TB0319 PDF

Welcome to your Digital Edition of
Tech Briefs, Photonics & Imaging Technology,

and Sensor Technology
Included in This March Edition:
Photonics & Imaging
Tech Briefs Technology Sensor Technology
March 2019 www.techbriefs.com Vol. 43 No. 3
March 2019
March 2019
New Technique
3D-Prints Piezoelectric
Materials
Lightweighting in SPECIAL SECTION:

Aerospace Design Technology Leaders in
Materials/Coatings/Adhesives
Create the Future Contest Bluetooth
Alumni Success Stories The Role Mesh —
The Next
SAE WCX Preview Deep Learning
Big Thing
Plays in Imaging
Software Anatomy of a
Wireless Sensor
Additive Manufacturing System
Using Infrared and
SPECIAL SECTION: Embedding Smart
X-Ray Imaging
Technology Leaders in Sensors in Concrete
Cameras & Imaging Systems A New Route to High Sensitivity Driverless Forklifts
Pressure Sensors Untethered
Supplement to Tech
NASABriefs
Tech Briefs Supplement to Tech Briefs
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March 2019 www.techbriefs.com Vol. 43 No. 3
New Technique
3D-Prints Piezoelectric
Materials
Lightweighting in SPECIAL SECTION:

Aerospace Design Technology Leaders in
Materials/Coatings/Adhesives
Create the Future Contest
Alumni Success Stories
SAE WCX Preview
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March 2019 • Vol. 43 No. 3
Contents
Features 26
10 Products of Tomorrow
18 Lightweighting in Aerospace Component and System

Design
26 Create the Future Design Contest Alumni Achieve

Market Success
30 SAE WCX: Bringing You the Future of Mobility
67 Facility Focus
72 NASA Spinoff: Rocket Fuel Technology Creates Art

60
Solutions
38 Electrical/Electronics
38 Electronics Withstand Extreme Heat
38 Interoperable Intelligent Controllers for Process Management

and Control Networks
39 “Light-Written” Photonic Memory Devices

64
40 Microfabrication Technique Modifies Semiconductor Material
Atom-by-Atom
41 Composable Storage Platform for High-Performance Computing
42 Materials & Coatings
42 Delamination and Porosity in Composites and Adhesives Using

Solid and Particulate Powdered Aerogel
42 “Metallic Wood” Has the Strength of Titanium and the Density

of Water
44 Composite Advances Lignin as Renewable 3D Printing Material
44 Nanoscale Pillars Act as Memory Foam Departments

46 Aeronautics 8 UpFront
46 Multi-Purpose, Flexible Wing Structure for Small Unmanned 14 Q&A

Aerial Systems 16 5 Ws
46 Flexible, Spinning Heat Shield for Spacecraft 71 Advertisers Index
47 Foldable Drone Flies Through Narrow Holes
48 Airborne Machine Learning Estimates for Local Winds and

Kinematics
New for Design Engineers
64 New on the Market
49 Variable-Depth, Multilayer Liner for Aircraft Noise Reduction
50 Mechanical & Fluid Systems
50 System Selectively Sequesters Toxins from Water Special Section

51 Computer-Controlled Exercise Equipment Technology Leaders in Materials/Coatings/Adhesives
32 The Heat is On: A Guide to Specifying Insulation Materials
52 High-Power Thermoelectric Generator
(Solutions continued on page 6)
4 www.techbriefs.com Tech Briefs, March 2019

A robot that sees, acts, and learns,
programmed in an afternoon.
That’s Model-Based Design.
To create an advanced humanoid robot

that can perceive, throw, and catch a ball,
engineers at DLR used Model-Based Design
with MATLAB® and Simulink®.
Result: the team could integrate control and
vision for catching, optimize the throwing
trajectory, generate embedded software,
and verify it worked —
in one afternoon.
mathworks.com/mbd
Photo of Agile Justin

autonomous robot
courtesy of German
Aerospace Center (DLR),
Robotics and Mechatronics
Center
©2019 The MathWorks, Inc.

Contents
52 Precision Low-Speed Motor Controller 60 Generative Design Enhances Autonomous Vehicle Development
53 MEMS Switch Extends Life of Cellphones 61 Optimal Computational Vision Pipeline (OCVP)
54 Propulsion
54 Sublimable Propellant Source for Iodine-Fed Ion Propulsion

System
Product of the Month
Boothroyd Dewhurst (Wakefield, RI) announced
54 Green Electric Monopropellant (GEM)-Fueled Pulsed Plasma Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA®)
Thruster 2019 software for analyzing parts and assemblies.
55 Small-Body Dynamics Toolkit Version 5.0 64

56 Real-Time, Fuel-Optimal, Powered Descent Guidance Using
Interpolated Time-of-Flight and Propellant Mass
On the cover
56 Fuel Cell/Fuel Cell Hybrid System
Piezoelectric materials convert strain and stress into elec-
57 Effects of Reynolds and Mach Numbers in Large Eddy tric charges. They come in only a few defined shapes
Simulation of Supersonic Round Jets and are made of brittle crystal and ceramic, requiring
manufacture in a cleanroom. Researchers at Virginia
58 Software Tech (Blacksburg, VA) developed methods to 3D-print
piezoelectric materials that can be custom-designed to
58 Self-Stabilizing, Distributed, Symmetric, Fault-Tolerant convert movement, impact, and stress from any direc-
tion into electrical energy. This image shows the internal
Synchronization
topology of the 3D-printed piezoelectrics, spanning the
width of a human hair. Learn more in 5 Ws on page 16.
58 Efficient Security for Cloud-Based Machine Learning
(Image courtesy of Virginia Tech)
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flat fee of $3.00 per copy be paid directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (222 Rose Wood Transactional Reporting Service is: ISSN 0145-319X194 $3.00+ .00
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UP
FRONT Linda Bell
Editorial Director
BIG Ideas in Planetary Readers Select 2018 Products of the Year

In December, Tech Briefs readers were asked to select the one product from our 2018
Greenhouses Products of the Month to be named Readers’ Choice Product of the Year. Thanks to
all of our readers who cast their votes. Here are the 2018 winners:
NASA and the
Na tional Institute COMSOL
of Aerospace (NIA) Burlington, MA
selected five univer- COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.4 multiphysics simulation
sity teams to partic- software includes the new COMSOL Compiler™ for creating
ipate in the 2019 standalone simulation applications.
Breakthrough, Innovative and Game- For Free Info Visit http://info.hotims.com/72991-125
changing (BIG) Idea Challenge that seeks
ideas for the design, installation, and sus- Teledyne LeCroy
tainable operation of a habitat-sized Mars Chestnut Ridge, NY
greenhouse, with the primary purpose of WaveSurfer 3000z oscilloscopes feature a capacitive
food production. The goal is to create a touchscreen, debug and analysis tools, multi-instrument
greenhouse to provide a vision for the capabilities, and support for a wider probe range.
plausible use of plants for space missions. For Free Info Visit http://info.hotims.com/72991-126
The five teams will present their concepts
at the BIG Idea Forum in April. Yokogawa Corp. of America
Visit http://bigidea.nianet.org Newnan, GA
The WT5000 power analyzer incorporates up to seven
What’s New on Techbriefs.com input channels and captures waveforms from high-speed
inverter devices while producing a stable measurement.
Here’s an Idea: Car For Free Info Visit http://info.hotims.com/72991-127
Hacking! Today’s cars are
more connected than
ever. Vehicles can commu- 3D Printer Will Recycle Plastic in Space
nicate with other vehicles, The first integrated 3D printer and recycler has
be sent software updates been launched to the International Space
via the cloud, or even help Station. The “Refabricator” will demonstrate the
you pay ahead of time for coffee as you pass capability to turn waste plastic and 3D-printed
Starbucks. But the more you open up inter- parts into high-quality 3D printer filament to cre-
nal parts of your system to this connectivity, ate new tools and materials. The entire process
the greater the chance that those vulnera- happens in a single automated machine about
bilities are accessible from the outside. In the size of a dorm room refrigerator. The demon-
this episode of Here’s an Idea, we talk with stration will use control plastic recycled multiple
researchers — including noted Jeep hack- times to create parts that will be tested for quality back on Earth.
er Chris Valasek — who who have found This technology could prove useful for future exploration missions to the Moon
weaknesses in today’s connected cars. and Mars. NASA awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to
Find us every month on Apple Podcasts or Tethers Unlimited of Seattle to build the machine.
subscribe and listen to every Here’s an Idea “When we begin launching humans to destinations beyond low-Earth orbit, space
episode at techbriefs.com/podcast will be at a premium,” said Niki Werkheiser, manager of In-Space Manufacturing at
NASA Marshall. “It simply won’t be feasible to send along replacement parts or tools
Next Month in Tech Briefs for everything on the spacecraft, and resupplying from Earth is cost- and time-prohib-
itive. The Refabricator will be key in demonstrating a sustainable logistics model to
The April issue will focus on Automotive fabricate, recycle, and reuse parts and waste materials.”
Design including challenges presented by Said Rob Hoyt, CEO of Tethers Unlimited, “Astronauts could use this technology
electric vehicle fast chargers. to manufacture and recycle food-safe utensils and turn what is now inconvenient
waste into feedstock to help build the next generation of space systems.”
Visit www.tethers.com/Refabricator.html
Connect with Tech Briefs
facebook.com/TechBriefsMagazine linkedin.com/company/tech-briefs-media twitter.com/TechBriefsMag

Overcome antenna crosstalk
issues with simulation.
Visualization of the electric field norm and 3D far field due to a transmitting
antenna. Antennas are intentionally large in this tutorial model.
Multiple antennas are needed to create more complex

communication systems on airplanes. But this arrangement of
transmitters and receivers can cause aircraft operation issues
due to crosstalk, or cosite interference. Simulation helps you
analyze the crosstalk effect on an aircraft and in turn find the
best antenna placement.
The COMSOL Multiphysics® software is used for simulating
designs, devices, and processes in all fields of engineering,
manufacturing, and scientific research. See how you can apply
it to antenna simulation.
comsol.blog/antenna-crosstalk

This column presents technologies that have
Products of applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the

products of tomorrow. To learn more about each
Tomorrow
technology, see the contact information provided for
that innovation.
► 3D-Printed
Implant to Treat
Spinal Cord Injury
University of California
San Diego developed a ► Advanced Fire-
rapid 3D printing technol- Retardant Materials
ogy to create a spinal cord. The implants promote
NASA’s Kennedy Space Cen-
nerve growth across spinal cord injuries, restoring
ter developed technology that
connections and lost function. The 3D scaffolding
imparts fire retardancy to
mimics central nervous system structures and acts as a
common polymers such as ny-
bridge to align regenerating axons from one end of
lons, polyesters, and acrylics.
the spinal cord injury to the other. The implants con-
The polymers are formed using conventional poly-
tain dozens of tiny, 200-micrometer-wide channels
mer processing techniques to introduce a special
that guide neural stem cell and axon growth along the
additive at concentrations ranging from 5% to 8%.
length of the spinal cord injury. The printing technol-
Tests showed that unmodified polymers burned 15
ogy produces implants in 1.6 seconds; the process is
times longer than the new materials with flame-
scalable to human spinal cord sizes.
retardant additives. In addition, the new materials
were found to be self-extinguishing and have little
Contact: Scott LaFee
to no risk of producing supertoxicants that could
Phone: 858-249-0456
be harmful if inhaled. They have uses in textiles,
E-mail: slafee@ucsd.edu
protective garments, airplane panels, electronics,
and cabling.
Contact: Kennedy Space Center Technology Transfer Office

Phone: 321-861-7158
E-mail: KSC-DL-TechnologyTransfer@mail.nasa.gov
https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/KSC-TOPS-32
► Ultra-Precise Ultrasound Sensors

Researchers at The University of Queensland (Australia) combined nanofabrication and
nanophotonics techniques to build ultra-precise ultrasound sensors on a silicon chip. The new and extremely sen-
sitive method of measuring ultrasound could revolutionize medical ultrasound, sonar imaging of underwater
objects, or navigation of unmanned aerial vehicles. The technology is so sensitive that it can hear miniscule ran-
dom forces from surrounding air molecules. The ultrasound sensors provide the ability to listen to the sound emit-
ted by living bacteria and cells.
Contact: Dominic Jarvis, University of Queensland

Phone: +61 413 334 924
E-mail: dominic.jarvis@uq.edu.au

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Sponsored Content
INSIDE STORY
Master Bond (Hackensack, NJ) focuses on developing the best in epoxies, silicones, UV cures, and other spe-
cialty adhesive systems including compounds that have passed NASA low-outgassing/ASTM E595 specifications.
These products are successfully employed in aerospace, electronics, optical, and many other industries mainly
because they ensure little to no volatile organic content, or VOCs. This is critical in devices like photonic sensors,
optical lenses, and satellite components. Tech Briefs spoke with Rohit Ramnath, Senior Product Engineer, and
Venkat Nandivada, Manager Technical Support, to learn more about these low-outgassing products.
TB: How is outgassing measured and what is ASTM E595? gassing adhesives performance was critical. One noteworthy
example was for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave
Venkat Nandivada: The industry standard for Observatory (LIGO), a large-scale physics experiment to detect
measuring outgassing in adhesives and other gravitational waves. Master Bond EP30-2 was qualified for sev-
materials is ASTM E595. NASA developed this eral bonding and sealing applications in the LIGO project.
test to screen outgassing materials for use in Considering the sensitivity involved, meeting the ASTM E595
space and it determines the volatile content of standard was not sufficient. EP30-2 surpassed more stringent
the material that is placed in a heated vacuum requirements of having a very low outgassing rate for various
chamber. The test chamber is at 125 °C with a gases such as hydrogen, helium, and total hydrocarbons.
vacuum level around 10-6 Torr. Volatiles that outgas from the sample
escape to a port and condense on a collector plate. The particles TB: How do silicones compare among the other adhesive
that condense on the collector plate are then weighed; this deter- chemistries for their outgassing properties, and what are the
mines the total mass loss, or TML. The amount of collected volatile advantages as well as tradeoffs of using a silicone?
condensable materials is known as the CVCM. The materials will
pass or fail the test based on these TML and CVCM measurements. Nandivada: Even though general-purpose silicones are not
To pass, the TML should be a maximum of 1% and the CVCM needs known for providing low outgassing properties, there are some
to be a maximum of 0.1%. special high-purity grades of silicones that meet ASTM E595
specification. Some of these special silicone grades have a TML
TB: What new developments have been made in curing mecha- of just 0.1% or less. These silicones are used in many sensitive
nisms for adhesives that offer low-outgassing properties? optical applications or electro-optical, electronics, aerospace, and
also in devices where low stress is extremely important. Silicones
Rohit Ramnath: Recent innovations in adhesive have a very high degree of flexibility and low modulus. That’s why
technology have enabled both the use of ultravi- they ensure that in these devices, stress is minimum. They also
olet (UV) light-curable adhesives to meet ASTM can withstand rigorous thermal shock. These would be among
E595, and the development of low-outgassing the advantages of a low-outgassing silicone as compared to a
dual-curing systems. Dual-curing means that highly stiff or very rigid low-outgassing epoxy. The main tradeoff
you can cure either by UV light and/or moderate is that silicones are not known to provide structural strength.
heat, so even shadowed-out portions will not Many epoxies are suitable for applications where you need high
remain uncured. This is very useful, especially where ultrafast cures shear or tensile or compressive strength. That is where you’d go
are needed while at the same time, excessive heat cannot be added to an epoxy, and it would perform much better.
because of sensitive electronics. Also, this class of dual-curing adhe-
sives works even when none of the substrates are optically clear. TB: What’s next for Master Bond low-outgassing adhesives?
TB: What are some technical advancements that low-out- Ramnath: One area of focus revolves around speed of cure or
gassing adhesives have made for electronic applications? speed of the adhesive application process. Another critical topic is
reducing the weight of components; that also reduces the overall
Nandivada: Special grades of low-outgassing adhesives suitable carbon footprint. Another innovation that Master Bond is concen-
for use in electronic devices include conformal coatings, potting, trating on is novelty fillers ranging from micron-sized fillers for
underfills, and die attach adhesives. There have been advance- electronics applications to nanoparticle fillers. We’re also paying
ments to achieve more convenient handling and processing along close attention to sustainability of new raw materials, while not
with rapid curing. This is important in applications with high-vol- compromising on meeting low-outgassing requirements.
ume production. Specialized one-component epoxies that fully Maintaining that balancing act is very important.
eliminate the need for measuring and mixing, and also provide
unlimited working life or unlimited pot life at room temperature Nandivada: We’re working on a graphene-based epoxy that will be
are available. Some also offer rapid curing, especially at higher launched soon and provides very thin bond lines. It can be used in
temperature around 125 °C. applications where high heat dissipation is required with low-out-
gassing properties. We’re also working on an LED curing product
TB: Can you give us a real-world example of where a low out- that cures at 405 nm and provides low-outgassing properties, espe-
gassing adhesive has been successfully used? cially in optical applications where UV adhesives cannot be used.
Ramnath: Published research articles that reference specific To learn more about Master Bond, read the full-length version
Master Bond products include applications where low-out- of this interview at www.techbriefs.com/InsideStory0319.

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High Precision
Displacement
Sensors
Q &
Who’s
AWho
at NASA
Siyi Xu, Harvard es the resistance of the fluid-filled chan-
John A. Paulson nel to increase. By sensing how much
School of the resistance has increased or de-
creased, you can tell the position of the
Engineering and
finger.
Applied Resistance is a bit tricky, because with
Sciences, the biocompatible solutions we’re using,
Cambridge, MA if you apply direct current/voltage or
exceed voltage thresholds, the fluid
could fail. We create an oscillator circuit
W orking with teams from Harvard, where the resistance of the sensor affects
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical the period of the oscillator. We have con-
Center, and Boston Children’s Hospi- figurations with many of these sensors
tal, Siyi Xu developed a soft, non-toxic, operated in parallel, so we inject a cur-
wearable sensor that attaches to the rent and then pick off different voltages
hand and measures grasp force and the and they are fed to the oscillator circuit.
motion of the hand and fingers. The We measure the period of the oscillator
sensor is designed to identify neuromo- and convert that to a voltage.
tor disabilities in prematurely born We measure force by knowing the
children. resistance. If you press on it, the resis-
tance will increase, and when you
Tech Briefs: What was the release it, it will fall back.
motivation for this project?
Tech Briefs: What applications are
Unaffected by Siyi Xu: We wanted to study the behav- possible?
ior of prematurely born children as they
Oil, Dirt, Water, grew. That’s why two of the most impor- Xu: Health monitoring, fatigue mon-
tant criteria were to make the sensors itoring, everyday use for factory work-
Radiation & more really safe and really small. ers subject to ergonomic challenges,
virtual reality, computer interfaces —
Tech Briefs: What is the structure of anything where you want to measure
the sensor? and utilize motion of the body. You can
Position have a glove with the soft sensors em-
Xu: We developed different designs bedded to remotely measure or control
Vibration for strain sensors and force sensors. For the pressure you apply in sports train-
Alignment the strain sensors, there is a silicone ing. If you’re working with a physical
substrate, a conductive liquid-filled therapist but you’re at home, how does
Dimensioning channel, and silicone-coated wires. the therapist know you’re doing the
There is also a thickness gradient from right exercises, conditioning the right
the two ends to the center to concen- muscles, and not the wrong muscles? It
For more information about trate the deformation onto the micro- can give remote feedback for those
our full line of eddy current channel. For the force sensors, we used types of things.
a multilayer architecture. We added
sensors, contact us today! microcylinders to support the channels Tech Briefs: You would have these
under deformation, thereby improving sensors all over your body at key
the linearity and decreasing the hys- points?
800-552-6267 teresis.
measuring@kaman.com Xu: Depending on what you want. If
kamansensors.com Tech Briefs: How do you measure you sprained your ankle, then you’d
motion and resistance? have them in a sock; if you had a leg
injury, they could be in a sleeve on
Xu: The strain sensor is attached to your legs.
the top side of a finger. As the finger To learn more, read a full transcript, or lis-
bends, the sensor is stretched and its ten to a downloadable podcast, visit
cross-sectional area decreases. This caus- www.techbriefs.com/podcast.
Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/72991-737 www.techbriefs.com Tech Briefs, March 2019

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5 Who
Ws of 3D-Printing
Piezoelectric Materials
Piezoelectric materials are used in everything from cellphones and

wearables, to robotics, energy harvesting, and tactile sensors.
What
Piezoelectric materials come in only a few defined shapes and are
made of brittle crystal and ceramic, requiring manufacture in a A printed flexible sheet of piezoelectric smart
cleanroom. This new design method and platform 3D-prints these material. (Photo by H. Cui of the Zheng Lab)
materials so they are not restricted by shape or size and can be
custom-designed to convert movement, impact, and stress from any
direction to electrical energy. By programming 3D active topology,
any combination of piezoelectric coefficients can be achieved
within a material, which can be used as transducers and sensors that
are not only flexible and strong but also respond to pressure,
vibration, and impact via electric signals that tell the location,
magnitude, and direction of the impacts. Highly sensitive
piezoelectric inks can be sculpted into complex 3D features with
ultraviolet light. The inks contain highly concentrated piezoelectric
nanocrystals bonded with UV-sensitive gels that form a solution that
is printed with a high-resolution digital light 3D printer. The
stiffness and shape of the material can be tuned and produced as a
thin sheet resembling a strip of gauze or as a stiff block. An assembled, smart, piezo-active structural sen-
sor.
Where
Virginia Tech College of Engineering, Blacksburg
When
The team has printed and demonstrated smart materials wrapped around
curved surfaces, worn on hands and fingers to convert motion, and harvest
the mechanical energy. A team is making wearable devices — such as rings
and shoe insoles — and is fitting them into a boxing glove to record
impact forces and monitor the health of the boxer.
Why
The technology has applications beyond consumer electronics. It can also
Internal topology of 3D-printed piezo-
electrics spanning the width of a human be applied as a smart transducer that converts underwater vibration signals
hair. to electric voltages. The structure of the material is the sensor — it can
monitor itself.
Watch a video about the technology on Tech Briefs TV at www.techbriefs.com/tv/print_piezo.

For more information, contact Dr. Xiaoyu Zheng at raynexzheng@vt.edu; 540-231-2476.

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Lightweighting
in Aerospace Component
and System Design
L
ightweighting design is an exten- as better acceleration, higher structural vanced lightweight materials on numeri-
sively explored and utilized con- strength and stiffness, and better safety cally optimized structures, which can be
cept in many industries, especially performance could also be achieved by fabricated with appropriate manufactur-
in aerospace applications, and is lightweight design. ing methods. As such, the application of
associated with the green aviation con- Lightweighting optimization of a lightweight materials can effectively
cept. The contribution of aviation to solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle achieve both weight reduction and per-
global warming phenomena and envi- (UAV) is an example of using both clean formance improvement. Although metal
ronmental pollution has led to ongoing energy and lightweight structures to materials — especially aluminum alloys
efforts for the reduction of aviation emis- achieve green aviation operation. Cur- — are still the dominant materials in
sions. Approaches to achieve this target rent solar-powered UAV designs face aerospace application, composite mate-
include increasing energy efficiency. An challenges such as insufficient energy rials have received increasing interest
effective way to increase energy efficien- density and wing stiffness. Lightweight and compete with aluminum alloys in
cy and reduce fuel consumption is reduc- design is essential for ultralight aviation, many new aircraft applications.
ing the mass of aircraft, as a lower mass enabling longer flight duration. Structural optimization is another
By muratart/Shutterstock.com
requires less lift force and thrust during The principle of lightweight design is effective way to achieve lightweighting, by
flight. For example, for the Boeing 787, a to use less material with lower density distributing materials to reduce materials
20% weight savings resulted in 10 to 12% while ensuring the same or enhanced use, and enhance the structural perfor-
improvement in fuel efficiency. In addi- technical performance. A typical ap- mance such as higher strength and stiff-
tion to reduction of carbon footprint, proach to achieve lightweight design for ness and better vibration performance.
flight performance improvements such aerospace components is to apply ad- Conventional structural optimization

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LIGHTWEIGHTING
concept of a box wing aircraft where

a shape optimization is employed in the
wing design. Structural efficiency could
be increased by using a box wing struc-
ture; higher stiffness and lower induced
drag force result from the box wing com-
pared with conventional wing structures.
Selecting Lightweight
Materials
The selection of aerospace materials is
crucial in aerospace component design
since it affects many aspects of aircraft
performance, from the design phase to
disposal, including structural efficiency,
b flight performance, payload, energy con-
sumption, safety and reliability, lifecycle
cost, recyclability, and disposability.
Critical requirements for aerospace
structural materials include mechanical,
physical, and chemical properties such as
high strength, stiffness, fatigue durabili-
ty, damage tolerance, low density, high
thermal stability, high corrosion and
oxide resistance, and commercial crite-
c ria such as cost, servicing, and manufac-
turability. Studies have indicated that the
most effective way to improve structural
efficiency is reducing density (around 3
to 5 times more effective compared with
increasing stiffness or strength), i.e.
using lightweight materials.
d The most commonly used commercial
aerospace structural materials are alu-
minum alloys, titanium alloys, high-
strength steels, and composites, general-
ly accounting for more than 90% of the
weight of airframes. From the 1920s
until the end of the century, metal —
because of its high strength and stiff-
ness, especially aluminum alloy — has
been the dominant material in airframe
fabrication, with safety and other flight
Figure 1. Lightweighting design examples: (a) SAW Revo aerobatic airplane, (b) Zephyr high-alti-
tude pseudo-satellite UAV, (c) concept Airbus future airplane model, and (d) concept for a box wing performance measures driving aircraft
aircraft. design decisions. Lightweight aluminum
alloys were the leading aviation structur-
methods are size, shape, and topology. with carbon fiber-reinforced composite al materials — accounting for 70%–80%
Manufacturability is a crucial constraint in wings and a topologically optimized of the weight of most civil aircraft air-
both material selection and structural opti- truss-like fuselage. The empty weight of frames before 2000 — and still play an
mization. The development of advanced this 6-meter-wingspan aircraft is 177 kg. important role. Since the mid-1960s and
manufacturing technologies such as addi- Figure 1(b) shows a high-altitude, pseu- 1970s, the proportion of composites
tive manufacturing, foam metal, and do-satellite, solar-powered UAV from used in aerospace structures has
advanced metal forming not only enable Airbus. The Zephyr 7 currently holds the increased due to the development of
the application of advanced materials, but world record for the longest absolute high-performance composites. Figure 2
relax constraints, enhancing the flexibility flight duration (336 hours, 22 minutes, illustrates the materials distributions for
of multiscale structural optimization. 8 seconds) and highest flight altitude some Boeing products.
Many examples of lightweight design (21,562 m) for UAVs, partly from in- Aluminum Alloys. Although high-per-
have been successfully applied in the creased energy efficiency by lightweight- formance composites such as carbon
design of lightweight aircraft. Figure ing. Figure 1(c) shows a model of a fiber are receiving increasing interest,
1(a) illustrates the SAW Revo concept future concept lightweight airplane for aluminum alloys still make up a signifi-
aircraft (produced by Orange Aircraft), 2050 from Airbus, inspired by a bird cant proportion of aerospace structural
which is an ultralight aerobatic airplane skeleton. Figure 1(d) demonstrates a weight. The relatively high specific

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LIGHTWEIGHTING
to metals is one of the major obstacles

1% 1% 3% 1%
2% for the application of composites.
Carbon fiber reinforced polymer
4% Aluminium
13% 14% (CFRP) represents the most extensively
Steel used aerospace structural material apart
Titanium from aluminum alloys, with the major
Composite applications being structural compo-
81% 80% Misc
nents of the wing box, empennage, and
fuselage as well as control surfaces (e.g.
747 767 rudder, elevator, and ailerons). Glass
fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) is used
3% 1% 1% in radomes and semi-structural compo-
5%
nents such as fairings. Aramid fiber poly-
6% 11% mers are used where high impact resist-
20%
12% 7% ance is required. Fiber metal laminates,
11% 10% especially glass fiber reinforced alu-
50% minum (GLARE), are other types of
70% 15% composites that have applications in
78%
aerospace (especially in the Airbus
757 777 787
A380) due to enhanced mechanical
properties such as reduced density, high
Figure 2. Material distributions for a selection of Boeing products. strength, stiffness, and fatigue resistance
compared with monolithic metals. The
strength and stiffness, good ductility and many industry applications due to good main applications of GLARE are the
corrosion resistance, low price, and manufacturability and availability, ex- fuselage skin and empennage.
excellent manufacturability and reliabil- tremely high strength and stiffness in the Shape memory polymer composites
ity make advanced aluminum alloys a form of high-strength steels, good dimen- (SMPC) are smart materials that can
popular choice of lightweight materials sional properties at high temperatures as change their form as a result of a certain
in many aerospace structural applica- well as the lowest cost among commercial stimulus such as change of temperature,
tions, e.g. fuselage skin, upper and lower aerospace materials. But high density and an electric or magnetic field, particular
wing skins, and wing stringers. The other disadvantages, such as relatively light wavelengths, etc. by releasing the
development of heat-treatment technol- high susceptibility to corrosion and internal stress stored in the material.
ogy provides high-strength aluminum embrittlement, restrict the application of The applications of SMPCs in aerospace
alloys that remain competitive with high-strength steels in aerospace compo- components and systems include the
advanced composites in many aerospace nents and systems. Steel normally wing skin of morphing-wing aircraft, and
applications. Aluminum alloys can offer accounts for approximately 5% to 15% of the solar array and reflector antenna of
a wide range of material properties structural weight of commercial airplanes, satellites. The advantages of SMPCs over
meeting diverse application require- with the percentage steadily decreasing. shape memory alloys (SMAs) includes
ments, by adjusting compositions and Despite the limitations, high-strength lower density, higher shape deformabili-
heat treatment methods. steels are still the choice for safety-critical ty and recoverability, better processing,
Titanium Alloys. Titanium alloys have components where extremely high and lower relative cost.
many advantages over other metals, such strength and stiffness are required. The
as high specific strength, heat resistance, major applications for high-strength steels The Role of Nanotechnology
cryogenic embrittlement resistance, and in aerospace are gearing, bearings, and The development of nanotechnology
low thermal expansion. These advantages undercarriage applications. provides an opportunity to improve mul-
make titanium alloys an excellent alterna- Aerospace Composites. High-perfor- tifunctional properties (physical, chemi-
tive to steels and aluminum alloys in air- mance composites such as fiber rein- cal, mechanical properties, etc.) at the
frame and engine applications; however, forced polymer and fiber metal lami- nanoscale. Unlike conventional compos-
the poor manufacturability and high cost nates (FML) have received increased ites, nanocomposites offer the opportu-
(usually about 8 times higher than com- attention in aerospace applications, nity to improve properties without too
mercial aluminum alloys) result in the competing with the major lightweight much tradeoff of density increase by
restriction of titanium alloys being used aerospace materials such as aluminum only adding a small amount of nanopar-
extensively. Hence, titanium alloys are alloys. In general, aerospace composites ticles (e.g. layered silicate, functional-
used where high strength is required but have higher specific strength and specif- ized carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and
limited space is available, as well as where ic stiffness than most metals at moderate graphite flakes). To increase the oxida-
high corrosion resistance is required. The temperatures. Other advantages of com- tion resistance of composites, for exam-
current applications of titanium alloys in posites include improved fatigue resis- ple, nanoparticles could be included
aerospace are mainly in airframe and tance, corrosion resistance, and mois- such as silicate, CNTs, or polyhedral
engine components, overall comprising ture resistance as well as the ability to tai- oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) that
7% and 36% of the weight, respectively. lor layups for optimal strength and stiff- could form passivation layers.
High-Strength Steel. Steel is the most ness in required directions; however, the The addition of CNTs, silica, and lay-
commonly used structural material in higher cost of composites in comparison ered silicate into composite matrix

