semiconductor at 11.3%, Analog Devices at 5.3%, and Renesas Electronics Corp at 4.1%. Other notable vendors included Toshiba Corporation, iC-Haus Corporation, Atmel, Vishay, and STMicroelectronics. The enumeration process involved thorough documentation of each component, including its designation, quantity, identifiers, pin package, description, vendor, model, and country of origin. This process provided valuable insights into the complexity and diversity of the electronic systems within these wind devices. It also highlighted the distinct separation of components between vendors, suggesting a trend of vendor-specific component usage. Key findings from the project emphasized the importance of broadening the scope of vendor analysis in future research to gain a comprehensive understanding of component distribution and commonality. The identification of vendor-specific component usage patterns offers new avenues for research and underscores the significance of continued investigation in this field. Overall, this project provides critical insights into the component composition of wind devices, aiding in the development of improved supply chain management and component sourcing strategies. The results contribute valuable knowledge to the wind technology sector, laying the groundwork for enhanced security and resilience in wind energy systems.

17 - WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Integration Methods for High-Density Integrated Electric Drives (Final Technical Report)

The project goal was to research, design and fabricate high-power-density, high-performance SiC power electronic modules for motor drive inverters in electric vehicles (EVs) to enable the subsequent motor drive to achieve a power density of 100 kW/l. EVs use electric motors instead of internal combustion engines as the prime mover, and their core components are semiconductor-based power electronic modules. Efficient power electronic modules play a vital role in power conversion systems. The performance of power modules directly affects the energy efficiency and overall performance of electric vehicles. Therefore, it is particularly important to develop power modules with high power density and high electrical performance that will perform reliably under EV environmental conditions. To achieve these goals, advanced electronic packaging technologies are required. This report describes a 5-year effort to integrate key aspects surrounding the basic power devices into the module itself to increase power density. These include sensing and sensing readout circuits, gate driver circuits, and two-sided cooling solutions.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Load-Packaged AC/DC and DC/DC Power Electronics Converter Performance Data

This data set contains experimentally characterized performance data from load-packaged alternating current to direct current (AC/DC) and direct current to direct current (DC/DC) power electronics converters associated with lighting devices and miscellaneous electrical loads typically found in commercial buildings in the United States. The data set contains input power, output power, efficiency, and harmonic spectrum data for 58 AC/DC converters and 35 DC/DC converters.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

D2U: Data Driven User Emulation for the Enhancement of Cyber Testing, Training, and Data Set Generation

Whether testing intrusion detection systems, conducting training exercises, or creating data sets to be used by the broader cybersecurity community, realistic user behavior is a critical component of a cyber range. Existing methods either rely on network level data or replay recorded user actions to approximate real users in a network. Our work is the first to produce generative models trained on actual user data (sequences of application usage) collected on endpoints. Once trained to the user's behavioral data, these models can generate novel sequences of actions %that appear to come from the same distribution as the training data. These sequences of actions are then fed to our custom software via configuration files, which replicate those behaviors on end devices. Notably, our models are platform agnostic and could generate behavior data for any emulation software package. In this paper we present our model generation process, software architecture, and an initial evaluation of the fidelity of our models. Our software is currently deployed in a cyber range to help evaluate the efficacy of defensive cyber technologies. We suggest additional ways that the cyber community as a whole can benefit from more realistic user behavior emulation. The data used to train our model, as well as sample configuration files produced by the model, are available at [redacted].