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LIGHTWEIGHTING
could promote energy dissipation on structural failure,

increasing the toughness of the composite and resulting in the
potential application to high-damage-tolerance structures. In
addition to high modulus, high-strength nanoparticles such as
continuous CNT could improve the stiffness and strength of
the composite.
The development of nanocomposites offers the opportunity
for redundancy elimination and weight reduction, which pro-
vides significant potential in promoting the properties of aero-
space components, especially in lightweighting.
Advanced Manufacturing
Manufacturability is a crucial constraint throughout the
design process, governing the possibility of whether a design
can be fabricated into a real product. Manufacturing con-
straints must be taken into consideration during materials
selection, structure design, and optimization. Topological opti-
mized designs tend to result in a complex geometry that can-
not be fabricated by conventional manufacturing methods,
such as casting and forming, without modification. Hence,
manufacturing methods have significant effect on lightweight-
ing design.
The development of advanced manufacturing technology,
such as additive manufacturing (AM), foam metal manufactur-
ing, and advanced metal forming, could significantly expand
the flexibility of lightweighting design, both in material selec-
tion and in structural optimization.
AM was initially developed to produce prototypes rapidly
and has now become a standard manufacturing tool.
Although the advantages of AM attract much attention, chal-
lenges exist for AM to compete with conventional manufac-
turing methods, including quality of fabricated components,
time-consuming processes, relatively expensive raw materials,
and establishment of standards, qualification requirements,
and certification.
Conclusions
Selection of materials for an aerospace system is based on
the operating conditions of the specific component or system
— such as loading conditions, operating temperatures, mois-
ture, corrosion conditions, and noise — in combination with
economic and regulatory factors; for example, wings mainly
sustain bending during service as well as tension, torsion, vibra-
tion, and fatigue. Hence, the main constraints for wing materi-
als are stiffness, tensile strength, compressive strength, buck-
ling strength, and vibration. Composites such as CFRPs and
GLAREs usually have much higher specific strength and stiff-
ness than metals, which makes composites an attractive choice
for lightweighting design for many aerospace components and
systems; however, metals have the advantages of ease of manu-
facture and availability as well as much lower cost, making
them still extensively used in many aerospace applications.
Lightweighting represents an effective way to achieve energy
consumption reduction and performance enhancement. This
concept has been well accepted and utilized in many indus-
tries, especially in aerospace component and system design.
Lightweighting design involves the use of advanced lightweight
material and numerical structural optimization, enabled by
advanced manufacturing methods.
This article was written by L. Zhu, N. Li, and P.R.N. Childs of the
Imperial College London, UK. Learn more at www.imperial.ac.uk/
composites-centre/.
24 Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/72991-743 Tech Briefs, March 2019

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Create the Future
Design Contest
Alumni Achieve
Market Success
T
he Create the Future Design Contest, launched in 2002 by the publishers of Tech Briefs magazine, helps stimulate and
reward engineering innovation. The annual event has attracted more than 15,000 product design ideas from
engineers, entrepreneurs, and students worldwide.
Over the past 16 years, many innovators have used the recognition afforded by the contest to advance the development
and marketing of their technologies. In the following pages, we highlight some success stories of past winners who have
brought their inventions to the marketplace.
The 2019 Create the Future Design Contest is now open for entries at www.createthefuturecontest.com. Enter your
invention today and you may become a successful alumnus like those included here.
IIIIII2014 Electronics Category WinnerIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIII2017 Grand Prize WinnerIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Micro-Coil Springs HI-Light Reactor
Jim Hester Elvis Cao, Jessica Akemi
Cimada da Silva, David
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Erickson, Tobias Hanrath,
Alabama Jason Salfi, Clayton Poppe
Dimensional Energy
Micro-coil springs (MCS) provide
The HI-Light Reactor converts carbon Ithaca, NY
flexible electrical interconnections
dioxide emissions into high-value hy-
and allow significant movement in the drocarbons.
x, y, and z axes to counteract the The extraction and con-
thermal expansion and dynamic sumption of fossil carbon accounts for more than 6 billion metric
forces between a microcircuit and a tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions each year, driving cli-
printed circuit board. Micro-coil mate change. Developed by a team at Cornell University, the HI-
Micro-Coil Springs enable
springs are able to withstand harsh Light Reactor is a solar-thermocatalytic “reverse combustion”
electronics interconnec- thermal and vibration environments. technology that enables the conversion of CO2 and water to
tions in harsh environ- The springs replace solder balls and methanol and other high-value hydrocarbons.
ments.
solder columns, preventing connec- The Cornell team’s startup, Dimensional Energy, was award-
tion breaks due to thermal stress, and providing longer life for ed Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding
electronics. from the National Science Foundation in September 2018 to
NASA Marshall signed an exclusive licensing agreement advance the technology. The company is also in the 10-team
with Topline Corporation (Milledgeville, GA) for the micro- final round of the $20 million NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE
coil technology. Topline and Marshall are collaborating on global competition. In addition, the team was approved for
advancing surface mount technology (SMT). funding by Shell Oil through the Shell GameChanger program.
https://contest.techbriefs.com/2014/entries/5010 https://contest.techbriefs.com/2017/entries/8409

IIIIII2016 Medical Category WinnerIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Through investment
from Doka Ventures —
Continuous which has taken a 30%
Wearable stake in the company
Blood Pressure — Contour Crafting
Monitor
started production of
Sean Connell, Kyle the robotic 3D printers
Miller Ph.D., Dr. Jay in a 33,600-square-foot
Pandit, Dr. Jung-En
Wu facility in El Segundo,
Contour Crafting can build lunar and
Martian structures, habitats, labs, and CA.
Bold Diagnostics
other facilities before human beings arrive. And last July, the De-
The Bold CTRL cuffless monitor requires just a Chicago, IL partment of Defense
few heartbeats to measure blood pressure. awarded Contour Crafting a contract that is expected to result
High blood pressure is a modifiable risk factor that can be man- in technology to respond to disaster relief situations with
aged with adequate monitoring; however, the traditional blood expedient, safe, and sustainable structures and buildings.
pressure cuff provides inaccurate and infrequent measurements. https://contest.techbriefs.com/2014/entries/4737
Bold Diagnostics developed a continuous wearable blood
pressure monitor that consists of wristbands that continuous- IIIIII2010 Grand Prize WinnerIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
ly measure blood pressure, and a smartphone application Rowheels
that uploads a report into the patient medical record for cli-
Salim Nasser
nician review. The solution provides accurate measurements
with greater frequency. Rowheels, Inc.
The company developed a strategy focused on direct distri- Middleton, WI
bution to tertiary care centers for a price between $155 and
$195 at cost of goods sold at $25 to $40. The commercial hand- Prolonged manual
held blood pressure monitor — the Bold CTRL — takes blood wheelchair use is di-
pressure at the fingertips and requires just a few heartbeats to rectly linked to repeti-
measure blood pressure. A mobile app enables users to see tive stress injuries and
trends, gain insights into their heart health, and share person- Rowheels Revolution Wheelchair 1.0 is the
pain in the upper
alized reports with their physician. world’s first wheelchair with fully integrat- extremities. The ef-
https://contest.techbriefs.com/2016/entries/6724 ed Rowheels pull technology wheels. fects of muscle over-
use become evident in
IIIIII2014 Grand Prize WinnerIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII the form of muscle pain, torn rotor cuffs, joint degeneration,
Robotic Building and carpal tunnel syndrome. The Rowheel operates by means
Construction by of a pulling/rowing motion as opposed to pushing.
Contour Crafting After suffering a severe leg fracture in 2011, Rimas
Buinevicius became a wheelchair user for the first time. He
Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis
quickly realized the aches and pains a typical wheelchair user
Contour Crafting Corp. suffers. He began to research the field and discovered the
Los Angeles, CA Rowheel design by Salim Nasser, a mechanical engineer at
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center who had become paralyzed
Contour Crafting is 15 years earlier. A joint venture was formed between Nasser
Contour Crafting 3D-prints large-scale
structures directly from architectural CAD
a computerized, auto- and Madcelerator, com-
models. mated construction prised of Buinevicius and
method that 3D-prints his partners.
large-scale structures directly from architectural CAD models. The first product, the
Walls are built up by forming their outer surfaces via extrusion of Rowheels REV-HX (High
a paste-like material, such as concrete, and the use of a robotic Gear), launched in 2015
trowel to provide a smooth, contoured surface. Contour Crafting when a patent on the
can significantly accelerate the construction process; a 2,000- Rowheels was granted; Ro-
square-foot house, for example, can be constructed in less than wheels REV-LX (Low Gear)
24 hours. launched in 2016. The
Contour Crafting technology also has the potential to Rowheels Revolution Wheel-
build safe, reliable, and affordable lunar and Martian struc- chair 1.0 launched in 2018
tures, habitats, laboratories, and other facilities before the and is the world’s first wheel-
arrival of human beings. chair with fully integrated
According to inventor Behrokh Khoshnevis, the company is Rowheels pull technology
rapidly expanding and has received publicity from news and wheels. The company is tak-
media sources including CNN, Forbes, The New York Times, ing pre-orders for deliveries
Discovery Channel, and NBC News. In 2016, Dr. Khoshnevis starting this year. The Rowheel operates by means of
won NASA’s In-Situ Materials Challenge for his Selective https://contest.techbriefs.com/ a pulling/rowing motion instead of
Separation Sintering technique. 2010/entries/589 pushing the wheelchair.
Tech Briefs, March 2019 www.techbriefs.com 27

CREATE THE FUTURE
IIIIII2014 Automotive & With the oil filter housed in the Nexcel cell, vehicle design-
Transportation Category WinnerIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ers would no longer be required to provide space around the
engine block for conventional oil filter replacement.
Continuously
Variable Nexcel is already used on the Aston Martin Vulcan and
Displacement Vantage GT8. Other manufacturers are integrating it into
(CVD) Engine future production models. The company expects low-vol-
ume manufacturers to be utilizing Nexcel by 2020; the first
Steve Arnold
mass-market passenger car systems should be on the road
Engine Systems soon after.
Innovation
https://contest.techbriefs.com/2016/entries/7060
Washington, UT
IIIIII2017 Medical Category WinnerIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Passenger car
Arterial Everter
engines are sized
to produce very Jeff Plott, Dr. Adeyiza
Momoh, Dr. Ian Sando,
Advances in combustion, fuel, and other sys- high horsepower
Brendan McCracken, Dr.
tems can be adapted to the CVD engine without to suit consumer Mohammed Tiba, Dr.
redesign. demand. However, Kevin Ward, Dr. Jeffrey
engines run inef- Kozlow, Dr. Paul
ficiently at low loads where they spend most of their time. Cederna
This results in poor fuel economy and high CO2 emissions. The Arterial Everter was licensed to Baxter University of Michigan
International to market and distribute.
With the patented CVD engine, advances in combustion, Ann Arbor, MI
fuel, air delivery, valve trains, and other components can be
adapted to the CVD engine with simple reconfiguration Developed by a team at the University of Michigan, the
rather than redesign. Arterial Everter is a surgical device that simplifies connecting
In 2016, Engine Systems Innovation received $149,488 in arteries in complicated procedures such as reconstructing a
funding from a Department of Energy Small Business Inno- breast after a mastectomy, or repairing a severely injured leg
vation Research (SBIR) grant for Phase I testing of CVD after a car accident. It can reduce the time it takes to connect
engine concept validation. An additional $996,810 was award- arteries from 20 minutes to five minutes.
ed in 2017 for Phase II testing. The device resembles a thin silicone pen with a flexible
https://contest.techbriefs.com/2014/entries/4634 steel spine and works as an accessory to a currently available
tool for connecting blood vessels, the GEM Microvascular
IIIIII2016 Automotive & Anastomotic Coupler system made by Synovis Micro
Transportation Category WinnerIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Companies Alliance, a wholly owned subsidiary of Baxter
Nexcel Oil Cell International.
Castrol The University of Michigan and Baxter signed a licensing
innoVentures agreement for the expected future marketing and distribu-
Nexcel Team tion of the everter device globally. Before the device can be
Castrol used in surgeries, Baxter must obtain FDA and other
innoVentures approvals.
Oxford, United https://contest.techbriefs.com/2017/entries/8162
Kingdom
IIIIII2015 Medical Category WinnerIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
The Nexcel Smart X-ray
sealed oil cell Source
The Nexcel sealed oil cell allows oil to be changed comes complete
Mark Eaton, Dr.
more than 13 times faster than with a convention- with high-quali-
al oil change.
Ronald Hellmer, Dr.
ty oil, an inte- Shuo Cheng, Hugo
grated oil filter, Leon, Dr. Leif Fredin
and an electronic tag to ensure the right match for every Stellarray
engine. After every quick and efficient oil change — when the
Stellarray’s system can be used not only for Austin, TX
service center fits a fresh Nexcel cell — the used cell is collect- traditional 2D X-ray imaging but also for 3D
ed, recycled, and reused up to five times; a process that includes computed tomography.
the used oil being re-refined back into lubricants. Nexcel claims The Smart X-ray
the system can compete on a carbon-savings basis with conven- Source combines classical x-ray physics and flat-panel display
tional environmental technologies. technology for a new x-ray source.
The company is focusing on linking its system with hybrid Smart means the source has a large array of x-ray spots that
drivetrains to achieve significant environmental gains. As can be addressed electronically in whatever sequence, inten-
engine efficiency improves, the warm-up period becomes pro- sity, and pattern is programmed into the control computer.
portionately more significant for emissions. By reducing the Since their Create the Future contest win, Stellarray devel-
volume of oil in the engine sump during cold start, the Nexcel oped a radiographic medical imaging system for NASA that
system enables faster warm-up. can be carried into space. It can be used not only for 2D x-ray

imaging but also for 3D computed tomography. The system Dupont™ Delrin® 100ST, a super-tough plastic polymer with
will meet imaging needs for musculoskeletal, head and neck, excellent impact resistance. The entire seat weighs just 1.6
soft tissue, dental, and other conditions. pounds.
https://contest.techbriefs.com/2015/entries/6206 The Create the Future award was the first award the
mifold grab-and-go received; it has since won 15 other inter-
IIIIII2015 Electronics Category WinnerIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII national innovation, design, and consumer awards.
Fiber Optic Sensing Today, there is a range of mifold grab-and-go booster
System seats: the original mifold Sport (sold exclusively at
Nordstrom), and a B2B version called mifold One (a non-
Lance Richards, Patrick Chan,
Philip Hamory, Allen Parker, folding seat targeting taxi fleets that need compact storage
Anthony Piazza, Dr. William but not the same portability).
Ko The seats are now sold on Amazon, and in Target,
NASA Armstrong Flight BuyBuy Baby, Kohl’s, and Walmart stores. Outside the
Research Center USA, there are distributors covering 50 markets. In total,
Edwards, CA nearly three-quarters of a million seats have been shipped
worldwide.
A Fiber Optic Sensing Sys- A crowdfunding campaign was recently completed for a
tem (FOSS) developed for new product: hifold by mifold. The portable, adjustable,
aeronautics research has high-back booster is three times smaller than a regular car
the potential to solve a booster seat. It folds down to fit in a small carry bag and
number of technical chal- has four different adjustable zones to fit as the child grows.
Developed for aeronautics, FOSS
lenges for industries as The company is currently taking pre-orders for the hifold.
could solve challenges faced by https://contest.techbriefs.com/2016/entries/6414
medical, power, and automotive diverse as medical, power,
industries. and automotive.
In the past, collecting IIIIII2014 Aerospace & Defense Category WinnerII
aerodynamic data from research aircraft and transmitting it The Polariton
required infrastructure including miles of wires and bulky Interferometer:
sensors. Armstrong researchers developed a simpler, light- A Novel Inertial
weight solution for the system’s electronics that started out Navigation
as nearly table-sized, but soon will fit in a container the size System
of a box of cookies. Dr. Frederick Moxley
Various NASA centers are partnering on composite over- The Quantum Widget
wrapped pressure vessel (COPV) tanks from Space X that Company
are instrumented with FOSS, which would provide real-time Toronto, ON, Canada
data on strain and temperature in the unforgiving environ-
ment of cryogenic liquids and extreme pressures. Oil, gas, GPS navigation
dairy, and other industries have inquired about a system technology relies
that can help with a number of different applications. on a combination
https://contest.techbriefs.com/2015/entries/6150 of signals from a
satellite and ground
IIIIII2016 Consumer Products Category WinnerII station network.
mifold Grab-and- This is problemat-
Go Booster Seat ic in aerospace
Jon Sumroy
and de fense, as
GPS signal jam-
Carfoldio Ltd. ming is prevalent.
The Polariton Interferometer enables inertial
Houston, TX The Polari ton
navigation where GPS fails.
Interferometer
The mifold Grab- provides meas urement sensitivities far su perior to optical
and-Go booster seat technologies, en abling aero space and defense vehicles to
The mifold Grab-and-Go booster seat is for children aged 4- op erate completely independent of GPS satellites and
sold in a number of retail outlets. 12 is more than ten ground station networks.
times smaller than a The performance ca pability is independent of scale, and
regular booster seat and just as safe. mifold secures the seat- the system is readily manufactured as a pho tonic integrat-
belt in the correct position on the hips and shoulder by ed circuit on a microchip smaller than a dime. These mi -
holding the seatbelt down at three points. In a collision, the crochips contain discrete optical components that are
child is protected in the same way as they would be with a made using a direct laser-writing technique.
conventional booster seat. In 2016, Dr. Moxley formed The Quantum Widget
Because mifold doesn’t need to lift the child, it doesn’t Company (QuidgetCo), a quantum machine-learning com-
need to be big and bulky. It is flat and can be folded to cre- pany that specializes in quantum computing, quantum
ate a compact, portable package measuring 10 × 5 × 2". The many-body systems, and quantum information processing.
product is built with 6061 aircraft-grade aluminum and https://contest.techbriefs.com/2014/entries/5020

Bringing You the Future of Mobility
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TECHNOLOGY LEADERS Materials/Coatings/Adhesives
The Heat Is On:

A Guide to Specifying Insulation Materials
O
ne of the first things an electri-
cal engineer will learn is that
the number-one enemy of Applications in Electric Motors:
designing and manufacturing
any electrical/electronic product is heat.
It’s the one characteristic that can cause
your idea of a hand-sized unit to turn into
a tabletop unit. When discussing insula-
tion with a manufacturer, the first ques- Lead Wire
tion that seems to come up is tempera-
ture resistance. It is a very important char-
acteristic but there are a few others that
Connection Tape
need to be addressed as well. In addition
to temperature rating, voltage along with
mechanical strength play a very impor-
tant role in the selection of insulation. Wedge
Temperature Ratings Lead Sleeving

In the electrical apparatus industry, we
have a few different temperature ratings, Slot Separator
which are categorized into classes (see
table). These classes are standard, set forth Tie Cord
by the National Electrical Manufacturers Slot Liner
Phase Separator
Association (NEMA). At the lowest end is Bracing
Class A insulation. This entry-level insula- Coil Nose Tape
tion class has a rating of 105 °C, average
winding temperature rise of 55 °C, hot Some of the most common insulation and their locations within the motor.
spot temperature rise of 65 °C, and a max-
imum winding temperature of 105 °C,
which goes back to the insulation rating of
105 °C. Temperature classes in ascending
order include Class B at 130 °C, Class F at
155 °C, Class H at 180 °C, Class N at 200
°C, and Class R at 220 °C. Each of these
classification ratings has different insula-
tion materials that work best for meeting
the desired insulation class.
Voltage
Once you select your temperature class,
you can move on to the next most impor-
tant characteristic: voltage. Here, you start
to really separate insulation options and
begin to prioritize the options available The varnish insulation shown on this motor will protect the wire as well as act as a glue to protect from abrasion
for your particular application. Most while keeping the wire and insulation from moving or flexing.
everyone understands that 125 Volts is the
residential standard for voltage for your many different voltages there are, you will ing your voltage requirements, the insula-
home, and most know 220 Volts is the volt- be very surprised. Some of the primary tion choices really begin to pare down.
age of many household dryers. These are voltages used in electrical apparatus
just two of the many different voltages machines are 12v, 24v, 125v, 208v, 220v, Mechanical Strength
used in the electrical apparatus industry. 460v, 575v, 950v, 2300v, 4160v, 7.5kv, and Now that you have these two primary
When you begin to really research how 13.8kv. This is why when you start select- characteristics selected — temperature

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TECHNOLOGY LEADERS Materials/Coatings/Adhesives
Additionally, the electrical apparatus

Insulation Insulation Average Winding Hot Spot Maximum will typically carry the class rating of insu-
Rating Class Temperature Rise Temperature Winding lation in that system. As logic would dic-
Rise Temperature tate, you would expect that if all class H
products are used in an electrical appara-
Class 105 A 55 °C 65 °C 105 °C tus, the unit should carry a class rating of
H; however, this is not always the case. In
Class 130 B 80 °C 110 °C 150 °C some instances, there have been cases
where the unique and intimate insula-
Class 155 F 115 °C 145 °C 180 °C tion products used in the total system
could decrease and sometimes increase
Class 180 H 130 °C 160 °C 200 °C the class rating due to the way they may
behave together within a seal tube test.
Class 200 N 150 °C 180 °C 220 °C Each apparatus should be tested in a
full UL and or IEEE system to truly con-
Class 220 R 170 °C 200 °C 220 °C firm that the apparatus meets a specific
classification; various UL systems are
Classes of temperature ratings. available from manufacturers of varnish-
es and flexible insulation. Within that
and voltage — you can move into This is good to know as some products UL rating, one argument among the
mechanical strength. This is primarily will increase your cost due to inflated electric motor industry is whether the
important in the flexible insulation and fabrication cost. lead wire for the connections counts in
tape products; for example, flexible insu- Another product used in insulating an the system. Currently, the lead wire is
lation is used in electric motors to insulate electrical apparatus unit is resin or var- not considered part of the insulation
the metal stator core from the magnet nish — this is not the varnish that pro- within the motor. With it not being
wire. If the current in the magnet wire tects the finish of the furniture in your included in the insulating of the motor,
were to exceed the strength of the flexible home. This varnish does, however, pro- the lead wire can be rated at a lower tem-
insulation, or if the insulation allowed the tect in a similar way. These varnishes and perature classification than the insula-
magnet wire to touch the metal core, the resins are specifically designed to meet a tion within the motor and will not
motor would ground and fail. corresponding insulation class and help reduce the overall temperature rating.
The mechanical strength is very criti- to protect, bond, and insulate the mag- As mentioned earlier, this is and contin-
cal to the insertion of the product as well net wire, flexible insulation, and tape ues to be a point of contention for many
as resisting abrasion. All of the products insulation system. Selecting this primary manufacturers and rebuilders.
will also have different techniques that insulation component is quite important
need to be utilized when cutting or fab- because it’s tied to the other insulating Other Considerations
ricating them to fit into the electrical materials that are considered compati- Decisions around temperature class,
apparatus you are building or repairing. ble in the insulation system. voltage, and mechanical strength are the
main characteristics that will get you well
on your way to selecting the best insula-
tion for your build, but there are other
decisions to make that are more specific
to insulation needs for your application.
These include, but are not limited to,
dielectrics, ambient air temperature,
moisture absorption (humidity), physi-
cal weight, physical size availability, coro-
na resistance, and many more.
Once you have reached this level, get
in touch with a qualified insulation dis-
tributor expert and provide them addi-
tional details of your application. These
experts are very good at recognizing and
selecting the best products to meet your
application needs.
This article was written by Jimmy Walker of
EIS, Electrical Specialties Group of Motion
Magnet wire being hand-insulated from the metal on this armature. If magnet wire touches the metal, the motor Industries, Atlanta, GA. For more informa-
will fail. tion, visit http://info.hotims.com/72991-121.

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Electrical/Electronics
Electronics Withstand Extreme Heat
A new organic plastic material allows electronics to function at extreme temperatures
without sacrificing performance.
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
M ost electronics only

function within a
certain temperature range
Usually, the perfor -
mance of electronics de-
pends on temperature;
but blending two organic the performance of the
materials together creates new polymer blend re-
electronics that withstand mains stable across a
extreme heat. The new wide temperature range.
plastic material could reli- Applications for the ex-
ably conduct electricity up treme-temperature elec-
to 220 °C (428 °F). tronics include car ex-
One of the materials haust, aircraft, solar
is a semiconductor that cells, transistors, and
can conduct electricity sensors.
and the other is a con- Further experiments
ventional insulating poly- will be conducted to
mer. One of the plastics determine what the true
transports the charge temperature limits are
and the other can with- A new organic plastic allows electronics to function in extreme temperatures without sac- (high and low) for the
stand high temperature. rificing performance. (Purdue University/John Underwood) new material. Making
When blended together, organic electronics work
the correct ratio must be found so that This results in an organized, interpen- in the freezing cold is even more diffi-
one material does not dominate the etrating network that allows the elec- cult than making them work in
other. The two materials need to be trical charge to flow evenly throughout extreme heat.
compatible to mixing and should each while holding its shape in extreme For more information, contact Jianguo
be present in roughly the same ratio. temperatures. Mei at jgmei@purdue.edu; 765-494-7156.
Interoperable Intelligent Controllers for Process

Management and Control Networks
These adaptable electronic controllers can be used in avionics, data storage networks, vehicle
control systems, or reconfigurable manufacturing lines.
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas
N ASA Johnson Space Center devel-

oped reprogrammable and inter-
changeable electronic controllers that
mation and instructions to other con-
trollers. A prototype can be easily devel-
oped using low-cost solutions such as
subsystem) to another and learn from
one another to perform new tasks. Even
when not connected to a network, this
can attach to a system or subsystem wire- Raspberry Pi to demonstrate functionality. device retains its most recently down-
lessly or through plug-and-play capability. The controllers are comprised of elec- loaded software and can relay the infor-
Originally designed to work with rocket tronic circuits that receive sensor data mation to other controllers to perform
engines, this technology can control dif- and use positional and functional identi- the same function. Wireless, plug-and-
ferent systems and subsystems. This smart fication to recognize which network sys- play, Bluetooth, and RFID capability are
controller recognizes which system it is tem they have attached to and then con- all connectivity options.
communicating with once connected to trol the action or position of equipment For more information, contact the NASA
the network and loads the appropriate (such as actuators) within the network JSC Technology Transfer and Commercial-
application to perform the required func- system based on the appropriate, prede- ization Office at jsc-techtran@mail.nasa.gov
tion in the system. The device enables a termined program or algorithm. or 281-283-3809. Follow this link for more
common set of spares and can talk to The reconfigurable controllers can be information: https://technology.jsc.nasa.gov/
other devices of its kind by relaying infor- “swapped” from one network system (or patent/MSC-TOPS-69.

“Light-Written” Photonic Memory Devices
A hybrid technology shows advantages of both light and magnetic hard drives.
Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
L ight is the most energy-efficient way

to move information; however, light
shows one big limitation: it is difficult to
switching is in the order of picoseconds —
about 100 to 1,000 times faster than what is
possible with today’s technology. Moreover,
All-optical switching was integrated
with so-called racetrack memory — a
magnetic wire through which the data,
store. Data centers, for example, rely pri- as the optical information is stored in mag- in the form of magnetic bits, is efficient-
marily on magnetic hard drives in which netic bits without the need of costly energy ly transported using an electrical cur-
information is transferred at an energy electronics, it holds potential for future use rent. In this system, magnetic bits are
cost that is increasing. A hybrid technol- in photonic integrated circuits. continuously written using light and
ogy was developed that shows advantages
of both light and magnetic hard drives.
Ultra-short (femtosecond) light puls-
es allow data to be directly written in a
magnetic memory in a fast and highly
energy-efficient way. Moreover, as soon
as the information is written (and
stored), it moves forward, leaving space
to empty memory domains to be filled in
with new data.
Data are stored in hard drives in the
form of bits — tiny magnetic domains with
a North and a South pole. The direction of
these poles (magnetization) determines
whether the bits contain a digital 0 or a 1.
Writing the data is achieved by switching
the direction of the magnetization of the
associated bits. Conventionally, the switch-
ing occurs when an external magnetic
field is applied, which would force the
direction of the poles either up (1) or
down (0). Alternatively, switching can be
achieved via the application of a short
(femtosecond) laser pulse, called all-opti-
cal switching, and results in more efficient
and much faster storage of data.
All-optical switching was achieved in syn-
thetic ferrimagnets — a material system
highly suitable for spintronic data applica-
tions — using single femtosecond laser
pulses, thus exploiting the high velocity of
data writing and reduced energy con-
sumption.
The switching of the magnetization
direction using single-pulse, all-optical
In all-optical switching, data is stored in the

form of bits that contain digital 0 (North Poles
down) or 1 (North Poles up). Data writing is
achieved by switching the direction of the poles
via the application of short laser pulses (in red).

Electrical/Electronics
immediately transported along the wire without any intermediate electronic the nanometer scale should be designed
by the electrical current, leaving space to steps, is like jumping from one moving for better integration on chips.
empty magnetic bits and store new data. high-speed train to another. For more information, contact Mark
This on-the-fly copying of information The research was performed on Lalieu, Department of Applied Physics, at
between light and magnetic racetracks, micrometric wires; smaller devices on m.l.m.lalieu@tue.nl; +31 40-247 4305.
Microfabrication Technique Modifies Semiconductor

Material Atom-by-Atom
The process could enable higher-performance electronics.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
T o keep up with Moore’s Law

— an observation made in
the 1960s that the number of
ligands to strip away individual
atoms from the surface.
Thermal ALE has, so far, only
transistors on an integrated cir- been used to etch oxides.
cuit doubles about every two Thermal ALE was modified
years — researchers are finding to work on a semiconductor
ways to cram as many transis- material, using the same reac-
tors as possible onto micro- 3 nm tor reserved for ALD. An
chips. The newest trend is 3D InGaAs alloyed semiconductor materi-
transistors that stand vertically, al, called indium gallium
like fins, and measure about 7 arsenide (or InGaAs), was
nanometers across — tens of exposed to hydrogen fluoride,
thousands of times thinner the compound used for the
than a human hair. Tens of bil- original thermal ALE work,
lions of these transistors can fit which forms an atomic layer of
on a single microchip, which is metal fluoride on the surface.
about the size of a fingernail. Then, an organic compound
A modified chemical-etching called dimethylaluminum chlo-
technique, called thermal ride (DMAC) was poured in.
atomic level etching (thermal The ligand-exchange process
ALE), was used to enable preci- occurs on the metal fluoride
sion modification of semicon- layer. When the DMAC is
ductor materials at the atomic purged, individual atoms fol-
level. Using that technique, low. The technique is repeated
researchers fabricated 3D tran- Researchers fabricated a 3D transistor less than half the width of today’s over hundreds of cycles. In a
slimmest commercial models, which could help cram far more transistors
sistors that are as narrow as 2.5 onto a single computer chip. Pictured is a cross-section of one of the transis- separate reactor, the “gate” was
nanometers and more efficient tors that measures only 3 nanometers wide. (Courtesy of the researchers) deposited — the metallic ele-
than their commercial counter- ment that controls the transis-
parts. The technique repurposes a com- are deposited onto the substrate surface tors to switch on or off.
mon microfabrication tool used for and react with one another in a vacuum Using the technique, the researchers
depositing atomic layers on materials, reactor to form a film of desired thick- fabricated FinFETs, 3D transistors used
meaning it could be rapidly integrated. ness, one atomic layer at a time. in commercial electronic devices. Fin-
This could enable computer chips with far Traditional ALE techniques use plasma FETs consist of a thin “fin” of silicon,
more transistors and greater performance. with highly energetic ions that strip away standing vertically on a substrate. The
Microfabrication involves deposition individual atoms on the material’s sur- gate is essentially wrapped around the
(growing film on a substrate) and etching face. But these cause surface damage. fin. Because of their vertical shape, any-
(engraving patterns on the surface). To These methods also expose material to where from 7 billion to 30 billion
form transistors, the substrate surface gets air, where oxidization causes additional FinFETs can squeeze onto a chip. Most
exposed to light through photomasks with defects that hinder performance. of the FinFETs measured under 5
the shape and structure of the transistor. ALE is a technique that closely resem- nanometers in width — a desired thresh-
All material exposed to light can be etched bles ALD and relies on a chemical reaction old across industry — and roughly 220
away with chemicals, while material hid- called “ligand exchange.” In this process, nanometers in height. Moreover, the
den behind the photomask remains. an ion in one compound called a ligand technique limits the material’s exposure
The state-of-the-art techniques for — which binds to metal atoms — gets to oxygen-caused defects that render the
microfabrication are known as atomic replaced by a ligand in a different com- transistors less efficient.
layer deposition (ALD) and atomic level pound. When the chemicals are purged For more information, contact Abby
etching (ALE). In ALD, two chemicals away, the reaction causes the replacement Abazorius at abbya@mit.edu; 617-253-2709.

Composable Storage Platform for High-Performance
Computing
This framework could achieve the goal of performing at the exascale.
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
L arge-scale, high-performance com-

puting — supercomputing — is essen-
tial to solving both complex and large ques-
When continually accessing certain
content, KV systems can be far more effi-
cient as a storage medium because con-
One of the major limiting effects of
current state-of-the-art KV stores is that
they are designed with pre-existing dis-
tions. But storage platforms essential for tent loads from the faster in-memory tributed services in mind and are often
these advanced computer systems have store nearby, not the faraway storage serv- specialized for one specific setting.
been stuck in a rigid framework that er. This allows the system to provide very Another limiting factor is the inflexible
required users to either choose between cus- high performance in completing tasks or monolithic design where distributed fea-
tomization of features or high availability. requests. tures are deeply baked into a system with
A framework called BespoKV was devel- The main innovation of BespoKV is back-end data stores that manage inven-
oped that incorporates key value (KV) sys- that it supports composing a range of KV tory, orders, and supply. The rigid
tems that store and retrieve important stores with desirable features. It works by design of these KV stores is not adaptive
data from very fast memory-based storage taking a single-server KV store called a to changing user demands for myriad
instead of slower disks. These systems are datalet and enables immediate and ready- back-end, topology, consistency, and a
increasingly used in high-performance to-use distributed KV stores. Instead of host of other services.
applications that use distributed systems redesigning a system from scratch to BespoKV allows an arbitrary mapping
made up of many computers to solve a accomplish a specific task, a developer between desired services and available
problem. High-performance computing can drop a datalet into BespoKV and components while supporting distributed
relies on having computers intake, offload distributed systems to the frame- management services to realize and
process, and analyze huge amounts of work. BespoKV decouples the KV store enable the distributed KV stores associated
data at unprecedented speeds. Currently, design into the control plane for distrib- with the datalet.
the best systems operate at a quadrillion uted management and the data plane for For more information, contact Lindsey
calculations per second, or a petaflop. local data storage. Haugh at jangus@vt.edu; 540-231-2476.
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Materials & Coatings
Delamination and Porosity in Composites and Adhesives
Using Solid and Particulate Powdered Aerogel
This is a more accurate, reliable, and well-controlled means to represent porosity and
delamination defects in composites and adhesives.
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia
N ASA’s Langley Research Center has

developed a method that introduces
solids and particulates — specifically
cured, the solid or particulate additive
will behave as a delamination or porosity
defect and will be indistinguishable from
To replicate flat delaminations/dis-
bonds in composites/bonded structures,
solid monoliths of aerogel are fabricated
aerogels — into composites or adhesives real delamination or porosity when in- to very thin tabs (>1 mm). The thin tabs
while they are being constructed. These spected with popular nondestructive are laid on a ply layer during layup of
additives survive as the structure is cured evaluation techniques such as ultrasound the composite at a desired ply depth and
to serve as a testbed and standard. Once or thermography. spatial location. The rest of the compos-
ite is constructed and then cured in an
autoclave. After curing, the aerogel in-
sert will completely mimic a thin air gap
between the ply layers only at the area it
was located. The aerogel insert will be a
large acoustic impedance mismatch in
the composites, meaning it will respond
like a delamination in all acoustic-based
Aerogel sheet
measurements. And because they are
very good insulators, they will also
Composite
ply layers
respond like a delamination in thermal-
based inspections. A particulate aerogel-
based method can be used to represent
porosity.
NASA is actively seeking licensees to com-
mercialize this technology. Please contact
The Technology Gateway at LARC-DL-
Tooling Surface
technologygateway@mail.nasa.gov or 757-
864-1178 to initiate licensing discussions.
Follow this link for more information:
https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/TB2016/
Diagram showing the patented aerogel process and aerogel solid. LAR-TOPS-262.
“Metallic Wood” Has the Strength of Titanium and the

Density of Water
A sheet of nickel with nanoscale pores makes this material as strong as titanium but four to
five times lighter.
University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science, University Park
T itanium is as strong as steel but about

twice as light. These properties de-
pend on the way a metal’s atoms are
materials that have even better strength-
to-weight ratios.
Researchers have built a sheet of nick-
As the porosity of wood grain serves the
biological function of transporting ener-
gy, the empty space in the “metallic
stacked, but random defects that arise in el with nanoscale pores that make it as wood” could be infused with other mate-
the manufacturing process mean that strong as titanium but four to five times rials — infusing the scaffolding with
these materials are only a fraction as lighter. The empty space of the pores anode and cathode materials would
strong as they theoretically could be. An and the self-assembly process in which enable the metallic wood to serve dou-
architect, working on the scale of individ- they’re made make the porous metal ble duty as a plane wing or prosthetic leg
ual atoms, could design and build new akin to a natural material such as wood. that’s also a battery.

Even the best natural metals have be produced. Materials researchers the nanoscale, where defects have re-
defects in their atomic arrangement have been trying to exploit this phe- duced impact.
that limit their strength. A block of tita- nomenon by taking an architectural The struts in the metallic wood are
nium where every atom was perfectly approach, designing structures with the about 10 nanometers wide, or about 100
aligned with its neighbors would be 10 geometric control necessary to unlock nickel atoms across. Other approaches
times stronger than what can currently the mechanical properties that arise at involve using 3D-printing-like tech-
niques to make nanoscale scaffoldings
with 100-nanometer precision, but the
slow and painstaking process is hard to
scale to useful sizes.
The new method starts with tiny plastic
spheres, a few hundred nanometers in
diameter, suspended in water. When the
water is slowly evaporated, the spheres
settle and stack like cannonballs, provid-
ing an orderly, crystalline framework.
Using electroplating, the plastic spheres
are infiltrated with nickel. Once the nick-
el is in place, the plastic spheres are dis-
solved with a solvent, leaving an open
network of metallic struts.
Because roughly 70 percent of the re-
sulting material is empty space, this nick-
el-based metallic wood’s density is ex-
tremely low in relation to its strength.
With a density on par with water’s, a
brick of the material would float.
A microscopic sample of the metallic wood. Its porous structure is responsible for its high strength- Replicating this production process
to-weight ratio and makes it more akin to natural materials like wood. at commercially relevant sizes is the
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Materials & Coatings
Stacked plastic spheres (white) provide a framework for nickel, (blue) and are ultimately dissolved away. Once there is an open lattice of nickel, other
functional coatings (yellow) can be added.
next challenge. Unlike titanium, none ly limited. Once that infrastructure is For more information, contact James
of the materials involved is particularly developed, economies of scale should Pikul, Assistant Professor of Mechanical
rare or expensive on its own, but the make producing meaningful quanti- Engineering and Applied Mechanics, at
infrastructure necessary for working ties of metallic wood faster and less pikul@seas.upenn.edu; https://pikul-lab.seas.
with them on the nanoscale is current- expensive. upenn.edu/.
Composite Advances Lignin as Renewable 3D Printing Material

Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
L ignin is the material left over from the

processing of biomass. It gives plants
rigidity and also makes biomass resistant to
styrene (ABS) that are made of petroleum-
based thermoplastics, lignin can only be
heated to a certain temperature for soften-
The combination of lignin and nylon
appeared to have almost a lubrication or
plasticizing effect on the composite.
being broken down into useful products. ing and extrusion from a 3D-printing noz- Scientists were also able to mix in a high-
Researchers combined a melt-stable zle. Prolonged exposure to heat dramati- er percentage of lignin — 40 to 50 percent
hardwood lignin with conventional plastic, cally increases its viscosity — it becomes too by weight — a new achievement in the
a low-melting nylon, and carbon fiber to thick to be extruded easily. But when lignin quest for a lignin-based printing material.
create a composite with just the right char- was combined with nylon, the composite’s Four to 16 percent carbon fiber was added
acteristics for extrusion and weld strength room temperature stiffness increased while into the mix. The new composite heats up
between layers during the printing process, its melt viscosity decreased. The lignin- more easily, flows faster for speedier print-
as well as excellent mechanical properties. nylon material had tensile strength similar ing, and results in a stronger product.
Lignin chars easily; unlike workhorse to nylon alone and lower viscosity than con- For more information, contact Kim Askey
composites like acrylonitrile-butadiene- ventional ABS or high-impact polystyrene. at askeyka@ornl.gov; 865-576-2841.
Nanoscale Pillars Act as Memory Foam

Organic-inorganic hybrid materials combine strength and elasticity for
nanoelectromechanical devices.
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York
A customizable nanomaterial was de-

veloped that combines metallic
strength with a foam-like ability to com-
press and spring back. The material can
store and release mechanical energy on
the nanoscale, and fits into existing
industrial semiconductor processes.
The nanostructures span just a few bil-
lionths of a meter in size, and are com-
posed of organic and inorganic mole-
cules. These custom-patterned structures
— or pillars — enable more advanced
nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS)
in devices that require ultra-small springs,
levers, or motors. NEMS technology that
could potentially exploit this new material 500 nm
includes ultrasensitive accelerometers,
This scanning electron micrograph (SEM) image shows the nanomechanical testing tip passing over
multi-functional resonators, and biosyn- the arrays of custom-made nanopillars as it applies pressure to test elasticity and energy storage
thetic artificial muscles. potential. The inset shows the structure of an individual hybrid nanopillar.

The organic-inorganic hy- The chemical composi-
TMA exposure/Purge H2O exposure/Purge
brid materials exhibit metal- tion and structure was test-
like high strength, but foam- ed with transmission elec-
like low stiffness. The tron microscopy, which
unique coupling of mechan- TMA revealed that the spherical
H2O
ical properties accounts for aluminum oxide clusters
the material’s ability to store remained chemically dis-
and release an extraordinar- crete, but fully integrated
ily large amount of elastic into the nanopillar matrix.
energy. That essential elas- The thorough mixing —
ticity — like the flex and E-beam patterned Infiltrated Infiltration-synthesized and in particular, the
SU-8 nanopillar TMA AIOX
release of a muscle — is con- spherical shape of the
strained by both the chem- metal oxide clusters —
One infiltration synthesis cycle
istry and the structure. contributes to the modu-
The process of creating This diagram shows the synthesis process developed for these hybrid nanomateri- lus of resilience. Without
als. First, electron-beam lithography carves the isolated nanopillars, then an alu-
the material began with minum vapor (TMA) infiltrates the pores in the structures, and finally, exposure to the infiltrated nanoscale
lithography, where a focused water creates the final aluminum-oxide infused material. metal oxide filler, the poly-
beam of electrons carved mer pillars would be
small pillars (300 nanometers wide and called atomic layer deposition (ALD). crushed under mechanical strain.
1,000 nanometers tall) into a polymer The precursor naturally soaks into pores To test that resilience, a nanomechanical
called SU-8, a light-sensitive material typi- in the polymer pillars, a bit like molecular tip was run across the sample and was able
cally used for micrometer-scale device concrete smoothing over cracks and fis- to gently press down on individual pillars,
fabrication. The precise geometry of the sures in a sidewalk. Subsequent exposure each one some 200 times thinner than a
lithography process laid the structural to water transformed the aluminum pre- human hair. The relationship among the
foundation for the subsequent infiltra- cursor into a metal oxide molecule, which elastic mechanical energy, the material’s
tion by inorganic elements. strengthens the polymer matrix. The ability to store and release it, and the struc-
The nanopillar array was placed in a number and duration of these exposures tural integrity were measured.
vacuum chamber and an aluminum pre- allow researchers to tune the ultimate me- For more information, contact Poornima
cursor vapor was introduced — a process chanical properties of the material. Upadhya at pupadhya@bnl.gov; 631-344-4711.

Aeronautics
Multi-Purpose, Flexible Wing Structure for Small
Unmanned Aerial Systems
Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command – Systems Center Pacific, San Diego, California
S mall unmanned aircraft systems (UAS),

also known as micro air vehicles, are
promising tools for a variety of military and
tronics, sensors, and fuel cells, and can
self-erect upon receiving thermal stimuli.
The wing is made of a flexible dielec-
by 10 times compared to vehicles using
lithium-ion batteries. Bonded to the
substrate is a layer of shape memory
commercial applications. Some small UAS tric substrate, providing surface area for polymer that enables the wing to self-
have flexible wings and are lightweight, flexible printed circuitry and micro fuel erect when thermally stimulated. Ulti-
making them back-packable and easy to cell components. Flexible printed cir- mately, this innovation could lead to a
deploy. Most UAS that are currently avail- cuitry such as a microstrip patch or low-cost, throwaway wing made of an
able have limited extended communica- printed antennas that enhance transmit- expendable meta-material, effectively
tions ability and short battery life. ter/receiver and network capabilities making the wing a replaceable battery
To enhance communications and bat- can be added without adding size or sig- and sensor system.
tery life without increasing weight and nificantly additional weight. For more information, contact Joan Wu-
sacrificing deployability, a flexible wing Micro fuel cells have the potential to Singel at jwu-singel@montana.edu; 406-994-
was developed that incorporates elec- increase the operating life of the vehicle 7705.
Flexible, Spinning Heat Shield for Spacecraft

This heat shield could reduce the cost of space travel and even aid future space missions to Mars.
University of Manchester, United Kingdom
H eat shields are essentially used as the

brakes to stop spacecraft from burn-
ing up and crashing on entry and re-
entry into a planet’s atmosphere. Cur-
rent spacecraft heat shield methods
include huge inflatables and mechani-
cally deployed structures that are often
heavy and complicated to use.
A new heat shield design utilizes cen-
trifugal forces that stiffen lightweight
materials to prevent burn-up. The light-
weight prototype is also self-regulating,
so there is no need for any additional
machinery, reducing the weight of
spacecraft even further and allowing for
low-cost scientific research and recovery
of rocket parts.
The flexible heat shield is shaped like a
skirt and spins like a sycamore seed.
Planets with atmospheres, such as Earth
and Mars, allow spacecraft to utilize aero-
dynamic drag to slow down, and the pro-
totype’s design uses this to enable atmos- A CubeSat-sized system (left) and the cargo bay.
pheric entry. This is similar to high-board
diving, where the drag from water decel- safe atmospheric entry, spacecraft need When entering Earth’s or Mars’ atmos-
erates the diver’s body before reaching a front end, or shield, that tolerates high pheres, spacecraft require highly
the bottom of the swimming pool. heat as well as an aerodynamic shape designed shields to avoid burn-up, gen-
The fast entry into Earth’s atmos- that generates drag. But unlike Earth, erate drag, and support heavy loads.
phere generates so much heat — more the Martian atmosphere is very thin. The prototype is made of a flexible
than 10,000 ˚C — that the air around the To carry heavy equipment and astro- material that allows for easy storage
spacecraft can burn into plasma. For nauts, a high drag area is needed. onboard spacecraft. This material,

while foldable, is strong and has a high heat shield is lightweight and flexible its high induced drag reduces the
temperature tolerance. The shield is enough for use on smaller satellites, amount of fuel burned upon re-entry.
also stitched along a special pattern research could be made easier and For more information, contact Jordan
that allows it to spin up during flight, cheaper. The heat shield would also Kenny at jordan.kenny@manchester.ac.uk;
inducing centrifugal force. Since the help save cost in recovery missions, as +44 (0)161 275 8257.
Foldable Drone Flies Through Narrow Holes

The drone can retract its propeller arms in flight and make itself small to fit through narrow
gaps and holes.
University of Zurich, Switzerland
I nspecting a damaged building after an

earthquake or during a fire is the kind
of job human rescuers would like drones
to do for them. A flying robot could look
for people trapped inside and guide the
rescue team towards them. But the
drone would often have to enter the
building through a crack in a wall, a par-
tially open window, or through bars —
something the typical size of a drone
does not allow.
To solve this problem, a new kind of
drone was created that is inspired by
birds that fold their wings in mid-air to The new drone can squeeze itself to pass through gaps and then go back to its previous shape, all
cross narrow passages. The drone can while continuing to fly. (Image: UZH)
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Aeronautics
squeeze itself to pass through gaps and The autonomous drone includes on- with a narrow passage, the drone can
then go back to its previous shape, all board perception and control systems. switch to an H-shape, with all arms lined
while continuing to fly. It also can hold In comparison to other drones, this up along one axis or to an O-shape, with
and transport objects along the way. morphing drone can maneuver in tight all arms folded as close as possible to the
spaces and guarantee a stable flight at body. A T-shape can be used to bring the
all times. The quadrotor features four onboard camera mounted on the cen-
propellers that rotate independently, tral frame as close as possible to objects
mounted on mobile arms that can fold that the drone needs to inspect.
around the main frame thanks to servo- In the future, the researchers hope to
motors. The control system adapts in further improve the drone structure so
real time to any new position of the that it can fold in all three dimensions, as
arms, adjusting the thrust of the pro- well as develop algorithms that will make
pellers as the center of gravity shifts. the drone truly autonomous, allowing it
The morphing drone can adopt differ- to look for passages in a real disaster sce-
ent configurations according to what is nario and automatically choose the best
needed in the field. way to pass through them.
The standard configuration is an X- For more information, contact Professor Dr.
shape, with the four arms stretched out Davide Scaramuzza, Director of the Robotics
When faced with a narrow passage, the drone
can switch to a H-shape, with all arms lined up and the propellers at the widest possible and Perception Group, at press.scaramuzza@
along one axis. (Image: UZH) distance from each other. When faced ifi.uzh.ch; +41 44 635 24 07.
Airborne Machine Learning Estimates for Local Winds

and Kinematics
GPS-free estimations use COTS sensors for UAS and air taxi operations in complex urban
environments.
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California
F uture Unmanned Aerial Systems

(UAS) and air taxis will require
advanced onboard autonomy to operate
Sensor B
Sensor A Sensor C
safely within complex and dynamic urban
environments. Urban landscapes are dy-
namic and constantly evolving. In addi-
tion to multi-directional, intense, and MAESTRO
seemingly unpredictable winds often cre-
ated in urban canyons, an exact knowl-
edge of current building sizes, shapes,
Local Winds Vehicle Kinematics
and positions is also often unavailable for
real-time navigation.
The MAchine learning ESTimations for Path Planner
uRban Operations (MAESTRO) system is a
novel approach that couples commodity
Autopilot
sensors with advanced algorithms to pro-
vide real-time onboard local wind and kine-
matics estimations to a vehicle’s guidance Left: UAS in synthetic environment using MAESTRO for safe urban operations; Right: GPS-free on-
and navigation system. Sensors and compu- board sensing and computing integrated with MAESTRO.
tations are integrated in a novel way to pre-
dict local winds and promote safe opera- with an external data source or the and other uncertainties, and has been
tions in dynamic urban regions where GPS/GNSS. Estimations of the local winds demonstrated successfully in lab experi-
Global Positioning System/Global Navi- (speed and direction) are created using ments and computer simulations.
gation Satellite System (GPS/GNSS) and inputs from onboard sensors that scan the NASA is actively seeking licensees to com-
other network communications may be un- local building environment. This informa- mercialize this technology. Please contact the
available or are difficult to obtain when tion can then be used by the onboard Ames Technology Partnerships Office at
surrounded by tall buildings due to multi- guidance and navigation system to deter- ARC-TechTransfer@mail.nasa.gov or 855-
path reflections and signal diffusion. mine safe and energy-efficient trajectories 627-2249 to initiate licensing discussions.
The system can be implemented for operations in urban and suburban set- Follow this link for more information:
onboard an UAS and once airborne, the tings. The technology is robust to dynamic https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/TB2016/
system does not require communication environments, input noise, missing data, TOP2-277.

Variable-Depth, Multilayer Liner for Aircraft Noise Reduction
This design significantly improves control of the acoustic properties of liners used for aircraft
noise reduction.
N ASA Langley Research

Center has developed
a new approach for design-
straint limits the ability of
the liner to achieve broad-
band noise absorption need-
ing aircraft liner cores for ed for today’s aircraft.
noise reduction. The cores In this design, the num-
are comprised of multiple ber of internal septa along
honeycomb-shaped cham- with their respective inser-
bers, each of which may tion depths and DC flow
contain one or more em- resistance are carefully se-
bedded porous septa. By lected to achieve optimum
varying the resistance and broadband sound absorp-
insertion depth of the tion over a targeted fre-
septa between adjacent quency range.
honeycomb core cham- NASA is actively seeking
bers, the number of tuning licensees to commercialize this
frequencies is in creased Honeycomb-shaped chambers in the liner core. technology. Please contact
for the full liner. High- The Technology Gateway at
resistance septa can also be used to Conventional broadband acoustic lin- LARC-DL-technologygateway@mail.nasa.gov
change the effective chamber depth. ers are generally limited to two-layer con- or 757-864-1178 to initiate licensing discus-
Together, these design features cause figurations, with the internal septa sions. Follow this link for more information:
the acoustic liner to absorb sound over placed at a constant depth for ease of https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/TB2016/
a broad frequency range. manufacturing. This constant-depth con- LAR-TOPS-256.

Mechanical & Fluid Systems
System Selectively Sequesters Toxins from Water
This technology pulls specific contaminants from drinking and wastewater, and pipelines.
Rice University, Houston, Texas
T raditional methods, such as reverse

osmosis, that remove contaminants
from water are expensive and energy- Ti sheet
Rubber
intensive. Researchers have developed R-AC
Plastic mesh gasket
technology to remove contaminants from Water effluent
water, but only as many as necessary.
A treatment system was built that can be
tuned to selectively pull toxins from drink-
ing water and wastewater from factories,
sewage systems, and oil and gas wells. The
technology will cut costs and save energy
compared to conventional systems.
The heart of the system is a set of novel
composite electrodes that enables capaci-
tive deionization. The charged, porous
electrodes selectively pull target ions from
fluids passing through the maze-like sys-
tem. When the pores get filled with toxins,
Saltwater
the electrodes can be cleaned, restored to Influent
their original capacity, and reused. CEM
AC
Ti
There are many ions in water, but not all sheet
are toxic. Sodium chloride (salt), for exam-
ple, is perfectly benign and does not need to
be removed unless the concentration gets The platform can selectively filter contaminants from wastewater, drinking water, and industrial flu-
ids. An engineered coating of resin, polymer, and activated carbon removes and traps harmful sulfate
too high. In some drinking water wells, how- ions, and other coatings can be used in the same platform to target other contaminants. (Illustration
ever, there is arsenic, and in drinking water by Kuichang Zuo/Rice University)
pipes, there could be lead or copper. In
industrial applications, there are calcium and
sulfate ions that form scale — a buildup of
mineral deposits that fouls and clogs pipes.
Water
The proof-of-principle system removed effluent
sulfate ions, a scale-forming mineral that
can give water a bitter taste and act as a lax-
E
ative. The system’s electrodes were coated
with activated carbon, which was in turn
coated by a thin film of tiny resin particles
held together by quaternized polyvinyl
alcohol. When sulfate-contaminated water SO42-
flowed through a channel between the
charged electrodes, sulfate ions were e-
attracted by the electrodes, passed through
the resin coating, and stuck to the carbon. CI-
Tests showed the positively charged coat-
ing on the cathode preferentially captured
sulfate ions over salt at a ratio of more than
20 to 1. The electrodes retained their prop-
erties over 50 cycles. The system is intend-
ed to work with current commercial water- Salt Resin Activated
treatment systems. Coatings for other con- Water QPVA carbon
taminants are being developed.
For more information, contact David Electrode coatings can be swapped out to allow the device to selectively remove a range of contami-
Ruth at david@rice.edu; 713-348-6327. nants, while most common salt ions are allowed to pass by. (Illustration by Kuichang Zuo/Rice University)

Computer-Controlled Exercise Equipment
This compact strength training system provides the benefits associated with free
weightlifting and/or aerobic training.
W hile a wide variety of computer-

controlled exercise machines for
training and rehabilitation exist — some
user is sensed by sensors in the resistance
system and/or is recognized by the resist-
ance system, such as through wireless
urable to a specific subject, changes
resistance dynamically based on sensor
input, and/or changes resistance based
of which can be automatically adjusted means. The program can be predeter- on user input. Optional sensors provide
to vary resistance or incline — such sys- mined, has preset options, is config- feedback information about the user
tems provide for preprogrammed
changes in load or resistance. What is
needed is a system that overcomes the
limitations of the existing robotic reha-
bilitation systems by providing a training
and/or rehabilitation system that adapts
a resistance or force applied to a user-
interactive element in response to the
user’s interaction.
Computer-assisted exercise equipment
was developed that adapts a resistance or /Ǌǜ6
force applied to a user-interactive ele-
ment in response to the user’s interac-
tion. The system uses a computer and
exercise equipment configured with an
electric motor. The computer-controlled
robotic resistance system or mechanical
resistance training system is used for
strength training, physical therapy, reha-
bilitation, and/or medical diagnosis.
The resistance system comprises a
user interface, software control, con-
troller, electric motor, electric servo
assist/resist motor, variable-speed
motor, actuator, and/or user sensor.
The resistance system is adaptable to
multiple configurations to provide dif-
ferent types of training.
The system significantly advances
neuromuscular function as it is adapt-
able to a level of resistance or applied
force; for example, the system option-
ally uses biomechanical feedback,
motorized aerobic conditioning,
strength training, and a computer-pro-
Pressure Valve Floating Gear Oil Valve
grammed workout.
The system optionally provides for
ALL SPRINGS ARE NOT EQUAL®

an automatic reconfiguration and/or
adaptive load adjustment based upon
real-time measurement of a user’s Reduce spring height by 50% over ordinary coil springs while
interaction with the system or sensor- maintaining the same force and deflection. Standard parts available
based observation by the exercise sys-
in stainless and carbon steel. Need custom? No problem. We’ll provide
tem as it is operated by the user. The
you with the right spring, in the right material, for your application.
exercise system optionally provides
resistance and/or assistance to a
motion of the user interface such as a FREE SAMPLES:
weightlifting bar or crank system. Call (866) 676-5753, or visit
The user enters a program into the sys- expert.smalley.com/NTB/springs
tem and alters the resistance within a
repetition or between repetitions. The

Mechanical &
Fluid Systems
and/or the state of a current exercise tem, and the user’s heart rate, and/or Deaconu of Streamline Automation LLC for
movement such as position of a movable blood pressure. Johnson Space Center. For more informa-
element of the resistance system, a force This work was done by David Paulus, tion, contact Streamline Automation at info@
applied to a portion of the exercise sys- James Shaw, Alton Reich, and Stelu streamlineautomation.biz or 256-713-1220.
High-Power Thermoelectric Generator

This miniature generator could open a pathway to cost-effective, autonomous IoT applications.
Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
O bjects in our daily lives,

such as speakers, refrig-
erators, and even cars, are Heat conductive
tor integrated circuits, its
processing cost could be
largely cut through mass
becoming “smarter” day by Top view p-type Si n-type Si Top view layer p-type Si
production. It also could
n-type Si
day as they connect to the open up a pathway to var-
Internet and exchange ious autonomously driven
data, creating the Internet IoT devices utilizing envi-
of Things (IoT). Toward an + - ronmental and body
metal metal
IoT-based society, a minia- heat; for example, it may
turized thermoelectric gen- be possible to charge a
erator is anticipated to smartwatch while jogging.
charge these objects, espe- The thermoelectric gen-
Side view Side view
cially for those that are Heat source Heat source erator lost the cavity struc-
portable and wearable. + - ture, but instead short-
Due to advantages such Cavity
ened the silicon nanowires
insulator
as its relatively low thermal layer to 0.25 nanometer, since
Si substrate Si substrate
conductance but high elec- simulations showed that
tric conductance, silicon the thermoelectric per-
nanowires have emerged Conventional thermoelectric generator (left) and newly developed thermoelectric formance improved by
as a promising thermoelec- generator (right). minimizing the device.
tric material. Silicon-based Despite its new structure,
thermoelectric generators convention- To address these problems, a silicon- the generator demonstrated the same
ally employed long, silicon nanowires nanowire thermoelectric generator was power density as the conventional de-
of about 10-100 nanometers that were developed that experimentally demon- vices. Thermal resistance was suppressed,
suspended on a cavity to cut off the strated a high power density of 12 and the power density multiplied by ten
bypass of the heat current and secure microwatts per 1 cm2 — enough to drive times by thinning the generator’s silicon
the temperature difference across the sensors or realize intermittent wireless substrate from the conventional 750
silicon nanowires. The cavity structure communication — at a small thermal dif- nanometers to 50 nanometers with back-
weakened the mechanical strength of ference of only 5 °C. side grinding.
the devices and increased the fabrica- Because the generator uses the same For more information, contact Professor
tion cost. technology to manufacture semiconduc- Takanobu Watanbe at watanabe-t@waseda.jp.
Precision Low-Speed Motor Controller

This inexpensive brushless DC (BLDC) motor controller can be used in robotic systems,
automotive, or robotic surgery.
I nnovators at NASA Johnson Space

Center have developed a method for
controlling precise motion of a brushless
method to control BLDC motors over a
broad range of speeds, ranging from
about 0.025 rpm to about 7000 rpm.
model of the electrical dynamics of the
motor, custom electronics, and a PI con-
troller to maintain a rapid response and
DC (BLDC) motor using relatively inex- The Precision Low-Speed Motor Con- smooth current control. The velocity
pensive components. Precision motors are troller was designed as part of an OpTIIX measurement algorithm is embedded in
usually quite expensive and inefficient telescope for the International Space the velocity loop that is wrapped around
when operating at slow speeds. Current Station. This technology is based on a pre- the current loop to provide smooth, low-
motors are only capable of operating at cise current control loop and a high-fideli- velocity control.
approximately 15 rpm with a risk of exces- ty velocity measurement algorithm. The Commercial motors may employ this
sive jitters. The new technology uses a precise current loop uses a mathematical technology to extend their dynamic

range. This technology can also be inte- This technology’s capability has For more information, contact the NASA
grated into surgical robots that require been integral to the success of several JSC Technology Transfer and Commercial-
advanced precision motion control sys- NASA projects, such as the OpTIIX tel- ization Office at jsc-techtran@mail.nasa.gov
tems. Hybrid and electric vehicles can escope, the NASA Robonaut 2 robot, or 281-283-3809. Follow this link for more
integrate this technology into their oper- and the Modular Robotic Vehicle information: https://technology.jsc.nasa.gov/
ating system to improve efficiencies. (MRV). patent/MSC-TOPS-76.
MEMS Switch Extends Life of Cellphones

Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York
A new type of microelectromechan-

ical system (MEMS) was developed
that uses electrostatic levitation to pro-
landing pads to the electrodes to reduce
the contact area when the electrodes
collide, but this only delays the eventual
called electrostatic levitation, is currently
not available with the two-electrode sys-
tem. The ability to generate this force
vide a more robust system. All cellphones breakdown of the material. prevents permanent damage of the
use MEMS switches for wireless commu- The new system avoids the damage device after continuous use and enables
nication, but traditionally there are just altogether. Instead of following the two- a reliable bi-directional switch.
two electrodes. The switches open and electrode model, the MEMS switch fea- For cellphones, this design means
close numerous times during just one tures three electrodes on the bottom and longer life and fewer component replace-
hour, but their current lifespan is limited one electrode parallel to the others. The ments. For power lines, this type of
by the two-electrode system. two bottom electrodes on the right and MEMS switch would be useful when volt-
When the two electrodes come into left side are charged while the middle age goes beyond a limit and the switch
contact — after several repetitions — and top electrodes are grounded. This needs to open. The design allows the use
the surface of the bottom electrode type of MEMS switch is normally closed, of more reliable switches to monitor
becomes damaged, leading to a MEMS but the side electrodes provide a strong unusual spikes in voltage, such as those
switch that has to be discarded and upward force that can overcome the caused by an earthquake.
replaced. Some researchers have tried to forces between the two middle elec- For more information, contact John Brhel
avoid the damage by adding dimples or trodes and open the switch. This force, at jbrhel@binghamton.edu; 607-777-3280.
CST2020 Series
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Learn more @ coilcraft.com