Oesch, T↗
DOE OSTI2025

Real-Time Testbed for Studying Cyberattacks and Defense in DER-integrated Smart Inverter Systems

In this paper, we propose a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation testbed suitable for the implementation and testing of realistic cyberattacks on grid-tied smart inverter systems integrated with Distributed Energy Resources (DER) that use the Distributed Network Protocol-3 (DNP3) protocol for communications between grid components. Specifically, our testbed combines a Real-Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) NovaCor device, outfitted with GNETx2 network interface cards, a gridtied DER topology implemented via the RTDS software package RSCAD, and a custom virtual network that emulates a man in the middle attacker. The Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacker captures DNP3 traffic and falsifies telemetry data in DNP3 packets to trigger unwarranted commands from a DNP3 controller that exploit smart inverter grid support functions. We choose DNP3 and implement grid support functions according to the IEEE Std. 1547-2018 mandated for the interconnection and interoperability of DER power systems with associated power components. Furthermore, we develop a protocol payload agnostic attack detection framework that leverages the round-trip time (RTT) anomalies between DNP3 requests and responses and can detect the presence of attacks without having to analyze the payload’s contents, while balancing trade-offs between false alarm counts, missed detections, and time to detection. To facilitate further research, we publicly release benign and attack network traffic exchanged between various sensors, controllers, and actuators in our grid-tied inverter testbed.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2026

Power Electronics Module with Integrated Ceramic Heat Exchanger

NREL, in partnership with Synteris and Packet Digital, has developed a 3D-printable ceramic package for power electronic modules to improve their thermal management, power density, performance, and lifetime. Existing power modules contain flat ceramic substrates that serve as both the electrically insulating component and thermal conductor that transfer the large heat outputs of these devices. The team has developed an additive manufacturing process that replaces the traditional insulating metalized substrate, substrate attach, and baseplate/heat exchanger with an additively-manufactured ceramic packaging that acts as both an electrical insulator and heat exchanger for better thermal management. The design, manufacturability, and function of this power module will be discussed.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Radiation-Hardened GaN HEMT and Cell Design, Modeling, and Fabrication for Nuclear Instrumentation Applications

Recent advances in nuclear power generation technologies show great promise for efficient, safe generation of carbon-free power in the near future. Consequently, many new generation reactor designs are being pursued by government and industry groups, including both fission- and fusion-based technologies. Radiation- and temperature-tolerant sensor technology continues to advance, yet development of the electronics/instrumentation technologies suitable for these environments have fallen behind. Industry has adequately addressed harsh environment electronics needs for low earth orbit satellites, but the much more extreme conditions associated with electronics placed near or in a reactor core remain unaddressed. This project investigates the use of gallium nitride (GaN) circuit technology to address the unique needs for sensor interface electronics and communications in reactor environments. This report provides a summary of the first year’s project activities related to developing and optimizing devices and circuits for this GaN high electronic mobility transistor (HEMT) process. Activities reported include multiple analog and digital circuit designs simulated using custom Verilog-A models generated from measured GaN devices fabricated in the target process. Digital circuit designs included fundamental logic circuits such as an inverter, NAND, NOR, AND and OR gates, as well as a 5-stage ring oscillator. Each design was simulated using an open-source SPICE simulator, and an integrated circuit layout was produced of each design for use in future fabrication. Analog circuit designs focused on the fundamental building blocks to be used to construct sensor interface and communications circuits. These included current mirrors, matched differential pairs, and a Gilbert cell mixer design, each with an associated integrated circuit layout. Layout tools used for these designs included two open-source packages—KLayout and Magic—which were customized for specific use with the OSU GaN process layers. Design rules and preliminary device extraction capabilities were built for the Magic tool to enable device extraction and subsequent netlist generation for SPICE simulation. Finally, future research directions for year two are summarized. When the year-two directions are implemented, the project will be in position to advance the state of the art in electronics for near- or in-reactor sensor interfacing and communications.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

AEcroscopy: A Software–Hardware Framework Empowering Microscopy Toward Automated and Autonomous Experimentation