Propulsion
Sublimable Propellant Source for Iodine-Fed Ion
Propulsion System
This system enables reliable and robust storage and delivery of iodine propellant to a thruster.
Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama
N ASA Marshall has developed a system

for generating iodine vapor from solid
iodine for use as a propellant in a Hall or
NASA’s iodine vapor feed system is
based on a mechanism that holds and
maintains the solid iodine in contact with
pellant. Dynamic modeling indicates that
the feed system tubing can be built in such
a way as to reduce vibrationally induced
ion thruster propulsion system. Xenon has a heated surface; in this case, the walls of stresses that occur during launch.
generally been the preferred propellant the propellant tank. The mechanism pro- Thermal modeling has been performed
for these spacecraft ion propulsion systems vides a robust and reliable steady-state to demonstrate that the feed system heater
but more recently, iodine-based systems delivery of sublimated iodine vapor to the power levels are sufficient to heat the tank
have gained significant attention due to ion propulsion system by ensuring good and propellant lines to operating tempera-
comparable performance to xenon, and thermal contact between the solid iodine tures, and sublime the iodine in the stor-
the system-level advantages of low storage and the tank walls. age tank to supply propellant for reliable
pressure and higher storage density with To date, the technology development and long-term operation.
more propellant per unit volume. effort includes extensive thermal, mechan- NASA is actively seeking licensees to com-
The solid iodine, in comparison to ical, and flow modelling together with test- mercialize this technology. Please contact
gaseous xenon, must be sublimated into a ing of components and subsystems re- Sammy A. Nabors at sammy.nabors@
vapor for ionization, and a heat source quired to feed iodine propellant to a 200- nasa.gov or 256-544-5226 to initiate licens-
must be used to increase the sublimation W Hall thruster. The feed system has been ing discussions. Follow this link for more
rate of the solid iodine to a level that is designed to use materials that are resistant information: https://technology.nasa.gov/
useful for propulsive purposes. to the highly reactive nature of iodine pro- patent/TB2016/MFS-TOPS-85.
Green Electric Monopropellant (GEM)-Fueled Pulsed

Plasma Thruster
Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama
N ASA required a rocket thruster able

to produce a number of pulses at
high specific impulse at a relatively low
electrodes. Then once the valve is closed,
a capacitor, or bank of capacitors, dis-
charges across the propellant, heating
mapping of the performance parameter
space, which in turn aids in determining
the optimum specific impulse for the
voltage (~300 to 400V). The key problem and accelerating it outward to produce design. The laboratory thruster requires
was that existing propellants for liquid- thrust. The advantage of the innovation is the replacement of the electrodes due to
fueled pulsed plasma thrusters (LPPTs) that with lower voltage, less power pro- erosion, but a flight system should be
required high voltages to ablate and cessing equipment is needed, and the designed with sufficient electrode life-
accelerate the propellant. The Green electrodes will experience less erosion for time to permit the completion of its mis-
Electric Monopropellant (GEM)-fueled a longer lifetime. sion with only one set of electrodes.
Pulsed Plasma Thruster (PPT) is a rocket Test data acquired using a pendulum Reliability is still being determined at
thruster that is able to produce a number thrust stand was utilized to verify the per- this time, and electrode erosion margin
of pulses at high specific impulse at a rel- formance of the LPPT concept. The factors are dependent on the mission
atively low voltage (~300 to 400V). motion of the pendulum was measured profile and the power level utilized on
The liquid GEM-type fuel has never using a laser range finder while a scale the LPPT.
before been considered for pulsed plas- was used to determine mass loss to permit This work was done by Jason Thrasher,
ma acceleration but liquid-fueled PPTs the calculation of Isp values. Sources of Shae Williams, and Phillip Takahashi of
have been investigated using water, mer- error include these test hardware sensors Digital Solid State Propulsion for Marshall
cury, dimethyl ether, and other propel- but they only affect the actual perfor- Space Flight Center. NASA is seeking part-
lants. The disadvantage of the prior art is mance data and not the goal to demon- ners to further develop this technology
the higher voltage required to ablate and strate a LPPT fueled by GEM. through joint cooperative research and
accelerate the fluid. Peripheral equipment includes the development. For more information about
During functional operation of the electrical power delivery system. Oper- this technology and to explore opportunities,
GEM LPPT, a valve dispenses a small ating the thruster at varying discharge please contact Ronald C. Darty at
amount of propellant between the two voltage and energy per pulse allows the Ronald.C.Darty@nasa.gov. MFS-33328-1

Small-Body Dynamics Toolkit Version 5.0
The software toolkit provides commonly needed capabilities to support preliminary mission design
in the vicinity of a primitive body.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
T he Small-Body Dynamics Toolkit

(SBDT) v5.0 is a collection of primi-
tive-body-specific trajectory design and
This work was done by Stephen B. Broschart,
Gregory Lantoine, Thomas A. Pavlak, and Eugene
G. Fahnestock of Caltech; and Loic Chappaz of
license through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
and you may request a license at:
https://download.jpl.nasa.gov/ops/request/
analysis tools written in MATLAB®. The Purdue University for NASA’s Jet Propulsion request_ introduction.cfm.
SBDT gives the user the capabilities to Laboratory. This software is available for NPO-49707
propagate, analyze, and visualize space-
craft trajectories and the dynamical
environment near realistic asteroid,
comet, or small planetary-moon mod- Precision Components
els. The various component functions See us at:
BIOMEDevice
provided can be put together through Photo Etched Parts -
Design2Part - Boston, MA
user-created scripts, functions, or tools Santa Clara, CA
to perform a wide variety of trajectory • Intricate components as thin as .0005"
analyses, including close-proximity • Eliminates cost of hard tooling
encounter design, Monte Carlo studies, • Eliminates burring and stress problems
stability analysis, geometric analyses, • Short lead times
and fuel budget calculations. • In-house forming, laminating and plating
The latest release of the SBDT, ver- • Prototype through production
sion 5.0, supports three types of gravity
models (pointmass, constant density, Download
or spherical harmonic), three types of Capabilities
primitive-body shapes (sphere, ellip- Brochure
soid, or arbitrary polyhedron), a solar
radiation pressure (SRP) model, and Flex & Rigid-Flex Circuits
several comet outgassing models. The
dynamic models available in version • Medical, Aerospace and Telecom markets
5.0 include the two-body, Hill, circular- • Adhesiveless construction
restricted three-body, elliptic-restrict- • Selective plating of gold and tin
ed three-body, and four-body problems • SMT and through hole component assembly
(for modeling binary asteroid sys- • Package sizes down to 0201 and .4mm pitch
tems), all of which allow for irregular • Microvia sizes down to .001" diameter
gravity and SRP acceleration. One of
the most significant aspects of the Download
SBDT design is that all of the functions Flex Circuit
work equally well with any of the Design Guide
shape, gravity, or force models
described above. A set of data format
standards has been applied across the EMI/RFI Shielding
toolkit such that all SBDT functions • Global supplier standard and custom products
execute so long as the data structure is • Commercial and military markets
correctly populated. A number of con- • Over 100 finger stock gasket profiles
venient utility functions are also pro-
• Shielded vents and filters
vided for converting between different
• Conductive foam and elastomer gaskets
gravity and shape model types and for
• Board level shielding
applying random deformations to the
shape and gravity to support Monte
Download
Carlo studies.
Shielding
The software is applicable to design
Catalog
and analysis of encounter phase activi-
ties during the early mission develop-
ment phases and for support of
www.tech-etch.com
research work in this area. To date, the
SBDT has been used in support of sev- TECH-ETCH, INC., 45 Aldrin Road, Plymouth, MA 02360 ISO 9001
eral mission proposals and a few dozen AS9100D
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research papers.

Propulsion
Real-Time, Fuel-Optimal, Powered Descent Guidance Using

Interpolated Time-of-Flight and Propellant Mass
Some elements of this technology may be adopted by developers of unmanned aerial vehicles.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
S oft landing using rockets requires a tra-

jectory to be planned for the lander
from rocket ignition — typically several
Multi-X enables going to landing ellipses
with large hazards that can be pre-deter-
mined from orbital imagery.
descent. Third, when using G-FOLD for
Multi-X, the optimal target can be selected
quickly from hundreds of possibilities by
kilometers in altitude and moving at up to It was determined through extensive simply looking up the propellant mass for
200 m/s — to the point near the surface simulation studies that the optimal time- each target and selecting the lowest. For
with near-zero velocity. The exact initial of-flight and optimal propellant mass as Multi-H, in which hazardous regions are
and possibly final points are not known calculated by G-FOLD can be accurately specified instead, a grid of safe targets can
beforehand, so the trajectory must be interpolated from a coarse seven-dimen- be generated and, again, the lowest-pro-
found onboard a landing spacecraft in sional grid of initial position, velocity, and pellant target can be selected. Importantly,
near real time. An algorithm to find such a mass of the lander. As a result, instead of non-convex constraints on the landing site
trajectory is called powered descent guid- G-FOLD performing a time-of-flight can be handled in this manner. Additional
ance (PDG). The previous state-of-the-art search with approximately 10 trajectory criteria can be included, such as distance
had been the computationally fast but sub- optimizations, the optimal time-of-flight is to the landing target. Fourth, if there is
optimal Polynomial PDG of Apollo her- simply interpolated from a small table insufficient propellant to reach a specific
itage. In the last decade, a previous tech- (e.g., 40 KB). Then a single trajectory opti- target — for example, for pinpoint land-
nology advance that transforms the PDG mization is performed for this interpolat- ing — G-FOLD can find the point closest
problem into a convex optimization prob- ed time-of-flight, thereby reducing the G- to the target that is reachable by interpo-
lem that can be solved efficiently formed FOLD runtime by a factor of 10. lating propellant masses for candidate tar-
the basis of the Guidance for Fuel Optimal The new technology reported here con- gets between the lander and the original
Large Diverts (G-FOLD) PDG algorithm. sists of five elements that extend G-FOLD target, and taking the point closest to the
While G-FOLD finds the constrained opti- and that derive from the engineering-level target with propellant equal to what the
mal PDG trajectory, it still requires a search interpolability of the optimal time-of-flight lander has available. Fifth and finally, G-
to find the optimal time-of-flight, which in and propellant mass. First, as described, FOLD can also approximate the farthest
turn can typically require 10 trajectory opti- the time-of-flight line search in G-FOLD possible divert by searching over discrete
mizations. While a PDG trajectory for a sin- can be replaced with interpolation from a directions and distances and finding the
gle time-of-flight can be found in near real small table, immediately reducing the run- largest propellant-feasible distance.
time, having to evaluate 10 trajectories time by a factor of 10. Second, for G-FOLD This work was done by Scott R. Ploen and
while running in the background on a 200- to trigger powered descent while a lander Daniel P. Scharf of Caltech, and Behcet Acikmese
MHz flight processor would take too long. is descending on chute or a deorbit trajec- of the University of Texas at Austin for NASA’s Jet
In addition, Multi-X is emerging as tory, the optimal propellant mass to reach Propulsion Laboratory. This software is avail-
promising architecture for next-genera- the target can be looked up over a finite able for license through the Jet Propulsion
tion missions. In Multi-X, a lander first horizon. If the propellant to reach the tar- Laboratory, and you may request a license at:
selects from pre-specified safe sites and get starting a divert now is a local mini- https://download.jpl.nasa.gov/ops/request/
then plans a trajectory to the selected site. mum and/or viable, then start powered request_introduction.cfm. NPO-49545
Fuel Cell/Fuel Cell Hybrid System

National Energy Technology Laboratory, Morgantown, West Virginia
F uel cells can deliver clean, reliable, and

uninterrupted power nearly 100 percent
of the time. Fuel cells offer the advantage
tages over liquid electrolytic fuel cells,
SOFCs at present typically operate at high
temperatures, and therefore require a
stream to supercharge the fuel stream with
oxygen for more efficient thermodynamic
conversion by a low-temperature fuel cell.
of efficiency by converting chemical ener- means for disposing of the released heat. The tandem system would combine the
gy directly to electricity. They have no mov- As such, they may become bulky, noisy, advantages of both high-temperature and
ing parts, thereby eliminating failures asso- and comprise several moving parts that low-temperature fuel cells without the dis-
ciated with pumps, blowers, heat exchang- require frequent maintenance. Systems advantages of each. In addition, the tan-
ers, and other systems. All fuel cells, partic- that combine SOFCs and molten carbon dem system would be modular and scala-
ularly high-temperature fuel cells, require fuel cell characteristics contain a liquid, ble for use in the transportation and
spent fuel/waste heat recovery subsystems, which gives rise to corrosion and elec- propulsion power sectors, and should fur-
and low-temperature fuel cells require fuel trolyte loss. ther be adaptable to hydrogen co-genera-
reforming subsystems that lower the effi- This invention provides a fully integrat- tion in industrial settings.
ciency of the entire system. ed hybrid system by using two fuel cells in For more information, contact Jessica
Although solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) tandem. The SOFC is used to electro- Sosenko at jessica.sosenko@netl.doe.gov;
provide durability and economic advan- chemically introduce oxygen into a fuel 412-386-7417.

Effects of Reynolds and
Mach Numbers in Large
Eddy Simulation of
Supersonic Round Jets
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
California
R ockets/landers arrive on the Moon with supersonic speed

and impact lunar regolith. There is no reliable software to com-
putationally simulate in an effective way the supersonic plumes escap-
ing from these rockets/devices. A Large Eddy Simulation (LES)
model and hybrid WENO (weighted essentially non-oscillatory)
scheme numerical method were developed to address this problem.
Large Eddy Simulations of supersonic turbulent jets are carried
out to understand their structure and quantify their turbulent
characteristics. The LES uses a dynamic Smagorinsky model sup-
plemented by the Yoshizawa model to model the sub-grid terms.
The numerical method is a hybrid scheme in which a fifth-order
WENO scheme is combined with a fourth-order central-differ-
ence scheme. A Runge-Kutta third-order scheme is used for time
integration. Simulations are performed for supersonic jets having
Reynolds numbers 1500, 3700, and 7900, and Mach numbers of
1.4 and 2.1. The Reynolds number value is observed to play a role
in the transition to turbulence, but once transition has been
achieved, it has a subdued effect above a threshold value.
The results of the simulations showed that turbulent struc- Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/72991-761
tures in the transition region are more coherent, and the poten-
tial core is longer when the jet Mach number is higher; a larger
potential core leads to a slower downstream velocity decay. The
rms (root mean square) velocities are biased in the axial direc-
tion, as expected. In the fully turbulent downstream regions, the better products.
computed Reynolds stress is higher for a larger Mach number
jet. Peak pressure fluctuations are observed to occur about half better solutions.
a jet diameter radially away from the centerline of the jet, and
this location is found to be independent of both Reynolds and
Mach numbers. The pressure-velocity correlations and the tur-
bulent kinetic energy profiles are also investigated along the
centerline and radial directions, and it is found that the peak
turbulent kinetic energy in the axial directions occurs at the
same location as the maximum pressure fluctuations.
The pressure-velocity correlations are primarily negative. For
the fully developed turbulence jets, the pressure-radial velocity
correlation is null at the centerline, and decreases to a minimum
a short distance away from the centerline after which it again
increases, exhibits a local peak, and then asymptotes to zero. This
non-monotonic behavior is attributed to the radial expansion of
the jet close to the centerline followed by fluid entrainment into
the jet at larger radial locations. The pressure-axial velocity corre-
lation is non-zero at the center line, reaches a minimum radially
farther away than the pressure-radial velocity correlation counter-
part, and thereafter increases and asymptotes to zero. The pres-
sure-axial velocity correlation has the largest negative value for an
intermediate Reynolds number. Thus, viscous effects have a non-
monotonic effect on the pressure-velocity fluctuation extrema.
Conveyor Solutions for
This work was done by Josette Bellan of Caltech and Kaushik Automotive Assembly
Balakrishnan for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This software is
available for license through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and you
www.mkversamove.com
may request a license at: https://download.jpl.nasa.gov/ops/request/
request_introduction.cfm. NPO-49812

Software
Self-Stabilizing, Distributed, Symmetric, Fault-Tolerant
Synchronization
Applications for this algorithm include communication networks, unmanned aircraft system
navigation, and satellite constellations.
D istributed systems have become an

integral part of safety-critical com-
puting applications, necessitating system
imprecise local clocks and faulty behav-
ior by some processes.
NASA has a strategy and an algorithm
generated signal, pulse, or message is
used. Nodes are anonymous, i.e., they do
not have unique identities. There is also a
designs that incorporate complex fault- for solving the Byzantine general prob- mechanical verification of a proposed
tolerant resource management func- lem for self-stabilizing a fully connected protocol. A bounded model of the proto-
tions to provide globally coordinated network from an arbitrary state and in col is verified using the Symbolic Model
operations with ultra-reliability. As a the presence of any number of faults Verifier (SMV). The model checking
result, robust clock synchronization has with various severities including any effort is focused on verifying correctness
become a required fundamental compo- number of arbitrary (Byzantine) faulty of the bounded model of the protocol as
nent of fault-tolerant, safety-critical dis- nodes. The solution applies to realizable well as confirming claims of determinism
tributed systems. Since physical oscilla- systems, while allowing for differences in and linear convergence with respect to
tors are inherently imperfect, local the network elements, provided that the the self-stabilization period.
clocks of nodes of a distributed system, number of arbitrary faults is not more NASA is actively seeking licensees to com-
driven by these oscillators, do not keep than a third of the network size. mercialize this technology. Please contact
perfect time and can drift with respect The only constraint on the behavior of The Technology Gateway at LARC-DL-
to real time and one another. Thus, the a node is that the interactions with other technologygateway@mail.nasa.gov or 757-
local clocks of the nodes must periodi- nodes are restricted to defined links and 864-1178 to initiate licensing discussions.
cally be re-synchronized. As a result, a interfaces. The solution does not rely on Follow this link for more information:
fault-tolerant system needs a clock syn- assumptions about the initial state of the https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/TB2016/
chronization algorithm that tolerates system and no central clock or centrally LAR-TOPS-270.
Efficient Security for Cloud-Based Machine Learning

Two encryption techniques combine to protect data while keeping neural networks running quickly.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
O utsourcing machine learning is a

rising trend in industry. Major tech
firms have launched cloud platforms
ral networks without dramatically slowing
their runtimes. This approach holds
promise for using cloud-based neural net-
learns anything about the network
parameters. Compared to traditional sys-
tems, however, GAZELLE ran 20 to 30
that conduct computation-heavy tasks, works for medical image analysis and times faster than state-of-the-art models,
such as running data through a convolu- other applications that use sensitive data. while reducing the required network
tional neural network (CNN) for image The system blends two conventional bandwidth by an order of magnitude.
classification. Resource-strapped small techniques — homomorphic encryption CNNs process image data through
businesses and other users can upload and garbled circuits — in a way that multiple linear and nonlinear layers of
data to those services for a fee and get helps the networks run orders of magni- computation. Linear layers do the com-
back results in several hours. tude faster than they do with conven- plex math (linear algebra) and assign
But what if there are data leaks? In tional approaches. The system, called some values to the data. At a certain
recent years, researchers have explored GAZELLE, was tested on two-party threshold, the data is outputted to non-
various secure-computation techniques image-classification tasks. A user sends linear layers that do some simpler com-
to protect such sensitive data. But those encrypted image data to an online serv- putation, make decisions (such as identi-
methods have performance drawbacks er evaluating a CNN running on fying image features), and send the data
that make neural network evaluation GAZELLE. After this, both parties share to the next linear layer. The end result is
(testing and validating) sluggish — encrypted information back and forth in an image with an assigned class, such as
sometimes as much as a million times order to classify the user’s image. vehicle, animal, person, or anatomical
slower — limiting their wider adoption. Throughout the process, the system feature.
A novel encryption method was devel- ensures that the server never learns any Recent approaches to securing CNNs
oped that secures data used in online neu- uploaded data, while the user never have involved applying homomorphic

encryption or garbled circuits to process
data throughout an entire network.
These techniques are effective at secur-
ing data, but they render complex neu-
ral networks inefficient.
Homomorphic encryption, used in
cloud computing, receives and executes
computation all in encrypted data,
called ciphertext, and generates an
encrypted result that can then be
decrypted by a user. When applied to
neural networks, this technique is partic-
ularly fast and efficient at computing lin-
ear algebra; however, it must introduce a
little noise into the data at each layer.
Over multiple layers, noise accumulates,
and the computation needed to filter
that noise grows increasingly complex,
slowing computation speeds.
Garbled circuits are a form of secure
two-party computation. The technique
takes an input from both parties, does A novel encryption method secures data used in online neural networks without dramatically slow-
some computation, and sends two sepa- ing their runtimes. (Image: Chelsea Turner)
rate inputs to each party. In that way,
the parties send data to one another, scales with computation complexity, bandwidth becomes unwieldy in math-
but they never see the other party’s data not with the size of the input. In an heavy linear layers.
— only the relevant output on their online neural network, this technique Combining the two techniques gets
side. The bandwidth needed to commu- works well in the nonlinear layers, around their inefficiencies. In GAZELLE,
nicate data between parties, however, where computation is minimal, but the a user will upload ciphertext to a cloud-

Software
based CNN. The user must have garbled The user does some computation on become too noisy. It also limits the com-
circuits technique running on their own garbled circuits and sends the data back munication of the garbled circuits to
computer. The CNN does all the com- to the CNN. By splitting and sharing the just the nonlinear layers, where it per-
putation in the linear layer, then sends workload, the system restricts the homo- forms optimally.
the data to the nonlinear layer. At that morphic encryption to doing complex For more information, contact Abby
point, the CNN and user share the data. math one layer at a time, so data doesn’t Abazorius at abbya@mit.edu; 617-253-2709.
Generative Design Enhances Autonomous Vehicle

Development
This design methodology employs rules-based automation for rapid design synthesis,
enabling engineers to design in the context of a full vehicle platform.
Mentor, A Siemens Business, Wilsonville, Oregon
T he technological ramp to fully auton -

omous vehicles presents significant
challenges for companies developing
autonomous vehicle programs. Ad-
vanced sensor technology, high-speed
and high-bandwidth data networks, and
cutting-edge artificial intelligence are all
crucial to the functional and commer-
cial success of autonomous vehicles.
SAE International defines six levels of
sophistication for autonomous vehicles,
from zero to five. A Level Two autonomous
vehicle contains about 17 sensors. A Level
Five car is projected to have more than 30
additional sensors of a much wider variety,
as it will assume complete control over the
driving task, requiring no human input
(Figure 1). More sensors translate to a
much more complex design task for engi- Figure 1: A fully autonomous vehicle will require many types of sensors to accurately perceive
neers developing the electrical and elec- dynamic driving environments.
tronic (E/E) systems of the vehicle.
Despite its challenges, autonomous Generative Design
drive is attracting a swath of new entrants Workflow
to the automotive industry. These compa-
ENGINEER AT WORK
nies lack industry-specific experience and Tools
the engineering resources to brute-force
their way through the complexities of
TE
autonomous vehicle design. Even the ENGINEERING DATA ALTERNATIVES

GENERA
VALIDATE
Tool
major automotive OEMs will face prob-
lems that their legacy design flows are ill-
equipped to handle. To compete, these PRODUCT IN USE
companies will need a new design
methodology that enables young engi-
neers to design accurate and optimized
Capture Explore Discover
systems, which can only be done by captur-
ing the experience and knowledge of vet-
eran engineers.
Generative design takes system defini- Figure 2: Generative design uses rules-based automation to generate proposals for the logic, soft-
tions and requirements as input and gen- ware, hardware, and networks of the E/E system.
erates architectural proposals for the
logic, software, hardware, and networks of neers throughout the design. Capturing Generative design empowers automo-
the E/E systems using rules-based auto- this IP helps companies develop both tive engineers to tackle the challenges of
mation (Figure 2). These rules capture vehicle architectures and new generations E/E systems design for autonomous
the knowledge and experience of the vet- of engineers as they learn and implement vehicles. It employs rules-based automa-
eran engineers to guide younger engi- existing company knowledge. tion for rapid design synthesis, enables

engineers to design in the context of a
full vehicle platform, and tightly inte-
grates various design domains to ensure
data continuity. Engineers can perform
COLLABORATIVE
detailed architectural explorations, rap-
idly incorporate change, and create a
continuous digital thread from initial
system definitions and requirements to
INTELLIGENCE
full-scale production and service. The
result is optimized, high-quality E/E sys-
tems design that take much less time
and far fewer resources to complete.
The massive complexity inherent in
autonomous vehicle design will continue Gain access to the smart technologies
to push the tools and methodologies
used by automotive engineers. The win-
and intelligent people propelling
ners in this disruptive technology will be aerospace and defense manufacturing.
those companies that can most effectively
integrate the advanced technologies
required for autonomous drive into a
package that is reliable, safe, and attrac- CONFERENCE: APRIL 29–MAY 2, 2019
tive to consumers, and then get those
technologies to market quickly and with a
EXHIBITS: APRIL 30–MAY 1
high level of quality. Generative design LONG BEACH [CA] CONVENTION CENTER
will be a key enabler for these companies
as they contend with the most sophisticat-
ed designs yet seen in the industry.
This article was written by Doug Burcicki, CLAIM YOUR FREE EXHIBIT
HALL PASS WITH PROMO CODE
Automotive Director, Integrated Electrical
Systems, at Mentor, A Siemens Business
TECHBRIEFSP
(Wilsonville, OR). For more information,
visit http://info.hotims.com/72991-122.
Optimal Register now at aerodefevent.com

Computational
Vision Pipeline
(OCVP)
Lyndon B. Johnson Space
Center, Houston, Texas
O ptimal Computational Vision Pipe-

line (OCVP) software uses a novel
algorithm that allows overlapping point
clouds obtained from sensors with dis-
placed position and orientation to be
fused together in a common coordinate
system with a rigorously linear solution
for position and orientation parameters;
thus, no approximation or iteration is
required as is the case for all other
known methods. These features enable
very precise real-time 3D mapping of
previously unknown objects.
For more information, contact the
NASA/JSC Technology Transfer and
Commercialization Office at jsc-techtran@
mail.nasa.gov or 281-483-3639.

Upcoming...
Webinars
Collaborative Robotics: Safely Connecting
Man and Machine
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 at Noon EST
Today’s collaborative robots are being used by manufacturers to automate tedious and dangerous jobs, while improving productivity.
These robots, which can work alone without supervision, are providing a true man-and-machine interface. This one-hour Technical
Webinar from the editors of Tech Briefs Media shows how collaborative robots can be integrated into a manufacturing process with-
out sacrificing safety and efficiency.
Speakers:
Jim Stevens Simon Whitton Kristian Hulgard
Senior Product Specialist, Regional Division Manager, General Manager,
POSITAL FRABA North America, OnRobot
KUKA Robotics
This 60-minute Webinar includes:• Live Q&A session • Application Demo • Access to archived event on demand
Please visit www.techbriefs.com/webinar607
Multiphysics Modeling of MEMS

Thursday, March 7, 2019 at 2:00 pm EST
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are fundamentally driven by multiphysics phenomena, and as such, they require a modeling
approach where the relevant physical phenomena are included and coupled. In this Webinar, a live demo in the COMSOL
Multiphysics® software will show how to model a MEMS scanning mirror for a lidar use case.
Speakers:
James Ransley, Ph.D. Yeswanth Rao This 60-minute Webinar includes:
Senior Engineer, Technical Sales Manager, • Live Q&A session
Veryst Engineering COMSOL
• Application Demo
• Access to archived event on demand
Pumped Two Phase Cooling: The Solution

for High Heat Dissipation and More
Wednesday, March 13, 2019 at 2:00 pm EST
The demand for more functionality in smaller footprints is growing across the product spectrum. To address the more challenging
thermal management requirements resulting from this trend, packaging engineers are beginning to turn to Pumped Two Phase (P2P)
cooling solutions. This Webinar will provide the design engineer with the fundamentals of P2P: basic principles, real-world applica-
tions and benefits/differences compared to single phase liquid cooling.
Speakers:
Pete Ritt Devin Pellicone This 30-minute Webinar includes:
VP, Sales and Marketing, Lead Engineer, • Live Q&A session
Advanced Cooling Industrial Products,
Technologies Advanced Cooling
Technologies • Access to archived event on demand

Non-Contact Strain and Displacement
Measurements in the Automotive Industry
Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 11:00 am EST
3D Digital Image Correlation (DIC) provides the ability to measure non-contact 3D coordinates, displacements, and strains of materials
and structures. This technique is now recognized in the automotive industry as equivalent to standard mechanical testing tools. This
Webinar will help you understand mechanical behaviors of components or validate FEA models.
Speakers:
Justin Bucienski Andrew Leonard This 60-minute Webinar includes:
Technical Account Manager, Applications Engineer, • Live Q&A session
Trilion Quality Systems Trilion Quality Systems • Application Demo
CNC Machining: How to Reduce Costs

and Accelerate Production
As one of the most common manufacturing processes for rapid prototyping and low-volume production, knowing how to design for
CNC machining is an invaluable skill set for any product designer or engineer.
In this Webinar, we’ll share how to optimize your design for the subtractive manufacturing process and provide tips on how to
accelerate production time and reduce part cost.
Speaker:
Gus Breiland This 30-minute Webinar includes:
Technical Sales Engineer, • Live Q&A session
Proto Labs
Testing and Inspecting 3D-Printed Parts

This one-hour Technical Webinar from the editors of SAE International and Tech Briefs Media
focuses on additive manufacturing technology and the 3D printing of production parts for
industries as diverse as automotive, aerospace, and medical. Webinar topics include quality control
measures, post-processing techniques, and recommendations for ensuring the safe performance of parts.
Speakers:
Bob Dolan Jeffrey Diehm Dan Skulan
Director, Commercial Vehicle Co-Founder, General Manager,
and Government Programs, Avonix Imaging Industrial Metrology, Renishaw
IAV Automotive Engineering Inc. Inc.
This 60-minute Webinar includes:• Live Q&A session • Application Demo • Access to archived event on demand
New on the
MARKET
Product of the Month
Boothroyd Dewhurst, Wakefield, RI, announced Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA®) 2019 soft-
ware for analyzing parts and assemblies. DFMA utilizes a question-and-answer interface that identifies opportu-
nities for substantial cost reduction in a product. By applying industry-tested minimum part count criteria, the
software finds parts that can be consolidated/eliminated while maintaining functionality. New CAD calculators
allow users to utilize more cost driver information directly from a 3D model. More than 200 data inputs across
27 process groups and more than 100 machining operations are included. New graphical windows, charts, and
reports are included for engineering and management that make comparisons between legacy designs and
new concepts easy to analyze. Parts and assemblies can be compared for time and labor, along with costs for manufacturing piece parts, manufactur-
ing tools, assembly tools, assembly processes, and all material aspects of product development.
For Free Info Visit http://info.hotims.com/72991-120
Controller and Datalogger Multiphysics Simulation

Watlow, St. Louis, MO, introduced a batch Altair SimLab sT multiphysics simu-
processing feature for the F4T temperature and lation software is available from Altair,
process controller and D4T datalogger. The Troy, MI. Features include live bi-direc-
new feature helps collect manufacturing part tional syncing with many parametric
processing thermal data, automating data CAD systems such as CATIA, Pro/E,
record entry and reports. Users can enter non-thermal batch or job-relat- Siemens NX, and SolidWorks. Embedded physics solvers for statics, dynam-
ed processing type data using a wireless scanner connected to a USB port. ics, heat transfer, fluid flow, and electromagnetics provide a solution to
For Free Info Visit http://info.hotims.com/72991-108 accelerate multiphysics analyses and coupled simulations.
Model-Based Engineering
MapleMBSE 2019.0 software from Maplesoft, PCB Terminals
Waterloo, ON, Canada, enables Model-Based Keystone Electronics, New Hyde Park, NY, offers
Systems Engineering (MBSE) design projects Quick-Fit PCB male tab terminals designed on a
without requiring each engineer on the project continuous reel (strip) that are compatible with
to be an expert in complex MBSE tools. Using an standard automated insertion equipment. They
Excel®-based interface, the software defines requirements, impact analysis, are made from brass with tin-plate. The 1287-R model is for ¼"-wide male
tradeoff studies, and failure mode effects analysis. Also included is enhanced tabs with .312" height above the board; the 1287-STR is designed to keep
support for the Systems Modeling Language (SML). the terminal perpendicular to the board during and after soldering.
For Free Info Visit http://info.hotims.com/72991-107 For Free Info Visit http://info.hotims.com/72991-106
Machining Software Imaging Sensors

Mastercam 2019 Mill software from CNC FocalSpec, Santa Clara, CA, introduced
Software, Tolland, CT, features 2D high-speed LCI401 and LCI1201 Line Confocal Imaging
toolpaths, 3D enhancements, and multi-axis fea- sensors that combine 3D topography, tomogra-
tures. The Model Chamfer toolpath for 2D phy, and 2D grayscale intensity into one sensor
machining allows users to machine safe horizontal for high-speed 3D imaging of surfaces that are
chamfers on solid models. Equal Scallop 3D high- difficult or impossible to measure with other methods. They provide
speed toolpath creates a consistent scallop motion relative to stepover sub-micron precision, detection speed of up to 10 million 3D
distance. It generates noise-free motion with the ability to smooth out points/second, and are suitable for mirror-like, shiny, glossy, and trans-
sharp corners. parent materials.
Cable Connectors Halogen-Free Coating

Binder USA, Camarillo, CA, announced Specialty Coating Systems, Indianapolis, IN, offers ParyFree® halogen-
M12 X-coded female cable connectors with free Parylene coating that is applied through a vapor deposition process,
the RJ45-to-female feedthrough for control resulting in an ultra-thin, uniform, pinhole-free conformal coating. The
cabinets. They feature data transmission 4- thin film forms at a molecular level to fully encapsulate components and
paired up to 10 Gbit/s. The connectors are available straight or angled with devices. The coating offers improved barrier properties over traditional
eight gold-plated contacts. The connectors offer an IP67 degree of protec- halogen-free variants, and meets IPX7 and IPX8 test requirements for
tion, with the RJ45 being rated IP20. waterproof protection to electronic device and components.