Microscopy has been pivotal in improving the understanding of structure-function relationships at the nanoscale and is by now ubiquitous in most characterization labs. However, traditional microscopy operations are still limited largely by a human-centric click-and-go paradigm utilizing vendor-provided software, which limits the scope, utility, efficiency, effectiveness, and at times reproducibility of microscopy experiments. Here, in this work, a coupled software–hardware platform is developed that consists of a software package termed AEcroscopy (short for Automated Experiments in Microscopy), along with a field-programmable-gate-array device with LabView-built customized acquisition scripts, which overcome these limitations and provide the necessary abstractions toward full automation of microscopy platforms. The platform works across multiple vendor devices on scanning probe microscopes and electron microscopes. It enables customized scan trajectories, processing functions that can be triggered locally or remotely on processing servers, user-defined excitation waveforms, standardization of data models, and completely seamless operation through simple Python commands to enable a plethora of microscopy experiments to be performed in a reproducible, automated manner. This platform can be readily coupled with existing machine-learning libraries and simulations, to provide automated decision-making and active theory-experiment optimization to turn microscopes from characterization tools to instruments capable of autonomous model refinement and physics discovery.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2026

Emulsion droplets detection suite

The code is a set of Python libraries/scripts that leverage open source computer vision packages like YOLO and SAM2 to identify emulsion droplets in plate reader images and videos of microfluidic device flows.

Reddy, Tyler [LANL]↗
DOE OSTI2021

A Double-side Cooled SiC MOSFET Power Module with Sintered-silver Interposers: I. Design, Simulation, Fabrication, and Performance Characterization

Planar, double-side cooled power modules are emerging in electric-drive inverters because of their low profile, better heat extraction, and lower package parasitic inductances. However, there is still concern about their reliability due to the rigid interconnection between the device chips and two substrates of the power module. In this paper, a porous interposer made of low-temperature sintered silver is introduced to reduce the thermo-mechanical stresses in the module. A double-side cooled half-bridge module consisting of two 1200 V, 149 A SiC MOSFETs was designed, fabricated, and characterized. By using the sintered-Ag instead of solid copper interposers, our simulation results showed that at a total power loss of 200 W, the thermo-mechanical stress at the most vulnerable interfaces (interposer-attach layer) was reduced by 42 % and in the SiC MOSFET by 50 % with a trade-off of only 3.6 % increase in junction temperature. The sintered-Ag interposers were readily fabricated into desired dimensions without post-machining and did not require any surface finishing for die-bonding and substrate interconnection by silver sintering. Here, the porous interposers were also deformable under a low force or pressure, which helped to accommodate chip thickness and/or substrate-to-substrate gap variations in the planar module structure, thus simplifying module fabrication. Experimental results on the electrical performance of the fabricated SiC modules validated the success of using the porous silver interposers for fabricating planar, double-side cooled power modules.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

300_underground robot (final research report)

Recent advancements in mobile robotics have displayed impressive capabilities in traversing and accessing areas that are inaccessible to humans either due to the characteristics of the environment or potential hazards. Furthermore, these advancements within the field of mobile robotics, more specifically uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs), give the ability to potentially survey, observe, and map these inaccessible areas for humans. However, one of the most challenging areas to implement this technology is underground environments. The main challenge with implementing this technology in underground environments is the dependence on either GPS or RF communication for UGVs to navigate properly. Therefore, in order to properly demonstrate the mapping capabilities of the UGV this challenge must be resolved. The overall goal of this study is to demonstrate the mapping capabilities of a UGV while addressing this challenge and documenting the implementation and testing phase of the robot. The proposed solution to this challenge is to implement a SLAM algorithm onto the main computational device of the UGV utilizing the Robot Operating System (ROS). The algorithm is the open-source software package Slam Toolbox developed by Steve Macenski. Furthermore, the sllidar_ros2 package from Slamtec will be used to gather the lidar data from an A3M1 2D lidar. A separate program will be created to gather odometry information for our UGV robot. All of these software packages will run together in a Docker environment. Through working on this project I have developed a better understanding of the world of robotics/autonomous systems, especially with applications such as navigation and mapping. Furthermore, through this project, I have been given exposure to how research is conducted within a DOE lab setting. As robotics/autonomous systems become more advanced it's important to pursue more avenues of research such as this project as it will ensure the development of our capabilities.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Validating a Tethered Balloon System and Optical Technologies for Marine Wildlife Detection and Tracking