Oscilloscopes DC Power Module
Keysight Technologies, Santa Rosa, Mouser Electronics, Mansfield, TX, offers
CA, introduced the 200-MHz, 4-channel the MAXM17552 step-down DC-DC power
InfiniiVision 1000 X-Series oscilloscopes module from Maxim Integrated. The micro
that include 4-wire Serial Peripheral system-level IC power module provides an
Interface (SPI) decode and remote con- input voltage range of 4 V to 60 V and deliv-
nection via local area networks. The scopes are bandwidth-upgradable ers up to 100 mA output current over an
and are available at 70, 100, and 200 MHz of bandwidth. The six-in-one adjustable output voltage from 0.9 V to 5.5 V. The module uses peak-
instrument integrates a frequency response analyzer (Bode plotting), current-mode control architecture, operates in pulse-width modula-
function generator, protocol analyzer, digital voltmeter, and frequency tion (PWM) mode, and offers a soft-start feature to reduce input
counter. inrush current. It offers an ambient operating temperature range of -
For Free Info Visit http://info.hotims.com/72991-100 40 to 125 °C.
Manufacturing Analysis
Software Simulation Software
Seeq Corp., Seattle, WA, offers R21 Siemens PLM Software, Plano, TX, intro-
analytics software for process manufac- duced Simcenter 3D 2019.1 simulation soft-
turing that enables users to analyze, pre- ware that simulates the additive manufacturing
dict, collaborate, and share insights to process. The software automates the creation
improve production outcomes. New fea- and simulation of transmission simulation
tures include expanded “scorecards” that display calculated tables in Seeq models within a single, integrated environ-
Workbench and Organizer. The scorecards are used for tabulated met- ment. New connections between Simcenter 3D
rics, measurements, and other summary data. and Simcenter™ STAR-CCM+™ software
For Free Info Visit http://info.hotims.com/72991-116 enable aero-acoustics and aero-vibro-acoustic
simulations. Other features include the ability to streamline the end-to-
Current Transducer end aircraft structural analysis and margin of safety process, and topolo-
NK Technologies, San Jose, CA, intro- gy optimization that adds design objectives or constraints for structural
duced the DT-BB DC current transducer integrity of a part when subjected to critical loads.
that allows a split-core transducer to be For Free Info Visit http://info.hotims.com/72991-118
installed over existing bus bars or wire,
and to be mounted on a panel or DIN rail.
It is rated to measure DC current at work-
ing voltage to 1500 VDC. The power supply and output signal wires are
connected to the sensor with a terminal block that plugs into the head-
er on top of the sensor. Standard output is 4–20 mA unipolar or 4–12–
20 mA bipolar.
Transmitters
The DT Series dual transmitters from
Acromag, Wixom, MI, interface a variety
of process and sensor signals to a control
system. They feature two independent
signal conditioning channels in a 17.5-
mm-wide module. A signal splitter mode lets one input drive both out-
puts. Input options include process current, DC voltage, thermocou-
ple, RTD, and resistance signal types with proportional process current
or unipolar/bipolar voltage output.
3,77&21%227+
Light-Curing Adhesive
DELO, Sudbury, MA, introduced DELO
Photobond GB4033 light-curing acrylate
for seal bonding. Designed for material
joints that require adhesives to be strong,
flexible, and tight, this low-viscosity, one-
component, solvent-free acrylate provides
sealing properties against water, humidity,
and dust. It can be used in temperatures ranging from -40 to +120 °C
and allows for good peel resistance on glass and plastic. The adhesive
cures under both UV and visible light.

P R O D U C T SPOTLIGHT
New on the Market
MODEL & SIMULATE RELIABLE
DESIGNS, DEVICES, CONNECTORS FOR
AND PROCESSES BROAD
APPLICATIONS Low-Profile Connectors
COMSOL Multiphysics® is an inte-
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TE Connectivity’s cost-effective,
creating physics-based models and rugged, and reliable Circular Pico-EZmate and
simulation applications. Add-on Plastic Connectors (CPC) can be used for signal Pico-EZmate Slim
products expand the simulation platform for electro- and/or power applications. The circular configura-
magnetics, structural, acoustics, fluid flow, heat trans- low-profile connec-
tion provides designers with an efficient use of board
fer, and chemical applications. Interfacing tools enable space. Mounting options include panel mount, free- tors from Molex,
the integration of COMSOL Multiphysics® simulations hanging, and wire-to-board. Ideal for harsh environ- Lisle, IL, support
with all major technical computing and CAD tools. ments, they are UL 94V-0 rated and made of stabi-
Simulation experts rely on COMSOL Compiler™ and automated assembly processes in tight spaces.
lized, heat-resistant, self-extinguishing thermoplastic
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the Pico-EZmate Slim connectors offer mated
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open-top receptacle header enables snap-in
MICROSCOPE ADHESIVE mating for quick assembly processing. An
ORIENTED 1080P RESISTS open space on the header accommodates
60 HDMI+WIFI THERMAL pick-and-place.
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WiFi (25 fps), or on-board SD Card storage (30 fps). TDCHT is a flexibi-
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flange that is pressed into the PCB plated
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Neutrino SX12
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out mechanical clamping? This porous ceramic where maintenance access is restricted, diffi-
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applied in laser, microscopy and other applications. cult, or costly. The Neutrino SX12 produces
The PF-1UA-16FA is a fully programmable, 16-channel
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FACILITY FOCUS
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
S ince 1967, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

(Fermilab) has been the United States’ premier particle
physics laboratory, working on the world’s most advanced par-
ticle accelerators and digging down to the smallest building
blocks of matter.
Fermilab is located in Batavia, IL and is managed by the
Fermi Research Alliance (FRA) for the U.S. Department of
Energy Office of Science. FRA is a partnership of the
University of Chicago and Universities Research Association, a
consortium of 89 research universities.
Fermilab’s vision is to solve the mysteries of matter, energy,
space, and time. Particle physicists aim to discover what the
universe is made of and how it works. They study the smallest
building blocks of matter using some of the largest and most
complex machines in the world. Fermilab supports discovery
science experiments in Illinois and at locations around the
world, including deep underground mines in South Dakota
and Canada, mountaintops in Arizona and Chile, and the
South Pole.
Science
Fermilab’s focused scientific mission, coupled with accelera-
tor and detector facilities and R&D infrastructure, keeps the
United States a world leader in particle physics research. The
international Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility/Deep Under-
ground Neutrino Experiment (LBNF/DUNE) is an interna-
tional flagship science project to unlock the mysteries of neu-
trinos — the most abundant matter particles in the universe
that are all around us but that we know very little about. By
studying neutrinos, scientists at LBNF/DUNE will paint a clear-
er picture of the universe and how it works.
To build and operate LBNF/DUNE, Fermilab brings togeth-
er more than 1,000 scientists from more than 175 institutions
in more than 30 countries. The project will drive progress in
science and industry around the world.
As America’s particle physics laboratory, Fermilab operates
and builds powerful particle accelerators for investigating the
smallest things human beings have ever observed. About 2,300 The Dark Energy Camera, based in Chile, can record light from up to 8 bil-
physicists from all over the world come to Fermilab to conduct lion light-years away and captures more than 100,000 galaxies in each
experiments using particle accelerators. These machines not snapshot. The 570-megapixel camera was built at Fermilab and is one of
the most powerful cameras in the world. After imaging more than 300
only drive discovery but are themselves the subjects of research million distant galaxies, the Dark Energy Survey finished taking data in
and innovation. January. (Photo by Reidar Hahn)
The study of particle physics requires technology that is at
once sensitive and powerful. Fermilab scientists and engineers To investigate the smallest bits of matter, some of which last
build detectors, sensors, and other instruments that behave only a fraction of a second before decaying, scientists need
like microscopes for the subatomic world. They build high-per- something more powerful than a microscope. To study particles,
formance computers that use sophisticated software frame- physicists use particle detectors that sense and record informa-
works to comb through floods of data to find subtle signals of tion about particles such as their masses, energies, momenta, or
new physics, perform data analyses, and reconstruct physics points of origin. Different particles and different experiments
events. They also explore new ways to channel the peculiar require different types of particle detectors. The Fermilab detec-
behaviors of quantum physics as a computational resource, tor R&D program develops new particle detection technologies
advancing the relatively new pursuit of quantum computing. to meet the challenges of particle physics research.

Facility Focus
cious cargo, clean up dirty drinking water, help design drugs,

and discover the building blocks of matter.
Cryocoolers Electron source
Experts estimate that medical accelerators have treated
more than 30 million people around the world. The market
for medical and industrial accelerators now exceeds $3.5 bil-
Power coupler Thermal shield lion dollars a year; the products that are processed, treated,
Magnetic shield or inspected by particle beams have a collective annual value
SRF cavity of more than $500 billion. Tens of thousands of scientists,
Vacuum vessel engineers, and technicians who were trained in particle
Beam Outlet
physics have gone on to apply their knowledge in medicine,
computing, industry, homeland security, research, and other
Fermilab has developed a high-power, high-energy, superconducting, areas.
radio-frequency electron gun for advanced metal additive manufacturing
applications. This diagram shows the cryostat housing the conduction-
cooled electron gun. Medicine
Every major medical center in the nation uses accelerators
Fermilab has partnered with Lawrence Berkeley National producing X-rays, protons, neutrons, or heavy ions for the
Laboratory to develop silicon sensors for integrated detector diagnosis and treatment of disease. It is estimated that there
systems and novel readout electronics. Fermilab has also are more than 7,000 operating medical linear accelerators
worked on the development of 3D readout electronics and sen- around the world that have treated more than 30,000,000
sors, bubble chambers, calorimetry data acquisition systems, patients. Fermilab built the first hospital-based accelerator to
liquid-argon detectors, time-of-flight detectors, radiation-hard treat cancer, located at the Loma Linda University Medical
sensors, scintillator, and solid xenon. Center in California.
State-of-the-art computing facilities and expertise drive suc- In addition, the pharmaceutical industry uses X-ray beams
cessful research in experimental and theoretical particle created by particle accelerators to develop more effective
physics. For scientists to understand the huge amounts of raw drugs to fight disease. Radiation treatment plans for cancer
information coming from particle physics experiments, they are powered by software originally developed to model parti-
must process, analyze, and compare the information to simula- cle detectors, and treatments with gamma rays and protons
tions. To accomplish these feats, Fermilab hosts high-perfor- are delivered using particle accelerator technology.
mance computing, high-throughput (grid) computing, and Particle detectors first developed for particle physics are
storage and networking systems. now ubiquitous in medical imaging. The technology of PET
In the late 1980s, Fermilab computer scientists developed scans came directly from light-sensing detectors initially
some of the first collections of networked workstations for designed for particle physics experiments. Gamma-ray
use in high-throughput computing. Today, the lab serves as detectors designed by particle physicists now reveal tumors
one of two U.S. computing centers that processes and ana- in dense tissue.
lyzes data from experiments at the Large Hadron Collider
(LHC). The worldwide LHC computing project is one of the Homeland Security
world’s largest high-throughput computing efforts. Fermilab In nuclear reactors, the amount of plutonium builds up as
can store about 500 petabytes of data in total, which repre- the uranium fuel is used. Because plutonium and uranium emit
sents about 20 times the amount stored by all the LHC exper- different kinds of particles, a particle detector can be used to
iments in a year. monitor and analyze the contents of the nuclear reactor core. A
Quantum computing has the potential to take on the prototype detector already demonstrated the potential use of
most formidable calculations in particle physics that are oth- this new monitoring technology. Particle physics detector tech-
erwise impossible. Fermilab is leveraging this powerful technology also enables advanced cargo screening.
nology to solve problems in data analysis and theoretical cal-
culations. Industry
Cables made of superconducting material can carry far
Technologies more electricity with minimal power losses than convention-
From particle accelerators to the World Wide Web, and from al cables. They offer an opportunity to meet increasing
medical imaging techniques to high-performance computing, power needs in urban areas where copper transmission lines
the technologies of particle physics have entered the main- are near their capacity. Fermilab’s partnership with industry
stream of society and helped transform the way we live. to develop the mass production of superconducting wire for
The use of particle accelerators to treat cancer and help the Tevatron accelerator jump-started this industry.
develop positron emission tomography (PET) scans and In the biomedical industry, scientists use the intense light
MRIs are among the better-known examples of particle physics emitted by synchrotron accelerators to decipher the structure of
innovations, but there are many lesser-known impacts; for proteins — information that is key to understanding biological
example, low-energy electron beams from particle accelerators processes and healing disease. A clearer understanding of pro-
provide an environmentally friendly way of sterilizing food tein structure allows development of more effective drugs, such
packaging. They shrink tumors, make better tires, spot suspi- as Kaletra, one of the world’s most-prescribed AIDS drugs.

M AT E R I A L S C H A N N E L
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Heavy or long-wheelbase vehicles can become stuck on railroad grade cross-

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device was developed at Fermilab that simulates the continuity of trains
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Tomorrow’s computers will be built from materials now University of Michigan engineers.
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www.techbriefs.com/tv/
trons from particle accelerators. 3Dprint-resin
Particle physicists developed the World Wide Web to share
information quickly and effectively with colleagues around the
world. Few other technological advances in history have more Rubbery Material
profoundly affected the global economy and societal interac- Shape-Shifts into
tions than the Web. In 1991 and 1992, Stanford Linear Complex Forms
Accelerator Center (SLAC) at Stanford University, MIT, and A liquid crystal elastomer created
at Rice University can morph from
Fermilab launched the first Web servers in the United States. a flat sheet into sophisticated
In 2001, revenues from the World Wide Web exceeded one tril- shapes, like a human face or a
lion dollars, with exponential growth continuing. rose, on demand.
The Grid is the newest particle physics computing tool that
allows physicists to manage and process unprecedented shape-shift-face
amounts of data across the globe by combining the strength of
hundreds of thousands of individual computing farms.
Industries such as medicine and finance are examples of other Cartilage-like Material
fields that also generate large amounts of data and benefit Enables Safe
from advanced computing technology. ‘Structural Battery’
Atomic and nuclear physics advances benefit from precise University of Michigan engineers
created a damage-resistant
mathematical techniques developed by particle physicists; these structural battery made of a thin
are now used to predict new materials and molecules. Radiation sheet of cartilage-like material
exposure for spacecraft is simulated using software originally sandwiched between zinc and
manganese oxide.
developed to model particle detectors.
cartilage-battery
Discovery
Researchers use the ultra-powerful X-ray beams of parti-
cle accelerators known as synchrotron light sources to cre- www.techbriefs.tv
Tech Briefs, March 2019 69

Facility Focus
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works of art. Future accelerators will Publisher ........................................................Joseph T. Pramberger

Editorial Director............................................................Linda L. Bell
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Spinoff is NASA’s annual publication featuring
successfully commercialized NASA technology. This
commercialization has contributed to the development
SPINOFF
of products and services in the fields of health and
medicine, consumer goods, transportation, public safety,
computer technology, and environmental resources.
Ferrofluid Technology Becomes a Magnet for Pioneering

Artists
A magnetizing technology developed to move rocket fuel
now creates moving art.
I n 2008, when Nikola Ilic came across an

online video of moving ferrofluid sculp-
tures by Japanese artist Sachiko Kodama
magnetic strength of the initial invention.
The basic trick to creating a ferrofluid is
to make the magnetic nanoparticles so
— with black liquid rising into swirling tiny they naturally spread throughout the
bristles that joined into quivering spikes carrier fluid, rather than settling out of it,
— the artist-entrepreneur immediately and to coat them with a surfactant that
wanted a ferrofluid display for his desk. prevents them from clumping together.
But he couldn’t find one for sale any- Two Avco engineers licensed the tech- Concept Zero recently partnered with artist
where online. So he decided to make his nology from NASA to found Ferrofluidics Linden Gledhill to launch a line of Gledhill’s art. He
created the images by using a magnetic field to
own and soon learned why more people Corporation (now Ferrotec). The materi- manipulate ferrofluids diluted with solvents and
weren’t doing it. “It stains everything,” al has been used in applications from photographing the results.
said Ilic. In a typical display, a small loudspeakers, petroleum refining, and
amount of dark ferrofluid is placed in a chemical processing, to semiconductor plays. He also provides suspension fluid
clear glass chamber full of a clear suspen- chip manufacturing. Since 2000, a small to artist Linden Gledhill, who uses fer-
sion liquid. It’s then manipulated by a but growing number of artists around the rofluid to create intricate abstract images
magnet outside the chamber. But if the world, including Ilic, have begun using and provided flat-panel chambers to
ferrofluid mixes with the suspension liq- ferrofluids to create striking visual dis- designer Zelf Koelman, who used them
uid, the dark fluid quickly stains the glass plays. with ferrofluid and an array of electro-
and makes a mess. Ilic came up with a suspension solution magnets to create a digital clock.
It’s not surprising that ferrofluid is not that wouldn’t mix with the ferrofluid he Ilic has been working on his own flat
an ideal art material — it was invented for buys from Ferrotec. He hasn’t patented it panel display, with the electromagnet
space travel. In the early 1960s, Steve because he’s wary of patenting and the arrangement to be programmed by the
Papell, an engineer at what is now Glenn effects it may have on ingenuity. “If some- user. He noted that designer Martin Frey
Research Center, came up with the idea one else figures it out, they can go for it,” used a similar setup to recreate an early
of magnetizing rocket fuel as a way to he said. video game with ferrofluid pixels. Ilic is
draw it from a storage tank into an In 2011, he started the online business also experimenting with dried ferrofluid
engine in the absence of gravity. He dis- Concept Zero, based in Hamburg, NJ. to create fixed sculptures.
covered a way to stably disperse magnetic The site sells glass displays of various The number of artists working with fer-
nanoparticles throughout a carrier fluid, shapes and sizes, each filled with his clear rofluid remains smaller than Ilic would
making the first ferrofluid. A few years suspension fluid and a small amount of like. “The more talented people that get
later, Avco Space Systems won a NASA black ferrofluid. When a magnet is involved, the higher the quality of art,” he
contract to further characterize and placed close to a display, the dark fluid said. On his Web site, he promotes
develop ferrofluid and created a variety leaps into a hemisphere of spikes that fol- designers new to the medium, as well as
of liquids that ranged up to 10 times the lows the magnet around the glass. some of the original vanguard. “If anyone
“A lot of people use it as a fidget — it’s comes up with something I think is inter-
sort of like a high-tech stress ball people esting, I put it on my Web site,” he said.
play with while they think about other “If it’s cool, it’s going up there, even if it’s
things,” Ilic explained. And sales are a competitor.”
healthy. “I can barely handle what comes But Ilic says the scarcity of people
in on my end, but I do it.” repurposing this space-age substance for
Ilic has also developed glass chambers art is also part of its allure. “It draws peo-
for a number of other ferrofluid artists. ple who want to pioneer something
Magnetic ferrofluids invented at NASA Glenn “People doing this in the United States — because the field isn’t saturated,” he said.
have found their way into the art world. Nikola most of them came here as a starting “It’s like finding a new continent. You
Ilic developed a suspension liquid that keeps point,” he said. For example, he provided don’t know what’s around the corner.”
ferrofluid from staining its container and
founded Concept Zero, which sells products the chambers for artist Matt Robinson’s Visit https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2018/
like Motion, pictured here. automated, lava-lamp-like Ferroflow dis- cg_3.html

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March 2019
The Role
Deep Learning
Plays in Imaging
Software
Additive Manufacturing
Using Infrared and
SPECIAL SECTION: X-Ray Imaging
Technology Leaders in
Cameras & Imaging Systems A New Route to High Sensitivity
Pressure Sensors
Supplement to Tech
NASABriefs
Tech Briefs
OPTICAL
COATINGS
REDEFINED
YOUR OPTICAL
COATING PARTNER
alluxa.com
CONTENTS
FEATURES
2 A New Route to High Sensitivity Pressure Sensors
6 Additive Manufacturing Using Infrared and X-Ray
Imaging
APPLICATION BRIEFS
15 Measuring Aging, Fat and Water Content in Meat
Products Using Hyperspectral Imaging
TECH BRIEFS
20 New Engine Optics to Fuel Future Research
21 Individual Quantum Dots Imaged in 3-D for the First
Time
21 New Fast, Economical Bioimaging Technique
22 Text Tech: Navy Vessels Use Shipboard Signal Lamps for
Text Messaging
23 X-Ray Study of Low-Density Materials
24 A Marriage of Light-Manipulation Technologies
24 Researchers Combine Metalens With an Artificial Muscle
25 Nano-Optic Endoscope Sees Deep into Tissue at High
Resolution
DEPARTMENTS
26 New Products
SPECIAL SECTION
10 Technology Leaders in Cameras & Imaging Systems
10 The Role Deep Learning Plays in Imaging Software
12 Deep Learning in Machine Vision
ON THE COVER
Deep learning technology, inspired by the way the
human brain works, uses trained artificial neural net-
works to perform recognition and decision-making
tasks. One type of deep artificial neural network –
called a convolutional neural network (CNN) – can be
applied to analyzing images. To learn more, read the
feature article on page 10.
(Image courtesy of Matrox Imaging)
Visit us at Automate | April 8-11 | Booth 7525
Photonics & Imaging Technology, March 2019 Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/72991-702 1

A New Route
to High Sensitivity Pressure Sensors
By Alex Mit/Shutterstock.com
S
ince their development in the 1950s, optical fibers have been used for power trans-
mission, communication, imaging, and sensing. They are often used in situations
where other sensing techniques can fail. Because optical fibers are dielectrics and
versatile, they can be used in a variety of environments from vacuum chambers to the
ocean floor.
2 Photonics & Imaging Technology, March 2019

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(a) (b)
20
Figure 2. (a) Concept of embedded-core capillary

fiber, showing a cross-section of the tube with an
(a) (b) (c) embedded core, under hydrostatic pressure. (b)
Embedded-core fiber cross-section.
Figure 1. Microstructured optical fibers used in pressure sensing measurements. (a) Photonic-crystal rical stress distribution inside the capil-
fiber. (b) Microstructured fiber with a triangular lattice of holes. (c) Side-hole photonic-crystal fiber. lary wall due to the capillary structure.
Via the photoelastic effect, these stresses
From Fiber Optics to Pressure fiber — an embedded-core capillary cause variations in the material refrac-
Sensors fiber — which can act as a highly sensitive index that are different along the
Standard optical fibers are designed to tive pressure sensor. This type of fiber is horizontal and vertical directions, gener-
act in telecommunications setups, and fabricated with a simpler process, which ating the desired birefringence.
usually, are not useful for sensing purpos- involves a preform preparation method
es. There are different methods for creat- and direct fiber drawing. Maximizing Pressure-Dependent
ing optical fibers that are sensitive to a Properties
parameter of interest. One technique is A Closer Look at Geometric Using COMSOL Multiphysics® soft-
to imprint fiber gratings. Another Characteristics ware, Franco, Serrão, Cordeiro, and
approach is to use specialty microstruc- An embedded-core capillary fiber is a Osório added the elliptical core, a ger-
tured optical fibers. Microstructured silica capillary tube endowed with a germanium-doped region inside the silica
fibers show promise for highly sensitive manium-doped region (the fiber core) capillary wall, to their mathematical
pressure sensors in applications such as placed inside the capillary wall model. Through their simulation, they
petroleum exploration, where techni- (Representations of the fiber structure obtained the change in modal birefrin-
cians and engineers can use them to and cross-section are shown in Figure 2). gence as a function of the applied pres-
detect fluid pressure. Some examples of Embedded-core fiber is much simpler sure and the location of the core in the
optical fibers able to act as pressure sen- than the typical microstructured fibers capillary wall (Figure 4). Modal birefrin-
sors are shown in Figure 1. employed in pressure sensing applica- gence describes birefringence of the
Typically, microstructured optical tions, as seen in Figure 1. optical modes that can travel through
fibers for pressure sensors are config- Alongside Marcos Franco and Valdir the fiber core.
ured so that the application of an exter- Serrão from IEAv, Jonas Osório and The model calculated the effective
nal load causes an asymmetric stress dis- Cristiano Cordeiro from Unicamp inves- refractive indices of the fundamental
tribution within the fiber. This, in turn, tigated pressure-induced birefringence modes for different pressure conditions.
causes variations in the fiber birefrin- in microstructured fibers in order to These modes occur when incoming elec-
gence — a material property referring to develop and validate a new design con- tromagnetic waves are guided through
an optically anisotropic refractive index cept. Franco, Serrão, Cordeiro, and the fiber core. They discovered that to
— which can be measured for sensing Osório focused on fibers designed to make the birefringence as dependent
purposes. sense hydrostatic pressure — pressure on pressure as possible and therefore
“Advantages of optical fiber-based sen- induced by a fluid at rest, such as a body maximizing the sensitivity of the sensor,
sors include high sensitivity, electromag- of still water surrounding the sensor. it was necessary to embed the core area
netic immunity, and the possibility of However, they diverged from existing completely within the capillary struc-
functioning in harsh environments,” designs by using capillary fibers (very ture, close to the inner wall. As they ana-
said Jonas Osório from the Universidade thin, hollow tubes) instead of solid fibers lyzed the changes in stress distribution
Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp). with a pattern of air holes, which can for different geometries, they discovered
“They are usually very compact, light- permit asymmetric stress distributions. that the birefringence derivative with
weight, and provide great liberty when Their goal, ultimately, was to maxi- respect to pressure values was higher for
choosing a sensor’s characteristics.” mize the birefringence dependence on fibers with thinner walls and for posi-
But the fibers reported to date have pressure variations, since this would tions closer to the inner radius of the
very sophisticated microstructures and improve the sensing capabilities of the capillary.
usually require several drawings and a fiber. Beginning from an analytical
delicate manual procedure for assem- model, they studied pressure-induced A New Route to Microstructured
bling the structure. At Unicamp and at displacements and mechanical stresses Optical Fiber Sensors
the Instituto de Estudos Avançados in the capillary walls (Figure 3). Thanks to their research in exploring
(IEAv) in Brazil, work is being done to The analytical model showed that birefringence pressure dependence,
develop a different type of an optical applied pressure generates an asymmet- Franco, Serrão, Cordeiro, and Osório

Pin = 1 bar
-7.2
Pout = 50 bar
Displacement (nm)
-7.5
rout = 80m
-7.8 38 μm 40μm 42μm 62 μm 67 μm
-8.1 1.2 Capillary wall

rin = 40m
-8.4
dB/db (x 10-7 bar-1)

40 50 60 70 80 0.9
Radial positon (m)

0.6
Figure 3. Study of a pressurized capillary fiber
without the embedded core, under pressure. The 0.3
displacement profile was initially studied for an
inner radius of rin = 40 μm, an outer radius of
rout =80 μm, an inner pressure pin of 1 bar, and an 0.0
outer pressure pout of 50 bar.
30 40 50 60 70
laid out a new way to simplify the pro- Core position (μm)
duction of microstructured optical
Figure 4. Changes in modal birefringence as a function of the position of the germanium core within the
fibers and confirmed that their design capillary wall. The case with the highest changes in birefringence due to pressure variations occurs when
would perform properly as a pressure the core is very close to the inner radius of the fiber (top center case).
sensor. They compared the sensitivity of
their concept to existing, more compli- new route for obtaining highly sensitive This article was written by Valerio Marra,
cated fiber structures and determined optical fiber pressure sensors and will Director of Technical Marketing, COMSOL,
that their design produced similar make it easier for petroleum explorers Inc., Burlington, MA. For more information,
results but required less assembly work. to evaluate the fluids they extract in contact Dr. Marra at valerio@comsol.com or
The embedded-core fiber provides a real time. visit http://info.hotims.com/72991-200.

Additive
Manufacturing
Using Infrared and
X-Ray Imaging
Argonne National Laboratory
A
dditive manufacturing is poised to manufacturing techniques. Yet a number Laboratory have developed a new capa-
liven the pace and scale of manu- of technical challenges stand in the way. bility for studying defects and other chal-
facturing. Deploying a range of Mechanisms for building parts layer- lenges to additive manufacturing. This
techniques that use 3-D models to print by-layer often alter the attributes of fin- capability combines high-speed X-ray
objects layer by layer, it can generate a ished components in ways that remain imaging with infrared imaging at
variety of intricate designs in less time poorly understood. These alterations Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source
and with less waste than conventional can lead to defects in finished compo- (APS), the world-leading source for
cutting and milling approaches. nents, undermining their reproducibili- ultra-bright, high-energy X-ray beams.
Industries in need of high-volume ty and many of the gains of applying
parts, from medicine to aerospace, could additive manufacturing approaches. Benefits of In-Situ X-Ray Imaging
hasten production of specialized parts Researchers at the U.S. Department of The most accurate analysis of process-
and shorten time to market using additive Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National es and material behaviors comes from

size/shape, spattering behaviors, solidifi- Infrared and X-ray imaging each con-
cation velocity, and phase transforma- tribute different types of knowledge to
tion. These techniques can be operated our understanding of additive manufac-
in high frame rate mode, which is needed turing. Together they help scientists to
to capture the fast series of material analyze the laser-metal interactions that
events that take place in additive manu- affect component quality and perform-
facturing. The Advanced Photon Source ance, such as the melting and vaporiza-
is the only place in the U.S. capable of tion of the powder, the flow of molten
performing ultrahigh-speed X-ray studies metals, and how they solidify.
of additive manufacturing processes.
How It Works
Coupling X-Ray and Infrared To couple X-ray and infrared imaging
Imaging for additive manufacturing studies,
While X-ray imaging techniques cap- Argonne has affixed a metal 3-D printing
ture many details related to material simulator and a high-speed infrared cam-
microstructures, they miss thermal era to 32-ID-B–the APS’ beamline dedi-
details that are also key in shaping the cated to additive manufacturing studies.
way products are built. Additive tech- Argonne is the first national laboratory
niques rely on sources of thermal energy in the United States to integrate each of
to melt the feed stock and fuse different these tools to a synchrotron beamline.
layers together, so variations in the heat- The 3-D printing apparatus consists of
ing and cooling of a material over vari- technologies for laser powder bed fu-
ous stages in production can affect the sion, which employs lasers to melt and
structure and attributes of finished parts. fuse metal, plastic or ceramic powders
To reduce variation between parts, layer by layer. Beam interactions with
and optimize additive processes, industry metal powders occur at the millisecond
needs a clear understanding of how ther- or shorter timescales and produce many
mal conditions affect the build process, complex physical processes. Custom
such as how heating and cooling con- parts for airplanes, automobiles, and
tribute to residual stresses and distor- even metal implants have been made
tions. With infrared imaging, researchers using this technique.
can extract some of this knowledge. With these components integrated,
High-speed infrared imaging at the APS researchers can peer inside materials as
allows researchers to measure thermal sig- they are built through 3-D laser printing.
natures across surfaces in real time. Data X-ray imaging captures the microstruc-
from it can help them measure how much tures involved while infrared imaging
and how fast regions within a component captures thermal details. Researchers
heat up and cool down during a build. can visualize the entire 3-D printing
Coupled with X-ray imaging, researchers process at 6.5 million frames per second
have the potential to pinpoint thermal sig- with X-ray imaging, and at 95,000 frames
natures correlated with the formation of a per second with thermal imaging.
defect, or related phenomena. Spliced together, these images tell the
in-situ X-imaging and diffraction tech-

niques. At the APS, these techniques are
deployed by thousands each year to
understand material microstructures
and their dynamics in great detail.
High-speed X-ray imaging techniques
applied to additive manufacturing enable
researchers to visualize and characterize
the formation of a material’s defects, Tao Sun, an X-ray physicist at the US DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory lines up an infrared camera,
including cracks and pores within it. the first to be installed at an X-ray synchrotron source.This provides 3D images of the printing process
in nearly real time to benchmark the printing process. Calibration of the X-ray results to the IR camera
They can also be used to quantify struc- will allow for the use of IR cameras to detect defects in processing on manufacturing lines. (Image by
ture characteristics such as melt pool Argonne National Laboratory.)
Photonics & Imaging Technology, March 2019 7

Infrared Technology
manufacturing systems can more reli-

side view top view ably predict the outcome of changes to
additive manufacturing processing
parameters. Similarly, with better mate-
rial models, researchers can also pre-
dict the behavior of new materials
being evaluated for use in additive man-
ufacturing.
Additive manufacturing models can
also give back to the experimental
process by being tested through experi-
ments that are more elaborate. The
process creates a virtuous feedback loop
where experimental data inform theory
and vice versa. The iterative develop-
ment of numerical modeling and exper-
Infrared and X-ray imaging of the 3D printing of a metal part can help scientists better understand the
3-D printing process so they can benchmark processes and materials to reduce defects. (Image by imental measurements is essential to
Argonne National Laboratory.) advancing understanding of the under-
lying materials physics needed to make
story of what’s happening at various powders when they spatter after coming 3D-printing truly reliable.
stages in the process, from how the laser into contact with lasers. This common Building understanding of additive
melts the powder, to the flow of molten phenomenon can result in defects in manufacturing can also help to stream-
metals and their solidification. products or quality control issues. X-ray line and simplify modeling for industry.
imaging enabled the team to observe Today industries use extremely detailed
Application of Imaging and characterize the dynamics of this models to define the printing process
Capabilities powder movement, and draw from these for complex parts; the complexity of
Argonne collaborates with various experiments possible ways to reduce such models undermines their versatility
universities and industry to apply its spattering. and wide spread adoption.
imaging capabilities to the additive man- By identifying the key elements that
ufacturing studies. With researchers Modeling and Machine Learning affect quality and reliability and improv-
from Carnegie Mellon University and Experimental data gained from X-ray ing models based on this knowledge,
Missouri University of Science and and thermal imaging can also be fed into researchers could potentially reduce the
Technology, they’ve observed and cap- physics-based computer models to number of models needed to solve addi-
tured for the first time materials formed improve their design and accuracy. tive manufacturing problems, and make
by 3-D printing in real-time. Experimental data, for example, can help these models faster and more suitable
Researchers from Argonne and train machine learning models of additive for industry.
Missouri University of Science and manufacturing processes and materials.
Technology also succeeded in using X- With better process models, Empowering Industry and
ray imaging to observe the dynamics of researchers and operators of additive Research Communities
As part of Argonne’s Manufacturing
Initiative, infrared imaging will expand
the laboratory’s additive manufacturing
R&D efforts in support of American
industries. Along with providing data to
advance the creation of workable algo-
rithms, this tool will help researchers
deliver critical insights that industry and
developers can use to improve efficiency
and product design.
Coupling X-ray and thermal imaging
contributes to these ambitions by form-
ing the early connections between
applied science and basic science. With
thermal imaging tools, which are readily
available, operators of additive systems
can begin to piece together links
between their work and the fundamen-
tal research being done at the APS.
This article was written by Tao Sun, physi-
cist and X-ray scientist at Argonne National
[The Advanced Photon Source generates high-energy X-rays that show 3-D printing in near real time. Laboratory. For more information, contact
(Image by Argonne National Laboratory.) Tona Kunz at Tkunz@anl.gov.

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SPONSOR
TECHNOLOGY LEADERS Cameras & Imaging Systems
The
Role Deep
Learning
Plays in
Imaging
Software
D
eep learning technology is within the hidden layers, making the net-
inspired by the way the human work’s output closer to the desired out-
brain works, using trained artifi- put each subsequent time it is run. As
cial neural networks to perform such, hidden layers identify, sort, and
recognition and decision-making tasks. A a weight. The weight designates the present information in a way that makes
convolutional neural network (CNN) is a importance of the input value. When it easy for the rest of the neural network
type of deep artificial neural network the training commences, there is no way to classify the problem or pattern. Once
based on multilayer perceptrons — a to know what weight should be ascribed training is completed, a CNN is ready to
machine learning unit algorithm — most to each data set, so the computer is deploy for “inference” — the process of
commonly applied to analyzing images. tasked with randomly assigning weights classifying data to infer a result.
Neural networks are good at classifying to each hidden layer. It is worth noting that a fair amount of
data, which can be seen as the challenge The metric is predetermined, and the work is needed for collecting and
for many imaging applications. training itself works via backpropagation, preparing the hundreds of images
a process of repeatedly changing the required to effectively train and validate
Cracking Open the Layers weights in the hidden layers by small a CNN. The training process itself is iter-
A CNN includes input and output lay- increments after each data set iteration ative, leading to an initial network that
ers, as well as multiple hidden layers to minimize the difference between actu- must be subsequently maintained to
between. The hidden layers are the con- al output and desired output. In time accommodate changing application
volutional layers; it is there that the deep and with repeated exposure, the CNN requirements, in order to maintain sys-
learning occurs, and from whence it learns to identify the desired features tem accuracy. With such a complex
takes its name. The CNN is taught or
learns how to filter data, thereby elimi-
nating the painstaking task of figuring
out how to reliably extract features rele-
vant for the required analysis. [Figure 1] X1
One of the key challenges with any
image analysis is identifying the essen-
tial features upon which to base the
X2
analysis. These can vary greatly from
one application to the next. In order to
supervise the training of a neural net-
work from scratch, there must first be a X3
large collection of labeled data, for
example, a vast series of images of items
already categorized. This data set
becomes the input. The hidden layers
perform mathematical computations on Input Values Input Layer Hidden Layer 1 Hidden Layer 2 Output Layer
the inputs, establishing connections
between neurons that are each ascribed Figure 1. Structure of a CNN, illustrating the input values and layer, hidden internal layers, and the output layer.

SEARCH WITH
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process, requiring both knowledge and work. Another challenge lies in the physi-
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The Mobility Technology
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This article was written by Arnaud Lina,
Director, Research and Innovation;
Pierantonio Boriero, Director, Product
Management; and Katia Ostrowski, SAE has partnered with MultiView to
Marketing Communications, Matrox provide advertising opportunities in the
Figure 2. Classification tools use deep learning technology Mobility Technology Solutions Guide.
to analyze images of highly textured, naturally varying, Imaging (Dorval, Quebec, Canada). For For more information about advertising,
and acceptably deformed goods. The example above more information, contact Ms. Ostrowski email salesinquiries@multiview.com,
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Photonics & Imaging Technology, March 2019 Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/72991-705

TECHNOLOGY LEADERS Cameras & Imaging Systems
Deep Learning in
Machine Vision
A new machine vision camera
uses an embedded pretrained
neural network for built-in
decision-making.
F
LIR Systems has introduced their The advantages of inference on the ding into compact designs, and battery-
Firefly machine vison camera edge include: powered devices. With these features, it
with open platform deep learn- • Decreased latency. Since decisions are can be used as a handheld device, in an
ing inference onboard. Deep made locally, there is no need to wait intelligent transportation system above
learning makes it possible to easily devel- for image frames to be transmitted to a highway, in a flying drone and all
op high performance solutions for diffi- the server, processed and the “answer” sorts of autonomous vehicles, as well as
cult vision problems. transmitted back. anywhere that video inspection is con-
The embedded Intel Movidius Myriad • Decreased bandwidth. Since images ducted.
2 Vision Processing Unit (VPU) makes it are large, transmitting them takes a lot Firefly’s open platform enables users
easy to get started with deep learning for of bandwidth. By only transmitting the to train and deploy neural networks for
machine vision applications by enabling “answers” to a server for statistics, far the camera using a range of frameworks
inference on the edge. With inference less bandwidth is needed. and tools built by companies like
on the edge computing, rather than cap- • Increased reliability. Since decision- Google, Amazon, Nvidia, and Intel. This
turing the image data and sending it to making is done on the edge independ- frees users from the expense of develop-
a central server for processing and deci- ent of a central server, the system can ment and runtime licences and makes it
sion making, most of this work is done in operate offline. easy to keep pace with the most current
the camera by means of a pretrained • Increased security and privacy. The small frameworks and highest performing
neural network. A central server or amount of data that is transmitted can tools for their applications. There are
cloud platform can still be part of the easily be anonymized and encrypted. also large and rapidly growing collec-
network topology, but with decision- Because of its 19 × 19 × 12 mm size, tions of pre-trained networks — many of
making happening at the edge, it would 20g weight, and 1.5 W nominal power which are available on a website called
only be used to aggregate statistics. consumption, it is suited for embed- Model Zoo — to use as starting points
27 mm
27 mm
Figure 1. The Firefly combines extremely small size with an embedded Intel Movidius Myriad 2 Vision Processing Unit (VPU).

TECHNOLOGY LEADERS
for developing application-specific net- Refining Networks barcode reading or checking a manufac-
works. While the Firefly cannot retrain its own tured part against specifications. But
Sony Pregius global shutter CMOS network on-camera, it has several features inspection systems using inference-
sensors are used to ensure clear, distor- that facilitate ongoing refinement. For based object classification can answer
tion-free images of moving objects, even example, the confidence interval of each much more subjective questions. For
in low light. They have low read-noise prediction is provided by the camera as example, a network could be trained to
and high quantum efficiency for both GenICam chunk data (metadata associat- differentiate between food produce that
visible and NIR light, making them suited with each image) and can be used to is or is not export grade. The final deter-
able for use in a wide range of industrial identify those images that have low-confi- mination of whether a piece of produce
and biomedical applications. dence results. The low-confidence images is of acceptable quality depends on a
can then be saved to the host system for combination of its size, shape, color, and
Deep Learning Versus Inference further analysis. Once labeled, they can uniformity. The large amount of varia-
Deep learning and Inference are be included in future training datasets. tion within each of these criteria, and
closely related but distinct from each the way they combine to result in a final
other. Deep learning is the process by Integration determination is very challenging for
which deep neural networks are trained Having the Movidius Myriad 2 VPU on traditional methods.
over many iterations of testing a model board the Firefly eliminates the need for High accuracy, subjective quality
against training images. These results a separate PCIe or USB Myriad 2 adapter inspection can be achieved by using a
are then used to refine the model. to add inference. The USB 3.1 Gen 1 network trained for classification. FLIR
Inference, on the other hand, is the use interface, USB3 Vision protocol, and has demonstrated an example of a sub-
of an already trained network to make GenICam support ensure compatibility jective quality inspection of painted
predictions on novel images. Inference with a range of off-the-shelf hardware and camera cases using the Firefly in a
is how deep learning is used to find software. Four bi-directional GPIO pins stand-alone configuration. Other exam-
answers to real-world problems. enable camera triggering and synchro- ples of object classification applications
A pre-trained neural network can be nization of external hardware such as are differentiating between awake and
loaded into the Firefly using the Intel lighting. Inference results can also be drowsy drivers or between cosmetically
Neural Compute Stick SDK. Images cap- indicated by GPIO signalling. One object scratched vs. defectively cracked solar
tured by the camera can then be used as class can be assigned to each GPIO pin, panels.
input to the neural network, which which will change state once that class has Qualitative inspection using infer-
makes predictions based on those been recognized and a user-specified ence enables manufacturers to detect
images. The Google MobileNets open- confidence interval has been met. process drift much earlier than is possi-
source family of high accuracy, small, ble with manual inspection. Compared
computationally efficient, networks can Classification for Qualitative Inspection to humans, inference-based inspection
then be used as a starting network struc- Traditional rules-based software is is far more consistent across multiple
ture for developing Firefly applications. ideal for straightforward tasks such as inspection stations. With less variance
Hotdog Detector Expanded dataset is used to train

future iterations of the the network
Low confidence interval images are

YES No YES YES No No saved for external analysis
99% 99% 99% 98% 75% 99%
Figure 2. Images with confidence intervals below a target threshold can be saved for off-camera analysis and added to subsequent training data sets to improve system
performance.

TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
LEADERS
LEADERSImaging
Cameras
Systems
& Imaging Systems
tion and positioning results can be out-

put as GenICam chunk data in the
Manual Inspection Inference-based Inspection form of coordinates, or as bounding
boxes drawn into each frame. The
greater complexity of networks trained
for this purpose, however, means the
? ! maximum frame rate will be lower than

Rejected Parts
Rejected Parts
for less complex classification net-
works.
Applications
Firefly technology can be used for
object classification, detection, and
Time Time tracking. When combined with its glob-
al shutter CMOS image sensor, these
functions enable extremely diverse
Figure 3. Manual inspection (a) has a much greater variance across multiple inspection stations making it diffi-
cult to accurately detect process drift. With consistent evaluation criteria across all stations, inference-based applications, each of which will have
inspection with Firefly enables process drift to be detected and corrected quickly. different requirements for inference
accuracy and speed. Balancing these
parameters by optimizing the structure
of the neural network and its training is
key to developing a successful infer-
ence-based solution. Uses of object
detection and tracking include quality
inspection of discrete parts, detecting
out of stock items on a supermarket
shelf, identifying and locating weeds
for farm robots, and hazard detection
for a UAS collision avoidance system.
Firefly can also serve as a trigger for
more powerful, but less efficient image
acquisition and processing systems. By
detecting and localizing objects of
interest on a high-efficiency, low-power
platform, Firefly can ensure that high-
power systems are only called upon
when required. In unmanned aerial
vehicles, this reduces battery consump-
tion to maximize flight time, while in
industrial systems, this saves power and
money.
Conclusion
Deep learning is just starting to take
Figure 4. Detecting out of stock areas. off in the machine vision industry, but its
impact is already being felt. With new
in the inspection criteria across sta- classes that firefly can differentiate product classes like Firefly, we expect to
tions, trends can be identified within between is high. Myriad 2 optimized see current systems being optimized and
this variance much more easily, networks, which can differentiate augmented by deep learning. We are
enabling corrective action to be taken between the 1,000 classes of objects in also expecting the emergence of entire
earlier. [Figure 3] the ImageNet dataset are available new types of applications that were pre-
Results for object classification can online. viously impossible with traditional rules-
be output over GPIO, enabling the based coding.
Firefly to operate as a stand-alone Object Detection and Tracking This article was written by Mike Fussell,
inspection system for certain applica- Using the Firefly simplifies the ability Product Marketing Manager, FLIR Systems
tions. Classification results can also be to add object detection and tracking (Wilsonville, OR). For more information,
output as GenICam chunk data. The capabilities to an embedded system contact Mr. Fussell at MikeFussell@flir.com
practical upper limit on the number of such as a drone or robot. Object detec- or visit http://info.hotims.com/72991-204.

Measuring Aging, Fat and Water Content in Meat Products Using Hyperspectral
Imaging
he consumable component of muscle achieved (Figure 1). HinaLea Imaging
T tissue in meat is approximately 75%
water, 20% protein, 5% fat, carbohydrate,
Variable Gap
developed the world’s first battery-operat-
ed, hand-held staring hyperspectral cam-
and minerals. The proportions vary era based on FPI (Figure 2). This camera
Sensor
depending upon the type of muscle, the captures high-resolution images in 550
kind of meat, seasonal variability, and the Incoming Image Filtered Band-Pass spectral bands in as little as two seconds.
intrinsic pH. The water content is higher Moreover, the camera’s embedded hard-
for leaner cuts of meat. Fat and water con- ware enables real-time processing, so the
Mirror 1 Mirror 2
tent contribute significantly to the flavor user does not need to handle the large
and eating quality of the product and the Figure 1. Operating Principle Fabry-Perot Filter data sets typically generated by hyperspec-
latter is an indicator of freshness[1]. The tral systems. Rather, the camera can iden-
breeding growth and development of the hyperspectral cameras, initially developed tify features of interest, both in the spec-
animals, their genotype, and diet, as well by NASA, mounted on satellites and air- tral and spatial domains and classify these
as stresses in pre-slaughter period (i.e. borne platforms for research purposes[4]. features in the image[5].
fasting, and different stunning methods) Band sequential or front staring imagers The technology can easily be config-
and in post-slaughter period (i.e. chilling, do not require mechanical scanning. In ured into form factors and configurations
ageing, injecting non-meat ingredients this technique, a tunable filter that can suitable for laboratory bench-top investi-
and tumbling) are factors in the water sequentially select spectral bands is placed gations or production line testing. Such
holding capacity of meat (WHC)[2]. in front of the sensor and generates the an implementation has not been possible
Some initial studies utilizing spec- hyper-cube by collecting complete images for other band sequential techniques (i.e.
troscopy and hyperspectral imaging in at each spectral band-pass. The acquisition AOTFs, liquid crystal tunable filters) due
the visible through near-infrared spectral time does not depend on the number of to cost, reproducibility issues, environ-
range (VNIR) have shown promise as a pixels, but rather on the number of spec- mental, and power restrictions.
means to non-destructively determine tral bands being acquired. These imagers
not only the moisture but also the fat and are especially attractive for applications Spectral Image Processing, Unmixing
protein content as well as marbling, requiring high spatial and spectral resolu- and Classification
aging, grade and potentially tenderness tions with tunable spectral ranges and a To make use of the abundance of data
in meat[3]. small form factor. rendered by hyperspectral imaging, vari-
Often discussed along with ous image processing
Hyperspectral Imaging hyperspectral imaging tech- algorithms
Hyperspectral imaging cameras gener- nology, are multispectral have
ate ‘hyper-cubes’ of data, whereby the systems, the most popular
spectrum at each pixel in the image is col- of which are based on
lected. Subtle reflected color differences patterned filter arrays.
that are not observable by the human eye These are an extension
or even by color (RGB) cameras are of color cameras where
immediately identifiable by comparison the typical Bayer or RGB
of spectra between pixels. A variety of filters overlaid on the
spectral imaging technologies exist. image sensor are replaced
The most common type of hyperspec- with an array of 16 or even more
tral imager is the push broom system color filters. While no user align-
whereby a line on the object plane gener- ment is needed, and imagers can
ates a 2D pattern on an array sensor. The be miniaturized, the spectral reso-
collection of a complete data cube (2D lution is quite limited and comes
spatial x 1D spectral) requires mechanical at the expense of spatial resolu-
scanning. While the dispersing elements tion, making this technology
can be made small and each spectrum can inadequate for many critical sam-
be collected in as short as 1ms, the ple analysis applications.
mechanical motion makes these instru- Fabry-Pérot interferometers
ments somewhat bulky and prone to mis- (FPIs) operate by placing two mir- Figure 2.
alignment. Furthermore, increased spa- rors parallel to each other. By con- HinaLea
tial resolution comes at the expense of trolling the reflectivity of the mir- Imaging
longer collection times. Push-broom grat- Model
rors and their spacing, high- 4100H
ing systems were the earliest forms of finesse spectral filtering can be

0 Hours 17 Hours
Hyperspectral Imager
1 1 2
Illumination
24 Hours
3 1 2
Sample
Figure 3. Hyperspectral imaging camera configu-

ration for meat fat and moisture content meas-
urement
been developed over the years. These are

essentially mathematical techniques for Figure 4. Images of beef filet at the 630 nm band-pass frame product handling system.
deconvoluting the multiple spectral
emission profiles or species, also referred
to as end-members. As with the hard- Day 2 at 24 Hours
ware, these techniques have their origins 1.2
in satellite remote sensing research.

The most basic and common in 1
microscopy is linear spectral unmixing.
Relative Reflectance [a.u.]
This method assumes spectra of each pixel 0.8 Decrease in water

channel intensity over
is a linear combination (weighted aver- time
age) of all end-members in the pixel and 0.6
thus requires a priori knowledge (i.e. ref-
erence spectra). Various algorithms such 0.4
Shift towards red over
time
as linear interpolation, are used to solve
“n” (number of bands) equations for each 0.2
pixel where the “n” is greater than the
number of end-members pixel fractions. 0
Another popular technique, spectral 480 530 580 630 680 730 780 830
angle mapping, involves a vector repre- Wavelength [nm]
sentation of observed and target spectra 24 Hr 7 Hr 0 Hr
to determine closest relationships in a Sample 1 (24 hours) Sample 2 (7 hours) Sample 3 (0 hours)
multi-dimensional space proportional to
the number of band passes. Spectral angle Figure 5. Relative Reflectance Spectra on Day 2 – 24 Hours Elapsed for 3 Filet Samples
mapping is widely used due to its insensi-
tivity to brightness differences. The
advent of widely accessible machine learn- Sample 1
1.2
ing methods has brought a new and pow-
erful set of tools to this endeavor. Among
1
them are Principal Component Analysis
or PCA, a dimensionality reduction tech- Decrease in water
0.8 channel intensity

nique and K-Means Clustering, a type of over time
unsupervised learning algorithm used to
0.6
find groups in the data based on feature
similarity[7]. 0.4
Shift towards red
over time
Example of Hyperspectral Imaging 0.2

Measurement
A time series study of aging and mois- 0
ture content of red meat using a HinaLea 475 525 575 625 675 725 775
Wavelength [nm]
Imaging VNIR hyperspectral camera
0 Hr 17 Hr 24 Hr
(Model 4200) configured as per Figure 3
was performed. Data cubes of samples of
ground beef and filet were captured over Figure 6. Beef Filet Sample 1 Over Time

the course of two days at three time inter-
1
vals with the intent of studying the effects
of aging on spectral reflectance proper- 0.9
ties and consequently moisture content 0.8

Decrease in water
(Figure 4): 0.7
channel intensity

over time
1) Start at 0 hours; 1 sample:
0.6
a. Fresh cut filet and new ground
meat sample 0.5
2) At 17 hours; 2 samples: 0.4 Shift towards red

over time
a. Fresh cut filet and new ground 0.3
meat sample
0.2
b. 17 hours old filet and ground meat
sample 0.1
3) At 24 hours; 3 samples: 0
480 530 580 630 680 730 780
a. Fresh cut and new ground meat Wavelength [nm]
sample and new ground meat sample
Sample 3 0 Hr Sample 2 17 Hr Sample 1 24 Hr
b. 17 hours old filet and ground meat
sample Figure 7. Relative Reflectance Spectra on Day 2 – 24 Hours Elapsed for 3 Ground Beef Samples
c. 24 hours old filet and ground meat
sample the resulting image data-cube, a repre- towards the longer wavelengths. This is
To study the relationship between spec- sentative spectral reflectance profile for a consistent with the increased redness in
tral reflectance properties and fat content given sample can be obtained. A survey of the aged samples, likely due to the
samples of lean ground beef with increas- the features indicates a change in the deoxymyoglobin transition to oxymyoglo-
ing proportions of added minced pure intensity just below 800 nm, a band-pass bin. These characteristics are seen for
beef fat or tallow were also captured. associated with water content in muscle individual and groups of filet and ground
tissue. The intensity decreases over time, beef samples (Figures 5, 6 and 7).
Traditional Spectral Analysis which is consistent with the expected Figure 8 shows a clear spectral shift
Taking an average of the spectral moisture loss due to aging. In addition, towards longer wavelengths (red) and a
response of a small area of pixels from there is a shift of the entire spectra broadening (whitening) trend was ob-
Intel/Altera Arria 10 SoC

SOMs & Development Kit
www.criticallink.com

Ground Beef Segmented image (kmeans)
Fat Content Spectra 0
7.0
100
6.0
5.0 200
4%
7%
Normalized Intensity
4.0
10%
15% 300
20%
3.0
28%
52%
400
76%
2.0
100%
1.0 500
0.0
400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 850 900 950 600
Wavelength (nm) 0 200 400 600 800
Representative spectra
1.0
0.8
Figure 8. Images and averaged spectra of lean ground beef with varying proportions of added minced fat
0.6
0.4
0.2
Sample 2 Sample 1 Sample 3 Sample 2 Sample 1 Sample 3 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
(17 hours) (24 hours) (0 hours) (17 hours) (24 hours) (0 hours)
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 9. (Top) filet samples at 24 hours elapsed.

Spectra for each pixel are first normalized to
Figure 10. Ground beef samples at 24 hours. Elapsed classified using super-pixel segmentation method remove illumination nonuniformity, a PCA with
(PSMPS) in Gerbil. Note higher end-member (green and red false colors) overlap between Sample 2 10 components was then used for dimension
and 3 (7 hours apart). reduction and a K-means algorithm with 6 clus-
ters, initialized randomly used to classify and false
color the end-members. Hence, each color in the
Approximate Fat Content (%): image represents one cluster. (Bottom) An exam-
ple spectrum for that cluster.
4 10 20 28 52 76
group or classify them, for example, can

improve the visualization of these compo-
nents markedly. In Figure 9, the spectra
for each pixel are first normalized to
remove illumination nonuniformity, a
PCA was then used for dimension reduc-
tion and a K-means algorithm used to
classify and false color the end-members.
Hence, each color in the image repre-
sents one cluster. An example spectrum
Figure 11. Ground beef samples with varying percentage of fat content (top) classified using K-Means for that cluster is also shown. Figure 10
clustering algorithm to cluster or group by similarity to the former image (bottom). shows the ground beef sample classified
by a super-pixel segmentation method
served along with some detail structural meat, it is an inefficient way to evaluate (PSMPS) in Gerbil[7].
changes particularly in the 600-700 nm or inspect the entire product. The full Similarly, images can be classified or
range. These results are consistent with value of hyperspectral imaging is in pro- segmented using machine learning algo-
published spectral and statistical studies[6]. viding quickly actionable information rithms by spectral components or end-
for the entire product. To do this, the members associated with each level of
Improved Spectral Analysis using classification techniques discussed earli- fat content. False coloring these
Hyperspectral and Machine Learning er are leveraged. grouped end-members shows a consis-
While analysis of individual spectra Applying machine learning techniques tent trend associated with increasing
can provide specific characteristics of a such as PCA to identify the most likely percentages of fat with respect to lean
single region or area of a sample of endmembers and K-Means Clustering to red meat in the samples (Figure 11).

water-holding capacity of fresh meat”, 5. Hod Finkelstein, Ron R. Nissim and Mark J.
Summary Veterinary Quarterly, 19:4, 175-181, DOI: Hsu, TruTag Technologies Inc., “Next-
In addition to spatial information 10.1080/01652176.1997.9694767 generation intelligent hyperspectral
which can be useful for size sorting and 3. Firtha, Ferenc, Anita Jasper and László imagers”.
other machine vision tasks, by identify- Friedrich. “Spectral and Hyperspectral 6. Santosh Lohumi, S. D. Lee, H. S. Lee, M. H.
Inspection of Beef Ageing State.” (2012) Kim and W. K. Cho, “Application of
ing distinctions in images which are not Hyperspectral Imaging for Characterization
4. C. H., Poole, G. H. , Parker, P. E. and
only invisible to the eye but also to color Gottwald, T. R.(2010) 'Plant Disease Severity of Intramuscular Fat Distribution in Beef”,
(RGB) cameras and even multi-spectral Estimated Visually, by Digital Photography Infrared Physics & Technology 74 ·
and Image Analysis, and by Hyperspectral December 2015, DOI: 10.1016/
imagers, hyperspectral imaging cameras j.infrared.2015.11.004}
Imaging', Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences,
can provide rapid assessment of product 29: 2, 59 — 107, DOI: 10.1080/ 7. Gerbil Hyperspectral Imaging and
quality metrics such as moisture, aging, 07352681003617285, http:// dx.doi.org/ Visualization Framework, http://
protein and fat content, marbling and 10.1080/07352681003617285 gerbilvis.org/
more.
In the examples discussed, the
HinaLea hyperspectral imaging system
was able to detect a decrease in intensity
near 800 nm indicating a loss of water
content or moisture over time. In addi-
tion, a red shift of the spectral profile
over time, likely due to deoxymyoglobin
transition to oxymyoglobin, was also
seen. The classified images show end-
member overlap due to time-proximity.
A spectral shift and broadening along
with changes in the 600-700 nm range
proportional to fat content was also
observed.
These examples establish a basic
framework for development of correla-
tive classification models for hyperspec-
tral determination of these quality
parameters. They thus represent a
means by which to provide intuitive
actionable information at the operator
level and show the potential for further
refinement in the automated decision
making and product sorting process.
The unique combination of porta-
bility and ability to dynamically change
spectral range and band-pass capabili-
ty of the HinaLea technology means
that the same instrument can be con-
figured for a wide variety of parame-
ters and points of interest in the
inspection line to both optimize accu-
racy and reduce the time to capture
image. Finally, the cost advantages of
the technology relative to other hyper-
spectral imaging solutions also vastly
improves access for all such potential
uses.
This article was written by Alexandre Fong
M.Sc., MBA; Mark Hsu, Ph.D.; Mersina
Simanski, BSEE; and Monika Patel, Ph.D.;
Hinalea Imaging (Emeryville, CA). For more
information, contact Mr. Fong at
afong@hinaleaimaging.com, or visit http://
info.hotims.com/72991-203.
References
1. USDA/FSIS, “Water in Meat and Poultry”,
Food Safety Information, May 2011
2. M.J.A. den Hertog-Meischke , R.J.L.M. van TE-cooled Extended Response to 2.6 microns available
Laack & F.J.M. Smulders (1997) “The