The interactions between marine wildlife and marine energy devices are not well understood, leading to regulatory delays for device deployments and testing. Technologies that enable marine wildlife observations can help to fill data gaps and reduce uncertainties about animal–device interactions. A validation test conducted in Galveston Bay near La Porte, Texas, in December 2022 used a technology package consisting of a tethered balloon system and three independent sensor systems, including three-band visible, eight-band multispectral, and single-band thermal to detect three marine-mammal-shaped surrogates. The field campaign aimed to provide an initial step to evaluating the use of the TBS and the effectiveness of the sensor suite for marine wildlife observations and detection. From 2 December to 7 December 2022, 6 flights were conducted under varying altitudes and environmental conditions resulting in the collection of 5454 images. A subset of the images was classified and analyzed with two collection criteria including Beaufort wind force scale and TBS altitude to assess a range of observations of a surrogate from near-shore to offshore based on pixel count. The results of this validation test demonstrate the potential for using TBSs and imaging sensors for marine wildlife observations and offer valuable information for further development and application of this technology for marine energy and other blue economy sectors.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

G4CMP: Condensed matter physics simulation using the G$\scriptsize{\mathrm{EANT}}$4 toolkit

G4CMP simulates phonon and charge transport in cryogenic semiconductor crystals using the Geant4 toolkit. The transport code is capable of simulating the propagation of acoustic phonons as well as electron and hole charge carriers. Herein processes for anisotropic phonon propagation, oblique charge-carrier propagation, and phonon emission by accelerated charge carriers are included. The simulation reproduces theoretical predictions and experimental observations such as phonon caustics, heat-pulse propagation times, and mean charge-carrier drift velocities. In addition to presenting the physics and features supported by G4CMP, this report outlines example applications from the dark matter and quantum information science communities. These communities are applying G4CMP to model and design devices for which the energy transported by phonons and charge carriers is germane to the performance of superconducting instruments and circuits placed on silicon and germanium substrates. The G4CMP package is available to download from GitHub: github.com/kelseymh/G4CMP.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

High-Density, Actively Multiplexed µECoG Array on Reinforced Silicone Substrate

Simultaneous interrogation of electrical signals from wide areas of the brain is vital for neuroscience research and can aid in understanding the mechanisms of brain function and treatments for neurological disorders. There emerges a demand for development of devices with highly conformal interfaces that can span large cortical regions, have sufficient spatial resolution, and chronic recording capability while keeping a small implantation footprint. In this work, we have designed 61 channel and 48 channel high-density, cortical, micro-electrocorticographic electrode arrays with 400 µm pitch on an ultra-soft but durable substrate. We have also developed a custom multiplexing integrated circuit (IC), methods for packaging the IC in a water-tight liquid crystal polymer casing, and a micro-bonding method for attaching the electronics package to the electrode array. With the integrated multiplexer, the number of external wire connections can be reduced to 16 wires, thereby diminishing the invasive footprint of the device. Both the electrode array and IC were tested in vivo in a rat model to demonstrate the ability to sense finely-localized electrophysiological signals.

Rachinskiy, Iakov↗
DOE OSTI2026

A Compact Monolithic Electro-Optic Package for Quantum Microwave-to-Optical Transduction

We present a novel quantum transduction package that integrates a macroscopic electro-optic crystal into a compact, monolithic assembly designed for superconducting quantum processors. The device provides an efficient and scalable interface between microwave and optical domains while preserving cryogenic compatibility. We performed full-wave and quantum dynamical simulations to assess the performance of the hybrid system, focusing on the interaction between a transmon-based microwave cavity and the crystal’s and cavity low-frequency microwave mode. The transmon operates both as an ancilla for the QPU and as a nonlinear element enabling four-wave mixing between cavity and electro-optic crystal microwave fields. Our results indicate that this architecture can coherently mediate quantum information transfer from the cavity to the electro-optic mode, offering a promising platform for on-chip quantum transduction within superconducting quantum networks.

Reineri, Alessandro [Fermilab] (ORCID:000000016175↗