New Engine Optics to Fuel Future Research
Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA
n optical setup developed by with the same brightness over a specified tion engines is invisible to the naked eye
A researchers at Sandia’s Combustion
Research Facility and the Technical
angular range. In this way, a light ray that
gets steered as it passes through the flame
because of the particles’ very small size.
The researchers have developed a diag-
University of Denmark can now quantify will be replaced by another ray having the nostic that allows researchers to quantify
the formation of soot — particulate mat- same intensity. Without such a specific the formation of particulate matter in
ter consisting primarily of carbon — as a optical arrangement, quantifying soot via combusting sprays with unprecedented
function of time and space for a variety light attenuation in high- pressure spray temporal and spatial resolution. Insights
of combustion processes. Initially, the flames, where beam steering is more gained and data acquired from the use of
researchers have focused on the com- severe, would not be possible. this diagnostic will inform and guide
bustion of liquid fuel sprays found in Although new diesel vehicles are researchers and automotive manufactur-
engines, where the extreme pressures cleaner than ever, some of the latest gen- ers toward designs that maximize fuel
and temperatures create an environ- eration gasoline engines emit as much efficiency while minimizing harmful
ment that is optically challenging. particulate matter as older diesel tailpipe emissions.
The acquired data provides important engines. The increased particulate mat- The optical technique developed in
insights into the fuel spray motion, as ter can be attributed to the adoption of this work relies on light attenuation or
well as the timing and quantity of soot a gasoline direct-injection fuel system, extinction to quantify the amount of soot
formed under a wide range of condi- which results in improved fuel economy in a flame. As light enters the combustion
tions. Engine developers can use this and therefore lower carbon dioxide vessel, it will be absorbed or scattered by
information to validate computer mod- emission per mile driven. soot particles. Light that is absorbed and
els and design advanced engine combus- Gasoline direct injection involves spray- some light that is scattered will not reach
tion strategies to improve fuel economy ing high-pressure liquid gasoline directly the camera sensor. This reduction in
for consumers while also lowering into the engine cylinder rather than mix- measured light intensity relative to a clear
tailpipe pollutant emissions. ing and vaporizing the fuel in the intake optical path can be related to the amount
The optical setup was developed to port outside the cylinder. This method of soot present. The use of a Sandia-
quantify soot formation in high-pressure reduces heat loss and allows for freer developed LED light source, as opposed
spray flames produced in Sandia’s optical- airflow. However, consumer savings at the to a high-speed laser, means the cost and
ly accessible, constant volume, pre-burn pump come at the cost of higher particu- complexity are significantly lower.
combustion chamber. Imaging flames at late matter emissions. Unlike the black For more information, contact Michael
temperatures and pressures found in smoke emitted from older diesel engines, Padilla at 925-294-2447 or mjpadil@
engines can be difficult because of a phe- soot emitted from gasoline direct injec- sandia.gov
nomenon called beam steering, which
occurs when light passes through a medi-
um with varying refractive indexes. This is
commonly observed as a “mirage” on the
highway in the summer time. The hot
pavement heats up nearby air, causing its
refractive index to change. The sunlight
changes direction as it passes from cooler
air through hotter air, and these steered
light rays give the impression that there is
water in the road. In a similar way, a flame
causes beam steering because of adjacent
high- and low-temperature regions. The
magnitude of beam steering increases sig-
nificantly in an engine because of the
high pressures. With optimized lighting
and imaging optics, however, the effects
of beam steering can be eliminated.
The special lighting was enabled by a
custom engineered diffuser large enough
to fill the area of Sandia’s spray combus-
tion chamber window (4 inches/100 mil-
limeters). The engineered diffuser was Sandia National Laboratories researchers discuss an optical setup to quantify soot formation in high-
specifically designed to emit light rays pressure spray flames. (Photo by Dino Vournas)

Individual Quantum Dots Imaged in 3-D for the First Time
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL
esearchers have developed an imag- dots using a single-molecule absorption — cryogenic electron tomography
R ing technique that uses a tiny, super
sharp needle to nudge a single nanoparti-
scanning tunneling microscope fitted
with a needle sharpened to a thickness
(CryoET). Instead of an image pro-
duced using an average of thousands of
cle into different orientations and capture of one atom at its tip. The needle different particles, as is done with
2-D images to help reconstruct a 3-D pic- nudges the individual particles around CryoET, SMA-STM can produce an
ture. The method demonstrates imaging on a surface and scans them to get a view image from a single particle in about 20
of individual nanoparticles at different orientations. And it
different orientations while in Topography is not required to chill the
a laser-induced excited state. particles to near-absolute
Nanostructures like micro- zero temperatures — the
chip semiconductors, carbon particles can be captured at
nanotubes, and large protein room temperature, rather
molecules contain defects that than frozen and motionless.
form during synthesis that The researchers looked at
cause them to differ in compo- semiconductor quantum dots
sition from one another. for this study, but SMA-STM
However, the term “defect” is a can also be used to explore
bit of a misnomer. For exam- Roll Roll other nanostructures such as
ple, semiconductors are manu- carbon nanotubes, metal
factured with intentional nanoparticles, or synthetic
defects that form the holes that macromolecules. They believe
electrons jump into to produce the technique can also be
Excited state SMA-STM image
electrical conductivity. Having refined for use with soft mate-
the ability to image those rials like protein molecules.
defects enables them to be bet- The group is now working
ter characterized in order to to advance SMA-STM into a
control their production. single-particle tomography
As advances in technology technique, meaning that they
allow for smaller and smaller will need to prove that
nanoparticles, it is critical for method is noninvasive. For
engineers to know the precise SMA-STM to become a true
Conventional STM image of a quantum dot, top, compared with an image pro-
number and location of these duced using the new excited-state SMA-STM technique. (Graphic courtesy single-particle tomography
defects to assure quality and Martin Gruebele) technique, they will need to
functionality. prove that their nudges do
The study focused on a class of of the quantum dot from different ori- not damage or score the nanoparticle in
nanoparticles called quantum dots. entations to produce a 3-D image. any way while rolled around. Knocking
These dots are tiny, near-spherical semi- The researchers said there are two dis- off just one atom can fundamentally alter
conductors used in technology like solar tinct advantages of the new single-mole- the defect structure of the nanoparticle.
panels, live cell imaging and molecular cule absorption-scanning tunneling For more information, contact Martin
electronics – the basis for quantum com- microscope (SMA-STM) method when Gruebele at 217-333-1624, mgruebel@
puting. The team observed the quantum compared with the current technology illinois.edu.
New Fast, Economical Bioimaging Technique

Rensselaer Poytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
esearchers at Rensselaer Poytechnic capable of simultaneously tracking 16 method makes use of advanced optical
R Institute (RPI) have developed a
new approach to optical imaging that
colors of spatially linked information
over an area spanning several centime-
imaging techniques — fluorescence life-
time imaging paired with Forster reso-
makes it possible to quickly and econom- ters, and can capture interactions that nance energy transfer — to reveal the
ically monitor multiple molecular inter- occur in mere billionths of a second. molecular state of tissues. In fluorescence
actions in a large area of living tissue In biomedical applications, optical lifetime imaging (FLIM), molecules of
such as an organ or a small animal — imaging has many advantages over tech- interest are tagged with fluorescent
technology that could have applications niques such as MRI and PET, which use “reporter” molecules, which, when excited
in medical diagnosis, guided surgery, or magnetism and positron emissions to by a beam of light, emit a light signal with
pre-clinical drug testing. The method is acquire images inside of living tissue. The a certain color over time that is indicative

However, while the FLIM-FRET meth-
Intensity (A.U.) od generates a signal rich in information,
1 collecting that signal quickly and eco-
nomically is problematic. Current meth-
ods rely on expensive cameras, which can
0 image only one reporter at a time, and
725 nm 731 nm 736 nm 741 nm • • • 777 nm 783 nm 788 nm 793 nm scanning the subject can take hours as
Lifetime (ns)
1.5 the camera collects information from its
full field of vision. To overcome this
obstacle, the researchers dispensed with
0 cameras and instead used a single-pixel
detection method combined with a math-
ematical sampling technique (based on a
New method quickly, economically, and accurately tracks multiple in vivo interactions. (Image courtesy Hadamard transform) that allowed them
of RPI) to collect sufficient relevant information
in 10 minutes to construct a precise
of their immediate environment. Reporter The researchers used Forster resonance image. Three detection devices posi-
molecules can be tuned to offer informa- energy transfer (FRET), to determine tioned around the sample provided spa-
tion on environmental factors such as vis- close proximity between two similarly tial information used to construct a three-
cosity, pH, or the presence of oxygen. tagged molecules, such as a drug and its dimensional image. The detection
FLIM is ideal for the thick tissues of a body target, based on an energy transfer that method can collect information on 16
because it relies on time information, occurs only when the tagged molecules spectral channels simultaneously.
rather than light intensity, which degrades are delivered into the diseased cells for For more information, contact media@
significantly as it travels through tissue. maximal therapeutic efficacy. rpi.edu.
Text Tech: Navy Vessels Use Shipboard Signal Lamps for Text Messaging
Office of Naval Research, Arlington, VA
ponsored by the Office of Naval
S Research’s (ONR) TechSolutions pro-
gram, the Flashing Light to Text Converter
(FLTC) features a camera that can be
mounted atop a signal lamp to receive
Morse code bursts from another lamp with-
in view. A hand-held device or laptop com-
puter is connected to this camera to display
text messages sent and received.
Linking the commercially available
camera and device, is a proprietary con-
verter that uses specialized algorithms to
process incoming light flashes into high
frequency signals that are then convert-
ed to text messages. To reply to a text, a
sailor can use the device to type a
response that is sent back as a Morse
code message via specially powered LED
lights that flash automatically.
Since World War II, the process for
sending messages using signal lamps has
barely changed. It requires someone
trained in Morse code to operate the
lamp’s shutter by hand, and involves a U.S. Navy photo by John F. Williams/Released.
lot of time receiving, decoding, and
replying to messages. Using FLTC, phones. You just type your message and ly valuable if a ship’s main communica-
sailors can quickly and easily type and send it with the push of a button. tions go down or if it needs to maintain
send messages — with fewer mistakes — FLTC would be useful in certain “com- a low electronic signature to avoid detec-
even if they don’t know Morse code. The munications-denied” scenarios at sea tion by an adversary.
system is very intuitive because it mirrors where satellite communications is risky For more information, contact onrpublicaffairs@
the messaging systems used on smart or unavailable. It could also be extreme- navy.mil.

X-Ray Study of Low-Density Materials
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
t’s hard to get an X-ray image of low-
I density material like tissue between
bones because X-rays just pass right
through like sunlight through a window.
Sandia studies myriads of low-density
materials, from laminate layers in air-
plane wings to foams and epoxies that
cushion parts. So they borrowed and
refined a technique from the medical
field, X-ray phase contrast imaging, to
look inside the softer side of things. The
technique measures not just the number
of X-ray photons that get through the
sample, as in conventional X-ray imag-
ing, but also the phase of the X-rays after
they pass through, offering a complete
look at interfaces inside a structure.
Sandia has to be able to spot defects
that might cause a high-consequence
failure. For example, conventional X-
rays can’t see a defect called a grafoil in
the laminate layers of an airplane wing
without removing the copper mesh that
protects against lightning strikes. And
they can’t see the critically important
foams and other materials that guard
against shock, high voltage breakdown,
and thermal stresses in nuclear weapon
components. X-ray phase contrast imag-
ing could also be used to inspect micro-
fabrication packaging, integrated circuits
or micro-electro-mechanical compo-
nents. It could be used to study ceramics,
polymers, chemicals or explosives.
Current techniques aren’t sensitive
enough to distinguish between materi-
als. If there is a dense material mixed in
with a low-density material, and tradi-
tional X-rays can’t see the low-density
material, an observer doesn’t know if the
gaps are filled with the low-density mate-
rials or air.
The priciple of operation can be illus-
trated by considering an orange. A con-
ventional X-ray picture of the orange
would be fuzzy, without detail. X-ray
phase contrast imaging, on the other
hand, would clearly show the differences Sandia National Laboratories researcher Amber Dagel holds a calibration sample to be loaded into the
between the thin layers of zest and pith labs’ X-ray phase contrast imaging machine. (Photo by Randy Montoya)
and how those layers look compared to
the thick pulp. When light hits the zest, it to the phase contrast image. Gratings that create interference pat-
bends a little, It hits the pith and it bends The technique will be useful in the terns are critical to the technology. For
a little bit more, then it goes through the design stage of a project, for example, the next step in the project, the
pulp, and it bends in another direction. when you’re trying to understand the dis- researchers will be studying how to make
Every interface, every time the material tribution of microbeads within an epoxy gratings that operate at higher X-ray
changes within the sample, it bends the or how foam mates with the canister it’s energies.
light a little bit. Different parts of the sam- filling up. It can also be used for quality For more information, contact Sue Holmes
ple bend the light differently, giving rise assurance in the production stage. at sholmes@sandia.gov, 505-844-6362

A Marriage of Light-Manipulation Technologies
Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL and Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
esearchers have, for the first time, technologies without hurting their per-
R integrated two technologies widely
used in applications such as optical com-
formance.
The eventual goal is to fabricate all
munications, bio-imaging, and Light components of an optical system — the
Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sys- MEMS, the light source, and the metasur-
tems. In the collaborative effort between face-based optics — with the same tech-
the U.S. Department of Energy’s nology used to manufacture electronics
Argonne National Laboratory and today. In principle, optical systems could
Harvard University, researchers success- be made as thin as credit cards.
fully crafted a metasurface-based lens These lens-on-MEMS devices could
atop a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System advance the LIDAR systems used to
(MEMS) platform. The result is a new guide self-driving cars. Current LIDAR
infrared light-focusing system that com- systems, which scan for obstacles in their
bines the best features of both technolo- immediate proximity, are, by contrast,
gies while reducing the size of the opti- several feet in diameter. They require
cal system. Researchers have successfully crafted a metasur- big, bulky lenses and mechanical devices
Metasurfaces can be structured at the face-based lens atop a MEMS platform. to move them around, which is slow and
nanoscale to work like lenses. These met- expensive.
alenses are rapidly finding applications 10 microns in thickness (a human hair is This first successful integration of
because they are much thinner and less approximately 50 microns thick). metalenses and MEMS, made possible
bulky than existing lenses, and can be In the technologically merged optical by their highly compatible technologies,
made with the same technology used to system, MEMS mirrors reflect scanned will bring high speed and agility to opti-
fabricate computer chips. The MEMS are light, which the metalens then focuses cal systems, as well unprecedented func-
small mechanical devices that consist of without the need for an additional opti- tionalities.
tiny, movable mirrors. The new device cal component such as a focusing lens. For more information, contact Diana
measures 900 microns in diameter and The challenge was to integrate the two Anderson at media@anl.gov, 630-252-4593
Researchers Combine Metalens With an Artificial Muscle

The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, MA
nspired by the human eye, researchers at
I the Harvard John A. Paulson School of
Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS)
have developed an adaptive metalens that
is essentially a flat, electronically con-
trolled artificial eye. The adaptive metal-
ens simultaneously controls for three of
the major contributors to blurry images:
focus, astigmatism, and image shift.
The research combines breakthroughs
in artificial muscle technology with met-
alens technology to create a tunable met-
alens that can change its focus in real
time, just like the human eye. In addi-
tion, the lens is capable of dynamically
correcting for aberrations such as astig-
matism and image shift, which the
human eye cannot naturally do.
Photo of the metalens (made of silicon) mounted on a transparent, stretchy polymer film, without any
The research demonstrates the feasi- electrodes.The colorful iridescence is produced by the large number of nanostructures within the met-
bility of embedded optical zoom and alens. (Image courtesy of the Capasso Lab/Harvard SEAS)
autofocus for a wide range of applica-
tions including cell phone cameras, eye- ate fully electronically and can correct metalens. Prior metalenses were about the
glasses, and virtual and augmented real- many aberrations simultaneously. size of a single piece of glitter. They focus
ity hardware. It also shows the possibility To build the artificial eye, the light and eliminate spherical aberrations
of future optical microscopes that oper- researchers first needed to scale-up the through a dense pattern of nanostruc-

tures, each smaller than a wavelength of to adjust its focal length. They looked to the All optical systems with multiple com-
light. Because the nanostructures are so engineering field of dielectric elastomer ponents have slight misalignments or
small, the density of information in each actuators, also known as artificial muscles. mechanical stresses on their compo-
lens is incredibly high — If you go from a The researchers chose a thin, transpar- nents, depending on the way they were
100 micron-sized lens to a centimeter-sized ent dielectric elastomer with low loss, built and their current environment, that
lens, you will have increased the informa- meaning light travels through the mate- will always cause small amounts of astig-
tion required to describe the lens by ten rial with little scattering, to attach to the matism and other aberrations. These
thousand. When trying to scale-up the lens. To do so, they needed to develop a could be corrected by an adaptive optical
lens, the researchers found that the file platform to transfer and adhere the lens element. Because the adaptive metalens
size of the design alone would balloon up to the soft surface. is flat, you can correct those aberrations
to gigabytes or even terabytes. To solve this The elastomer is controlled by apply- and integrate different optical capabili-
problem, they developed a new algorithm ing voltage. As it stretches, it shifts the ties onto a single plane of control.
to shrink the file size. position of nanopillars on the surface of The next step for the researchers is to
Next, the researchers needed to adhere the lens. The metalens can be tuned by further improve the functionality of the
the large metalens to an artificial muscle controlling both the position of the pil- lens and decrease the voltage required
without compromising its ability to focus lars in relation to their neighbors and to control it.
light. In the human eye, the lens is sur- the total displacement of the structures. For more information, contact Leah
rounded by ciliary muscle, which stretches Together, the lens and muscle are Burrows at lburrows@seas.harvard.edu, or
or compresses the lens, changing its shape only 30 microns thick. 617-496-1351.
Nano-Optic Endoscope Sees Deep into Tissue at High Resolution

The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, MA
he diagnosis of diseases sue. They showed that the

T based in internal organs
often relies on biopsy samples
nano-optic endoscope can
image deep into the tissue with
collected from affected regions. significantly higher resolution
But collecting such samples is than provided by current imag-
highly error-prone due to the ing catheter designs. The
inability of current endoscopic images captured by the nano-
imaging techniques to accurate- optic endoscope clearly show
ly visualize sites of disease. The cellular structures in fruit flesh
conventional optical elements and tissue layers and fine
in catheters used to access hard- glands in the bronchial
to-reach areas of the body, such mucosa of swine and sheep. In
as the gastrointestinal tract and the human lung tissue, the
pulmonary airways, are prone to researchers were able to clearly
aberrations that obstruct the full identify structures that corre-
capabilities of optical imaging. spond to fine, irregular glands
Now, experts in endoscopic indicating the presence of ade-
imaging at Massachusetts Gen- nocarcinoma, the most promi-
eral Hospital (MGH) and at the nent type of lung cancer.
Harvard John A. Paulson Scanning electron micrograph image of a portion of a fabricated metalens. According to the research-
School of Engineering and (Credit: Harvard University/Massachusetts General Hospital) ers, the main advantage of the
Applied Sciences (SEAS), have metalens is that it can be
teamed up to develop a new class of cal catheter design, resulting in a dra- designed to tailor its specifications to
endoscopic imaging catheters — termed matic increase in the quality, resolution, overcome spherical aberrations and
nano-optic endoscopes — that overcome and functionality of endoscopic astigmatism and achieve very fine focus
the limitations of current systems. The microscopy. Metalenses based on flat of the light without the need for com-
problem addressed by the researchers is optics are a game-changing new technol- plex optical components.
that clinical adoption of many cutting- ogy because the control of image distor- They next aim to explore other appli-
edge endoscopic microscopy modalities tions necessary for high resolution imag- cations, including a polarization-sensi-
has been hampered due to the difficulty ing is straightforward compared to con- tive nano-optic endoscope, which could
of designing miniature catheters that ventional optics, which require multiple contrast between tissues that have high-
achieve the same image quality as bulky convex-shaped lenses. ly-organized structures, such as smooth
desktop microscopes. They believe that To demonstrate the imaging quality of muscle, collagen, and blood vessels.
the use of nano-optic catheters that the nano-optic endoscope, the For more information, contact Leah
incorporate metalenses into their design researchers imaged fruit flesh, swine Burrows at lburrows@seas.harvard.edu, or
will likely change the landscape of opti- and sheep airways, and human lung tis- 617-496-1351.

Machine Vision Cameras CMOS Sensor Evaluation Kit
Vision Research (Wayne, NJ) has Critical Link (Syracuse, NY) announced
introduced the Phantom® S210 and its latest embedded imaging solution, the
S200, 2Gpx/sec (16 Gbps) ma- MityCAM-C50000, that serves as the official
chine vision cameras. The S210 reaches 1,730 frames per sec- evaluation platform for the CMV50000
ond (fps) at full 1.3Mpx resolution, while the S200 achieves CMOS image sensor from ams/CMOSIS.
7,000 fps at full 0.3Mpx VGA resolution. Both cameras leverage The global shutter sensor features 47.5 MP resolution (7920 pix-
sensors currently used in Phantom Miro C cameras. els × 6004 pixels) at 30 frames per second, with mono and RGB
The S210 and S200 both use up to four CoaXPress (CXP6) color options, low dark noise, and high dynamic range. The sen-
channels to reach 2Gpx/sec throughput. Both are GenICam sor outputs in subLVDS mode and provides special capabilities
compliant and stream directly into PCI Express frame grab- in binning, subsampling, and on-chip corrections.
bers. The cameras also feature a general-purpose input/output The MityCAM-C50000 provides multiple interfaces includ-
(GPIO), for fast and flexible signaling and synchronization. ing USB3 Vision® and HDMI preview as standard, with custom
These include signals beneficial in standard high-speed appli- options to include CoaXPress, Camera Link, GigE Vision®, and
cations, such as Time Code In/Out, along with a host of other others. The system is based on an open architecture embedded
signals commonly found in streaming applications, such as processing design utilizing Critical Link’s MitySOM-A10S
Trigger, strobe, and event marking. image processing board. The board features Intel’s Arria 10
For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-270 SoC with dual core Cortex-A9 ARMs and up to 480KLE user-
programmable FPGA fabric, DDR4 memory, and 12 high-
Ruggedized Lenses speed transceiver pairs.
Fujifilm (Kleve, Germany) announced an For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-273
update of its popular DF/HF-HA-1B series
lenses to ruggedized versions equipped with Fiber Laser Process Monitoring Tool
the unique Fujinon “Anti-shock and The new HighLight SQD option for
Vibration” technology. Demand for quality optics in ruggedi- Coherent (Santa Clara, CA) HighLight fiber
zed versions continues to increase and the designated DF/HF- lasers provides cutting and welding systems inte-
HA-1S is designed to meet that demand. grators with a turnkey, simple to use and cost-
The Fujinon HF-HA-1B series lenses have an external diame- effective means to implement process monitor-
ter of only 29.8 mm. The Fujinon HF-HA-1S upgrade provides ing. The HighLight SQD comprises process sensors integrated
vibration mitigation and shock absorption within the existing directly into Coherent’s special fiber laser connectors, which
design, so the compact form factor remains. These lenses are detect back reflected laser power and visible spectrum process
compatible with image sensors up to 2/3" in a broad selection emissions. These signals, which are provided in either analog or
of focal lengths (6, 9, 12.5, 16, 25, 35, 50, and 75mm). The opti- digital CAN bus form (at a 2 kHz sampling rate), can be used to
cal performance of the upgraded series is identical to that of detect various key process events. For cutting, these include
the Fujinon HF-HA-1B, which the new series will be replacing. piercing end, cut interruption, and self-burning during piercing.
For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-279 For welding, the HighLight SQD can indicate incomplete pene-
tration (due to insufficient power at workpiece, focal shift or
Photovoltaic Junction Box material changes), blow holes, contamination, gap detection for
TE Connectivity (TE) (Darmstadt, overlap joints, and other process instabilities.
Germany) announced the new SOLAR- For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-274
LOK PV Edge decentralized junction box
that can be attached to glass-to-glass photovoltaic panels with- Miniature Optical Encoder
out drilling holes. The SOLARLOK PV Edge is the first junc- The E4T and S4T miniature optical
tion box on the market that can be mounted on the edge of encoders from US Digital (Vancouver,
the PV panel without the panel manufacturer having to drill WA) are now available at higher resolu-
any holes or use a potting resin that can take over six hours to tions. With two new CPRs of 512 and
cure. The flaps on the box are available in different shoulder 1,000, resolution has successfully been
heights to fit panels of diverse thicknesses. The connectorized doubled while keeping the housing unchanged. Utilizing state-
design of the SOLARLOK PV Edge enables maximum installa- of-the-art transmissive optical sensing technology, these newly
tion flexibility with custom length PV4-S cable jumpers. announced resolutions now support applications requiring up
Other important features of the new junction box include: a to 4,000 pulses per revolution.
lid with cooling ribs to improve heat dissipation; elimination of The E4T line of encoders is available in both single-ended
X-connect to facilitate lay-outs; shorter foil lengths; and and differential signal outputs for applications where noise
defined bottom roughness that eliminates the need for pre- immunity is critical. Moreover, the 512 and 1,000 CPR options
treatment of the product. The junction box is available in East- retain the E4T's simple and efficient, push-on hub disk assem-
West and North-South rail directions to cover all possible mod- bly process, helping US Digital customers keep installation
ule layouts. It is an IEC & UL approved 1500V solution. time, assembly cost and complexity to a minimum.
For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-272 For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-294

Low-Profile Chassis Mount Heat Sink Low Profile XY Open Aperture
Resistor Stage
New Yorker Electronics (Northvale, NJ) released OES (Optimal-Engineering Systems,
the RCD Components miniature 300W non-induc- Inc.) (Van Nuys, CA) has added a new,
tive, low-profile chassis mount resistors in both the high precision open aperture stage to it's
CM300 and CM300L Series. RCD Components expanding line of precision XY stages.
developed the CM300 and CM300L Series for power supply man- The AU200-100×100 stage is a low-profile stage measuring just
ufacturers looking to save space, height and weight. The RCD 80 mm (3.150 in.) high with a compact footprint (including the
CM300 is rated up to 300 Watts and is less than 1/10 the size and motors) of 348 mm x 348 mm (13.701 in. × 13.701 in.) The lin-
weight of a conventional RE80 250W chassis mount resistor, and ear travel of the X and Y axes is 100mm x 100mm (3.937 in. ×
less than half the height of an SOT227 package. It is essentially 3.937 in.), and the resolution of each axis is 20 microns (non-
vibration-proof and with insulation ratings up to 5 KV. micro-step) or 1 micron (20 micro-steps per step motor driver
RCD’s CM300 series is non-inductive and features a wide in use), repeatability is 2 microns, and the positional accuracy is
range of resistance values (0.1 ohm to 1 Meg). The CM300 3 microns. The stages have preloaded V-groove and crossed
model features .187-inch male quick-connect terminals and roller bearings and ground 4 mm per-turn lead screws having
the CM300L features flexible insulated leads with a range of just 2 microns of backlash.
customized terminations. Other features include burn-in, mili- The XY stage's table measures 300 mm × 300 mm (11.811 in
tary screening and numerous design modifications including × 11.811 in.) and the open aperture measures 188 mm × 188
different diameters, lengths, materials, values, markings, mm (7.402 in. × 7.402 in.). A recessed mounting and precision
lead/Pb terminations and others. pattern of drilled and threaded mounting holes facilitate the
For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-276 alignment of tooling or fixtures.
The standard two-phase (1.8o) stepper motors have knobs
Monochromator for manual adjustments of each axis of the stage, however, the
The vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) Model knobs can be replaced with incremental encoders for position
248/310 grazing incidence monochro- verification. As an option, servo motors and compatible
mator from McPherson (Chelmsford, motion controllers are also available from OES, or the AU200-
MA) makes spectral measurements 100×100 Stage can be ordered as a complete plug-and-play
around 13 nanometers and throughout motion control system.
the extreme vacuum ultraviolet and soft For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-275
x-ray wavelength region. It is ideal for work from 10eV to more
than 1000eV. The Model 248/310 features one meter focal
length optics in a compact Rowland circle instrument. Grazing
incidence angles deliver high reflective efficiency. Many dif-
fraction gratings are available to optimize for your application.
For direct detection of extreme vacuum ultraviolet and soft
x-ray wavelengths, windowless back illuminated CCD's are
used. Sensitivity of CCD's at short wavelengths can surpass that
in the visible spectral region. When gated detection is
required, open microchannel plate intensifiers are available. It
also works with point detectors and as a scanning monochro-
mator. The slit or detectors scan along the Rowland circle.
Integrate with an electron impact or hollow cathode spectral
lamp to make a tunable light source.
For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-277
Circular Photodiode for Electron

Detection
Opto Diode Corporation (Camarillo, CA),
an ITW company, announced a new high-
speed photodetector, the AXUV63HS1.
With a circular active area of 9 mm diameter (typically 63 mm²),
the photodiode is ideal for electron detection. The new device
joins Opto Diode’s family of AXUV detectors that features high-
performance measurement of electrons, photons, or X-rays.
The AXUV63HS1 has a typical rise time of 10 nsec and a
maximum dark current of 100 nA, with a minimum reverse
breakdown voltage of 160 volts. Opto Diode’s high-speed pho-
todiode is shipped with a cover plate to protect the photodiode
chip and the wire bonds. Storage and operating temperatures
range from -10°C to +40°C (ambient) and from -20°C to +80°C
in nitrogen or vacuum environments. The lead soldering tem-
perature is 260°C.

Platform Flexures Image Sensors
A new series of single axis platform flex- OmniVision Technologies, Inc.
ures from Siskiyou Corporation (Grants (Santa Clara, CA) announced its
Pass, OR) offer highly stable, economical latest 2-micron image sensor fami-
mounting of optical components, along ly members built with OmniBSI™ pixel technology, the
with single axis tilt adjustment. Spec- OS02F10 and OS04B10. The OS02F10 and OS04B10, with
ifically, these IXF series platform flexures superior low-light sensitivity, can produce high-quality digital
contain a matrix of both threaded and clearance holes (8-32 or images and HD video, even in poor lighting conditions.
M4) on both sides, enabling them to be mounted directly to The OS02F10 is a 2-megapixel (MP) sensor that supports
Siskiyou crossed roller or dovetail translation stages, as well as 1080p (1920 × 1080) resolution streaming video at 30 frames per
Siskiyou baseplates; optical components or other optomechani- second (fps). This ultra-compact sensor features a 1/4-inch opti-
cal accessories can then be attached to the reverse side. cal format and a 4.9 × 3.0-mm chip scale package (CSP). Its high
Currently, two platform flexures are available. The IXF.5St quantum efficiency (QE) requires less IR illumination, thus en-
offers a 0.5 inch square mounting pattern and 4° of adjustment abling low power consumption for excellent camera battery life.
range, and the IXF1.0St provides a 1.0 inch square mounting The OS02F10 itself consumes less than 120 mW.
pattern and 2° of adjustment range. Each size is available in The OS04B10 is designed for applications covering larger
both steel and aluminum versions. Steel construction offers surveillance areas. With 3.6-MP resolution, the OS04B10 sup-
superior mechanical and thermal stability, while aluminum ports 2K (2560 × 1440) resolution streaming video at 30 fps. It
confers lower weight and vacuum compatibility. features a 1/3-inch optical format and a 6.3 × 3.7-mm CSP. The
For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-288 OS04B10's power consumption is less than 140 mW, and it has
high QE for low system power.
IR Sensor Cards For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-285
LASER COMPONENTS has added three
new models to its portfolio of IR sensor cards: USB 3.0 Cameras
LDT-007BN for low-power Nd:YAG lasers The four new ace U USB 3.0 models
converts IR radiation of 700 nm to 1400 nm from camera manufacturer Basler (Ah-
into visible red light of 654 nm. rensburg, Germany) feature resolutions
LDT-1064CN, made of resistant ceramic, is suitable for high- of VGA and 1.6 megapixels and have now moved into series pro-
power IR lasers (900-1100 nm) up to 200 W/cm². The active duction. They are equipped with the IMX287 and IMX273 sen-
area of 60 mm × 40 mm can be used up to the edge. sors from Sony's Pregius series and deliver up to 525 frames per
LDT-1064N offers a particularly large active area of 50.8 mm x second. The IMX273 sensor offers outstanding Pregius image
50.8 mm which allows it to make the invisible radiation of IR lasers quality, high speeds, and low noise. The IMX287 sensor, on the
(800-1700 nm) with larger diameters visible as green light (530 nm). other hand, has twice the pixel size with an edge length of 6.9
All screens are immediately ready for use and do not have to μm, resulting in increased saturation capacity and a higher
be activated. Sensor cards, also known as conversion sheets, dynamic range with the same sensitivity and low noise.
convert invisible radiation into visible light when held directly Both sensors feature the Ultra Short Exposure Time Mode,
into the laser beam. They are essential for the alignment and which enables extremely short exposure times of up to one
focusing of IR and UV lasers. microsecond (1 μs). With their features, the four ace U models
For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-291 are also ideally suited as upgrades for CCD cameras with low
resolutions. The four new ace U USB 3.0 cameras include the
Optical Generator and Switch feature set PGI, a unique combination of 5×5 debayering,
The Reflex Photonics (Kirkland, color-anti-aliasing, denoising and improved sharpness.
Montreal) Optical Generator/Switch is For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-287
an integrated optical cross-connect
(OXC) solution with 850 nm transmit- Fiber Optic Connector
ter and receiver interface that features Diamond SA (Losone, Switzerland)
an onboard signal generator operating at up to 12.5 Gbps. It announced that the Diamond Mini AVIM™
offers 12 TX and 12 RX optical fiber (OM3) lanes that are has finally been added to the European Space
accessible by 3 standard MPO interfaces. Component Coordination (ESCC) Qualified Parts
In generator mode, standard PRBS-31 signals can be gener- List (QPL). Furthermore, Diamond SA is now listed as
ated and emitted at the TX output. The stimulus can be sent a preferred manufacturer of fiber optic components in ESA's
throughout a communication system and rooted back to the list of providers. This publication concludes more than 10
RX inputs. The integrated chip can perform standard BER years of preliminary discussion, full evaluation of the products,
tasks and assess optical communication system performance. qualification and numerous deliveries of flight models.
In switch mode any of the 12 RX inputs can be bridged to any The Mini AVIM™ combines two leading edge technologies:
of the 12 TX outputs and the rooting map is fully configurable the AVIM™ MIL style ratchet system and the base construction
via a convenient standard I2C port. of Diamond Micro Interface (DMI) connector. The Mini
Designed around the standard LightABLE optical engine, AVIM™ is aligned precisely in rotation and, therefore, can be
the Optical Generator/Switch will also speed up the perform- used for both standard SM and MM fibers, as well as for PM
ance validation and confirm successful integration of technologies and multi-fiber ferrules. Diamond's Power
LightABLE transmitters and receivers. Solution (PS) technology can also be applied to this connector.

in the
9 & 12 MP Industrial Cameras
The Imaging Source (Charlotte, NC) introduced four new
9 and 12 MP industrial cameras featuring the latest, large-for-
mat Sony Pregius CMOS sensors and the robust ix Industrial®
ethernet interface. The “38 series” color and monochrome cameras are equipped
AR
Heat Curing,
with Sony's cost-effective IMX267 and IMX304 sensors which offer high resolution Two Part Epoxy EP112LS
(8.8 MP at 13 fps and 12.3 MP at 9 fps respectively) in addition to high dynamic
range with low noise and brilliant color reproduction.
These cameras are the first in The Imaging Source product portfolio to offer the ix Outstanding optical clarity
Industrial Ethernet interface, a miniaturized interface which is approximately 70% smaller & non-yellowing properties
than RJ45 modular connectors. The new interface uses metal snap-in hooks for active lock- Refractive index: 1.55
ing of the socket and plug which provides immediate haptic feedback to confirm proper
connection. Integrated locking ensures a robust connection, which offers high shock and
vibration resistance and long service life, making it ideal for industrial environments. High temperature resistance
Serviceable from -60°F to +450°F
Ellipsoidal Mirrors for X-Ray Diffraction
Optical Surfaces Ltd. (Surrey, UK) is offering high-precision
ellipsoidal mirrors with pinpoint focusing for high resolution Reliable electrical insulation
spectroscopy in the soft and hard X-ray regions. Optical Surfaces Volume resistivity: >1014 ohm-cm
is able to produce ultra-smooth ellipsoidal mirrors able to deliver
an X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) spot that exactly matches a spectrometer's detector reso-
lution. As a consequence, the resolution and angular range of XRD measurements
can simultaneously be improved. In addition, the pinpoint focusing provided by the
ellipsoidal mirrors increases X-ray flux density, resulting in better contrast.
154 Hobart St., Hackensack NJ, 07601 USA
With workshops and test facilities deep underground where temperatures remain
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Bluetooth
Mesh —
The Next
Big Thing
Anatomy of a
Wireless Sensor
System
Embedding Smart
Sensors in Concrete
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Contents
FEATURES 24 Using Inkjet Printers to Build a New Biosensor for Less
Invasive Breast Cancer Detection
4 Building Blocks for a Practical Wireless Sensor System
25 Graphene’s Magic is in the Defects
10 Understanding Bluetooth Mesh Networking
APPLICATIONS DEPARTMENT
26 New Products
14 Make Your Construction Jobsite Safer and Faster with Smart
Sensors
16 Driverless Forklifts
ON THE COVER
In 2010, a new version of Bluetooth (Bluetooth 4.0) was
introduced, known as Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) or
TECH BRIEFS Bluetooth Smart. This variant is targeted at battery pow-
20 Researchers Develop Sensors to Test and Measure Cancer’s ered devices. Rather than using the typical device pair-
ing found in what is now known as “classic” Bluetooth,
Ability to Spread BLE is more targeted at use as connectivity for the In-
20 Enabling “Internet of Photonic Things” with Miniature Sensors ternet of Things. Its potential use would be as a broad-
22 Photonic Radiation Sensors Survive Huge Doses Undamaged cast-type sensor (e.g., temperature, humidity, etc.) to
devices that do not require pairing.
23 New Wristband Provides Personalized and Real-Time Tracking
Additional enhancements to the Bluetooth specification
of UV exposure were released in 2016 with the introduction of Bluetooth
5. This brought additional speed and distance. Concurrent with the development
of Bluetooth 5 was the development of a new connectivity model for BLE known
as the Mesh Profile. To learn more, see page 10.
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2 Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/72991-715 Sensor Technology, March 2019

Building Blocks for a
Practical Wireless
Sensor System
W
e recently interviewed Justin Bessette, Manager, A node takes that electrical analog and converts it into a dig-
Wireless Systems and Software Engineering at ital signal that can then be transmitted wirelessly. It includes
LORD Corporation, Micro-Strain® Sensing signal conditioning, an analog to digital converter (ADC), and
Systems, about the nuts and bolts of a wireless a transmitter.
sensor system. A gateway takes the digital data and outputs it in a form that
can be used by other software-controlled devices.
Justin Bessette: A Sensing system is comprised of four main Software determines how the data is used. It could typically be
elements: used for a graphical user interface (GUI) or for machine-to-
A transducer senses a physical medium, such as pressure or machine communication. The software could also direct the data
temperature, and converts it to an electrical medium, in the to the “cloud” where it could be shared with others, anywhere.
form of an analog signal. We call these four main elements a wireless system.
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Practical Wireless Sensor System
example: I'm changing a filter out on a

node, or I'm changing the channel that's
INPUT SENSORS WIRELESS NODES GATEWAYS SOFTWARE
on, or I'm changing a scale factor — a
calibration value. So, the software allows
you to receive and manipulate the sen-
sor data you're trying to measure. And it
allows you to also configure and control
the node or the data acquisition devices
out on the remote side.
Tech Briefs: Could you describe

machine-to-machine interaction within
{MSCL} a wireless system.
Bessette: An applications program

Figure 1. interface (API) is software that allows you
to talk to hardware programmatically.
Tech Briefs: Could you elaborate on Tech Briefs: How can the software be Machines speak programming languages
gateways? used? — protocols — so that having an API to
your hardware allows you to get data to
Bessette: Gateways convert a generic Bessette: The software takes the raw and from your devices to wherever the
digital input signal from a node to a data — data stored as a numerical value control system, or the remote system is. It’s
standards-based wired transmission. on a disk and it makes it presentable to a structured piece of software that allows
Our gateways are capable, of out- a human to view and use the data or to you to communicate with another system.
putting data onto a TCP type of con- another machine. It allows you to move
nection over Ethernet; to a USB device; data around. The software also allows Tech Briefs: Suppose I have a factory
or RS-232 or RS-485 serial buses. you to change configuration options, for with different, functioning sections like
Figure 2. Typical transducer+node — a battery powered wireless 3-axis accelerometer.

Advertisement

Practical Wireless Sensor System
different assembly lines and machining they're able to use our products within you also get time synchronization, which
functions, etc. How would I go about their system. is really important when you’re trying to
coordinating and using the data from all have a sample system with a distributed
of the different sensors? How would I Tech Briefs: So, the APIs kind of go clock. If you’re measuring strain or
program the whole thing to work as an between the sensors and the controlling acceleration, for example, at any num-
integrated system? computer? ber of locations, all at the same point in
time, it’s vital that the data is coordinat-
Bessette: In the early days of comput- Bessette: Yes, the controlling computed to reflect that. One more note: high
er-controlled networking, you would use er will have some program on it that timing accuracy is important. If you’re
a programming environment such as C speaks the API language and does what trying to sample something at say, 10 kHz,
or C++. You'd look at a protocol docu- it's supposed to do. a drift of a couple or even a few seconds
ment and you’d find out what string of a month is enough so that you would
bytes to send and parse to fit into a doc- Tech Briefs: How are the different have a misalignment in time.
ument. But there are many more ways of parts of the system synchronized? If you're trying to do, let's say, a nodal
doing it today. With an API, it's done at analysis — perhaps you're trying to look
a higher language level where you can Bessette: In a traditional wired data at an event that propagates down the
make simple commands like, ‘Turn acquisition system you have a single clock. wing of an aircraft, like a physical wave
node X on and turn node Y off,’ instead Since everything is wired together, every- of strain or something like that. If you're
of saying: ‘Send this byte string or look thing is inherently time synchronized. trying to see how that propagation goes,
for that byte string.’ It gives you a high- In our wireless system, a master clock you need samples to all be taken at a
er-level way of communicating with resides in the gateway and the nodes syn- very similar time, if not exactly the same
devices. chronize their clocks to the master. We time. So, if clocks drift, you become less
There are also graphical systems like use time division multiple access and less able to do an analysis of multi-
LabVIEW and scripting systems like (TDMA), which is similar to the way cel- ple distributed sensing points.
Python or MATLAB. In the case of our lular phone systems share bandwidth.
products, we have an API that can work With a really high precision clock and a Tech Briefs: How do you get this high
on all of those platforms, so that whatev- distributed clock system, everybody can accuracy synchronous clock? What kind
er platform the customer is using share a piece of space. With that sharing of clock do you use?
Figure 3. Vibration sensor for predictive maintenance.

Bessette: At its simplest form it’s just a acquisition system. And the data acquisi- Tech Briefs: Actually, I’m just realiz-
precision oscillator with low tempera- tion system is done right out of the ing that I’m recording our conversation
ture drift. We can also align our system’s node. That’s where we take that physical on my smartphone and it’s blocking all
time to GPS’s, which are atomic clocks in data, in the form of an analog signal of the ambient noise around me.
the cloud. We don’t need atomic clocks and convert it into a digital form. At
in every device because we can remotely that point you’ve captured the maxi- Bessette: That’s exactly what I’m talk-
synchronize them. This same kind of mum amount of precision. ing about. In this case, it’s sound, which
process is used in cell phones. The only is vibration, which is a typical thing you
way all cell phones can operate together Tech Briefs: Could you talk about how measure on equipment.
is if they have accurate clocks and they the quality of sensors can vary.
know when they can be on and when Tech Briefs: What about the ease of
they cannot be on. Wireless is a shared Bessette: In my world, we call it a getting a system up and running?
resource, so all devices in a single spec- transducer. A transducer acts as the con-
trum need to coordinate, otherwise it’s duit from the physical to the electrical. Bessette: One of the biggest benefits
just going to be chaos and noise, and The most common example I could of a wireless system, is that you don’t
nothing will work. think of would be a microphone, which need as much time to install it. With a
takes the sound pressure wave and con- wired system, you have to run data lines
Tech Briefs: Not all sensors are creat- verts it to a voltage by a change in resist- in a factory, or on a vehicle that has
ed equal. Can you discuss some of the ance or capacitance in an element or by rotating or articulating parts, which
differences. varying a magnetic field. These methods can be very difficult. It takes a lot of
have different degrees of fidelity to the care as to how you wire that — the sig-
Bessette: It’s something like a Ferrari actual pressure waves. nals can be corrupted in that length of
vs. a Fiat. They both drive, so they both wire. In a wireless system, you simply
do a single task, but one can do it a lot Tech Briefs: What about the reliability need to install the transducer at the
faster and with a lot more precision. You of the wireless connections between the location, and you’re done. So, for a
have the same thing in a data acquisition nodes and gateways, especially in a factory? manufacturer who’s installing or retro-
system. You can make a voltage measure- fitting, this means a big savings of time
ment — let’s say you have a tenth of a Bessette: Utilizing best practice tech- and money.
volt precision — that might be good for niques for transmission, using the latest
some systems. But the typical users of transceiver technology from the semi- Tech Briefs: For retrofitting, would
our systems are looking at instrumenta- conductor manufacturers, we can miti- you just cut short the signal wires from
tion grade sensing, so you want to have gate that. When you’re transmitting the the transducer and connect them to a
more decimal places, you want to have data and trying to receive it with the lat- node?
better filtering, you want to have a highest semiconductor technology, you can
fidelity signal. see down into the noise a little bit fur- Bessette: Yes, that’s one way. Or if you
ther — that gives you a little more dis- have an old machine that never had a
Tech Briefs: Could you give me an tance of transmission. But you can only sensor on it, you could just slap one on
example of what could make a sensor improve that so much. But there are and you’d have a vibration monitoring
perform better. other areas you can improve. A data system that took five minutes to install.
acquisition system like ours, needs to
Bessette: Better signal conditioning. send the data and then make sure that Tech Briefs: What kinds of distances
the receiver receives it. If it didn’t are achievable between a node and the
Tech Briefs: Where is the signal con- receive it, we transmit it again and gateway?
ditioning done? again until it gets it. Because we are
dealing with this imperfect system: Bessette: That’s a difficult question to
Bessette: It happens at the node, at wireless, we have to employ tricks and answer. In open air, it’s very easy —
the wireless data acquisition box. High techniques to make it perform as well point-to-point, it’s about a kilometer. But
quality signal conditioning allows you to as it should. That involves retransmit- more typically, they’re installed in facto-
amplify the signal while rejecting the ting data, the time synchronization we ries or vehicles. It reduces the distance,
noise. Done properly, you can have bet- talked about, and the latest semicon- in an office environment by about half,
ter insights into what you’re trying to ductor technology to peer down into in a factory environment, maybe by
measure. It could mean earlier warning, the noise floor and pull out the data another half — 250 meters.
it could mean seeing something you stream that’s there. These days we can Ultimately, to deploy a wireless system,
wouldn’t otherwise see. go to a semiconductor fabricator and you should do a site survey — put the
buy a product they have that’s tuned system out there and see if it works. We
Tech Briefs: So, the level of signal really well for our purposes. This is provide a “network reception tool,” that
quality is determined by the node? actually what is done by all the con- allows you to look at the spectrum and
sumer electronics device-makers, such see which channels would be best to use.
Bessette: Yes, because this isn’t just a as cell phones and computers that are This article was written by Ed Brown,
data acquisition system, it’s a distributed wireless. They buy chips from major Editor of Sensor Technology. For more infor-
data acquisition system, and more manufacturers that have invested tons mation, visit http://info.hotims.com/
specifically a wireless distributed data of money on their transceivers. 72991-140.
Sensor Technology, March 2019 www.techbriefs.com 9

Understanding
Bluetooth Mesh
Networking
Introduction to Bluetooth Technology
B
luetooth technology is focused
on short-range wireless con-
nectivity. Most of us know the
Bluetooth standard as the way
we connect a phone to our car or a
headset for hands-free operation. But
Bluetooth is much more than that.
Originally designed as a replacement
for wired serial connectivity such as RS-
232C, Bluetooth now supports almost
three dozen different profiles that
include hands-free devices, human
interface devices, phone book profile,
and many more.
In 2010, a new version of Bluetooth
(Bluetooth 4.0) was introduced, known
as Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) or
Bluetooth Smart. This variant is target-
ed at battery powered devices. Rather
than using the typical device pairing
found in what is now known as “classic”
Bluetooth, BLE is more targeted at use
as connectivity for the Internet of
Things. Its potential use would be as a
broadcast-type sensor (e.g., tempera-
ture, humidity, etc.) to devices that do
not require pairing.
The network connection style used in
classic Bluetooth is a traditional point-
to-point connection that looks like the
hub-and-spoke model known as a star
topology. The central device, for exam-
ple a smartphone, can be paired with a
potentially unlimited number of
devices, although typically only seven
can be active at any point in time.
Devices can only talk to the central con-
troller and not directly to each other.
Therefore, the hub must relay message
traffic between devices if that is needed
for the application.

BLE added a point-to-multipoint/
broadcast model that is useful for a short-
range navigation beacon mode such as
Application
used in finding a particular store in a
shopping center. With broadcast mode, GATT services Mesh Models
it is possible to send one message to a
large number of receivers simultaneous-
ly. An example would be to use a smart- GAP Access
phone to turn on a set of Bluetooth-
enabled lights and set their collective GATT Security Transport Provisioning
color and brightness without needing to
address each light bulb individually. Manager
Additional enhancements to the ATT Network
Bluetooth specification were released in
2016 with the introduction of Bluetooth L2CAP Bearer
5. This brought additional speed and dis-
tance. Concurrent with the development
of Bluetooth 5 was the development of a Link Layer
new connectivity model for BLE known as
the Mesh Profile. This is a many-to-many Physical Layer
style of communication with provisions
for message relay from one device to Figure 1. Bluetooth mesh protocol differences. (Image courtesy of Nordic Semiconductor)
another to create a flexible mesh topology
with multiple potential paths between Bluetooth Mesh was an exclusive feature devices that support the mesh profile is
nodes to ensure message delivery. of Bluetooth 5. Fortunately, that is not still somewhat limited, but the number is
The Mesh Profile was released in mid- the case. The mesh profile will work in growing steadily. Figure 1 illustrates
2017 and roughly corresponded to the conjunction with Bluetooth 4.2 compati- how the Bluetooth Mesh model fits into
availability of new Bluetooth 5 devices. ble devices as well as Bluetooth 5 devices. the standard BLE protocol stack. The
Therefore, it was easy to assume that At the time of this writing, the number of dark blue portion is standard BLE, where
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Understanding Bluetooth Mesh Networking
dropped at that node. The maximum

TTL supported in Bluetooth Mesh is 126.
Proxy
The control model used by the mesh is
a client/server architecture with the fol-
lowing types of elements: (1) a server
model that represents one or more states
that may span one or more elements
inside the device; (2) a client model that
defines a set of messages used by the client
to get, set, or request status for the various
states of a server; and (3) a control model
Friendship that adds control logic for interactions
between the client and server models.
Bluetooth mesh communicates via
messages. These messages can support
up to a twenty-nine-byte payload. Based
Figure 2. Mesh network device types. (Image courtesy of Ericsson) on the payload size, we can see that most
of the payload is likely oriented to trans-
the light blue portions are the Bluetooth sun is shining through the windows, and ferring states of the elements. This is sup-
Mesh-specific extensions. another for a cloudy day. ported through a publish/subscribe par-
Owing to the legacy of BLE operation, adigm, where the device is the server and
Mesh Model Specifics very low-power, battery-operated devices the client is the actor that is either get-
The Bluetooth mesh profile is tailor- can be operated at a low duty cycle to pre- ting, setting, or requesting status from
made for smart lighting. There are a num- serve battery life. In this case, the device the elements in the servers. However,
ber of standard generic models including will spend a considerable amount of time unlike traditional publish/subscribe
a Generic OnOff Server (e.g., light on or in sleep state. In order to facilitate com- models, there is no message broker in
off) and Generic Level Server (e.g., light mand and control of these types of the system because of the managed
brightness or light hue) that specifically nodes, there is a “friend” feature that is flooding message routing approach. All
target smart lighting. Several other prede- possible in designated devices. This servers will eventually see the message
fined generic models can be combined to implements a store-and-forward feature and the client will get the responses from
create more specialized solutions. to buffer messages to the low-power node all servers in the network segment. Using
A node is a device that is provisioned to for delivery when the low-power node the subnet mechanism allows users to
be part of a given network segment. This checks into the network again. So, the minimize unwanted interruptions from
means that the device has had network- low-power device is essentially a “push” unrelated systems by segmenting traffic.
specific encryption keys loaded onto it so device that initiates message transfer and
it can exchange messages with its peers. then receives any outstanding message Provisioning Devices and Security
There are several different sets of encryp- traffic from the friend node at that time. Probably the most involved process in
tion keys possible for each device. There is also a “proxy” mode that Bluetooth mesh is the provisioning of
A given device may have one or more exists to support provisioning of a net- new devices. Provisioning is the process
elements associated with it. Elements work via an application on a smartphone of enabling a device to join the network
can be thought of as features of the or tablet. Many existing mobile devices by adding security keys, setting subnets,
device. Each device has at least one ele- do not yet support the mesh model and etc. Provisioning can be performed by
ment (the primary element) and may would therefore be unable to communi- another node on the network or via a
have many secondary elements. For cate with a mesh network in its normal proxy such as a mobile device running a
example, a light bulb has a primary ele- operating mode. However, using one of provisioning application.
ment that indicates if it is on or off. the mesh nodes as a BLE <-> Mesh The overall flow of the provisioning
Bulbs with a dimmer function would proxy, enables the application to talk to process is: (1) beaconing (periodic
have a secondary element that could the network by relaying messages via the broadcast), (2) invitation, (3) exchange
represent the brightness. If the bulb sup- proxy node. This plays an important role of public keys, (4) authentication, and
ports different colors, then there may be in provisioning devices and in sending finally (5) distribution of provisioning
three additional elements that represent network control messages. The different data. The new device will send out a bea-
the red, green, and blue values of the nodes are depicted in Figure 2. con looking for an invitation to join a net-
LED sources in the bulb. Unlike traditional IP-based networks, work. Once it receives the invitation, the
The maximum number of nodes in any Bluetooth Mesh uses a managed flood device will send a capabilities protocol
given Bluetooth mesh network is 32,767, routing model for forwarding messages data unit (PDU) that informs the provi-
with up to 4,096 subnets and 65,535 from one node to another. In this model, sioner of the number of elements on the
scenes. The subnets allow for segregation messages are broadcast to each node in device, the set of security algorithms the
of the network into logical functions such the vicinity and a time-to-live (TTL) is device supports, the availability of its pub-
as 5th floor vs. 4th floor. Scenes represent used to address the potential of a routing lic key using out-of-band (OOB) technol-
a collection of settings such as all of the loop. By decrementing the TTL as the ogy such as a QR or bar code, the ability
lights being at the same brightness. One message transits each node, if the TTL for this device to output a value to the
brightness scene might be for when the should reach zero, the message will be user, and the ability of the device to allow

input from the user. With this information, the provisioner can
determine how to exchange security keys with the device.
In Bluetooth mesh, security is mandatory. All messages are
encrypted and authenticated. If the device supports it, it will
use Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) to establish a
shared secret with the provisioner for further key exchange.
Otherwise, the initial public key can be established via an OOB
mechanism such as using the provisioning device’s ability to
scan a bar code from the unprovisioned device’s packaging.
Once the initial shared secret is established, all subsequent
traffic will be encrypted via the AES-128 symmetric cipher.
Authentication is handled via the secure exchange of ran-
dom numbers known as “nonces.” Depending on the capabili-
ties of the unprovisioned device, the nonce can be generated
by the provisioning device and acknowledged on the unprovi-
sioned device or vice versa or both. Confirmations are then
exchanged to verify that the nonces are correct. Once the
authentication is complete, the actual provisioning data can be
sent to the new device and the device is now known as a net-
work node. This provisioning data includes the overall network
encryption key, the unique per-device key, some bookkeeping
data, and a unicast address that will be the network address for
the primary element on the new node. At this point, the node
is provisioned and can start communicating on the network.
Even the best of devices will eventually fail and need to be
replaced. When this happens, the node may be completely
non-responsive, thereby preventing the removal of the network
key. In order to prevent a potential “trash can” attack where an
attacker somehow manages to extract the network key from
the node, the node can be blacklisted. This will prevent it from
being able to establish connections with other nodes on the
network. Then, the provisioner can initiate a Key Refresh pro-
cedure where a new network key is generated and distributed
throughout the network.
To further enhance cybersecurity, each PDU contains a
sequence number and initialization vector (IV) index fields.
Nodes will reject any message with a sequence number less
than the last properly received good message sequence num-
ber. The IV index must also match that of the last good IV that
was received. This precludes the typical replay attacks that can
be used to reset node states.
Summary
The addition of mesh networks adds an important commu-
nication paradigm to BLE devices. With the use of managed
flood routing, the network size and scope can easily be expand-
ed as new features are required.
One of Bluetooth mesh’s many strengths is its security focus.
Since security is mandatory, all Bluetooth mesh devices support mes-
sage encryption/decryption and the encryption keys are securely
provisioned before the device can communicate on the network.
Finally, while the Bluetooth mesh model seems to be best
suited for smart building applications, we are sure to see new
use cases as the protocol matures and users get an opportunity
to see how it performs. The increasing number of available
protocol stack implementations will also help to expand
Bluetooth mesh’s use in the industry. So, while the jury is still
out on how successful Bluetooth mesh will be, the future does
look bright for this new technology.
This article was written by Mike Anderson, CTO and Chief Scientist
for The PTR Group, Inc. (Ashburn, VA). For more information, visit
http://info.hotims.com/72991-141.

Applications
Make Your Construction Jobsite Safer and Faster with Smart Sensors
Sensors embedded in concrete let you know when it’s cured and ready.
oncrete is the material most widely

C used by humans — after water. As its
ingredients are readily available almost
anywhere in the world, it is the main
component used by architects and engi-
neers in the building of foundations,
multi-story and high-rise structures,
bridges, dams, and roads. With concrete
playing such an important role through-
out the globe, the longevity and strength
of these structures is paramount.
The strength of concrete is governed
by a set of chemical reactions that occur
under favorable curing conditions
between cement and water during the
first few days after mixing. This leads con-
crete to transition from a liquid-like mate-
rial to a solid that can take any shape and Figure 1. A wireless maturity sensor is attached to rebar by twisting two metal wires.
form. Recent advancements in sensor
technology have made it possible for this proaches to monitor the strength of in- to be conducted seamlessly. It is therefore
critical step in a construction project to situ concrete. Among these, is a method- essential that concrete strength sensors be
be accurately monitored in real time. ology called “Concrete Maturity.” This fully embedded within a structure in
requires constant monitoring of concrete order to protect against potential damage
Cylinder Break Tests vs. Smart temperature on a jobsite in order to and eliminate the need for maintenance.
Sensors determine the maturity index — a func- The SmartRock™ wireless concrete sen-
Concrete strength is the main parame- tion of temperature and time. This data is sor from Giatec Scientific, Inc. (Ottawa,
ter that determines if important construc- then correlated to concrete strength ON, Canada), for example, is a wireless
tion operations, such as formwork based on a pre-calibrated curve, which is maturity sensor that is installed and
removal, saw cutting, and opening a road developed in a testing laboratory. secured on rebar by twisting two metal
to traffic can be safely initiated. Although the maturity concept was wires. The sensor is powered by a coin-cell
Catastrophic structural damage can developed in the 1950s it has not been lithium metal battery, which provides
occur if these actions are performed widely adopted across the construction enough power for about 4 months —
before the material has gained enough industry. With first generation solutions, more than enough for monitoring con-
strength. Conversely, delaying these con- such as hardwired sensors, crews faced crete properties during early-age con-
struction steps has significant financial challenges with their onsite functionality struction. The metal wires used to attach
implications for a project. Therefore, it is and struggled to protect thermocouple the sensor to the rebar also close an elec-
important to estimate concrete strength cables within the concrete. In recent trical circuit that turns the device on.
as accurately and quickly as possible. years, however, Internet of Things (IoT) Once concrete is poured, the sensors are
Strength has been traditionally calculat- advancements in electronics, such as the completely covered and are secured
ed by breaking sample cylinders cast from development of low-energy and long- inside the structure where they continu-
the same concrete material used for the range Bluetooth, as well as improve- ously monitor and record temperature.
building of a structure. In fact, using com- ments in smartphone and mobile apps, The temperature sensor is a thermistor
pression to test concrete strength has exist- have helped engineers develop wireless with a measurement accuracy of 0.5 °C.
ed since the late 19th century. Today, this sensors that can be easily integrated into Temperature data is wirelessly transmitted
method still dominates construction sites, the construction workflow. This allows using a custom Bluetooth profile.
even though it causes delays, since cylin- project managers and site superintend- A SmartRock iOS or android app
ders have to be transported offsite to a lab- ents to monitor the curing and harden- installed on a smartphone receives
oratory for testing. Moreover, one sample ing of concrete on the go. temperature signals that have been
cannot accurately account for local varia- recorded every 15 minutes on the sen-
tions across the structure. As a result, data Embedded Sensors Let You Know sors. The app downloads the tempera-
measurement errors can occur, which When Concrete Has Fully Cured ture data and uses an algorithm to cal-
often creates even more delays. A typical construction jobsite has many culate concrete maturity and strength
To address these limitations, removing parts and support must be provid- based on a database of pre-calibrated
searchers have developed various ap- ed to project managers for quality control concrete.

the sensors. The data from each smart-
phone can also be transmitted to a cloud
application where it is analyzed automat-
ically and compared against a set of cri-
teria based on the end-user require-
ments. As soon as the criteria are met, a
push notification is sent from the cloud
to the team members to notify them
about the status of the concrete struc-
ture so they can make a decision on the
next steps of their project.
Saving Stakeholders and Project

Figure 2. A SmartRock sensor attached to rebar transmits temperature readings every 15 minutes. Costs with Smart Sensors
Collecting and sharing real-time data
Each concrete mixture has a unique Leveraging the IoT concerning the strength of in-situ con-
correlation between its temperature- Typically, multiple sensors are crete helps construction managers
time factor and strength. This correla- installed in the same pour in different make immediate and early decisions on
tion (calibration curve) needs to be con- structural locations to capture local vari- when to move ahead to the next steps of
ducted ahead of the time for the con- ations in concrete strength. For exam- their project schedules. This saves sig-
crete mixtures in the project. Over time, ple, a beam or slab that is exposed to nificant costs, as each day saved on a
SmartRock will have a database of differ- cold winds could gain strength much jobsite is worth upwards of $15K.
ent concrete mixtures so users can select more slowly than sections that are pro- Furthermore, the consistent monitoring
the one that matches what they are tected from the elements. The app dis- of in-situ strength enhances safety on
using. plays detailed information from each of the jobsite.
Triaxial accelerometer for

SAFETY
ride quality measurements
• 2g, 10g, 30g, 50g, 100g and 200g ranges
• Frequency response from DC to 2,000 Hz
• Small cube (less than 1 inch) and lightweight (24 grams)
• Suitable for outdoor measurements (IP67)
• Wide input voltages including 5V option
Model 773
www.endevco.com
® www.meggitt.com

Applications
understanding of the concrete life-

cycle. Monitoring of these elements will
therefore improve the quality, durabili-
ty, and safety of infrastructures, as well
as allow for schedule optimization.
Information from the SmartRock app
can also be integrated with other con-
struction management software applica-
tions such as Procore® — the world’s
most widely used construction manage-
ment software — which, through the use
of advanced APIs, allows developers to
integrate with each other’s solutions.
The Procore dashboard can then auto-
matically create tasks for the project
Figure 3. A smartphone app calculates concrete maturity and strength. team members.
Smart sensors are the first wave of service life. Water content, setting time, The Future of Wireless Sensing for
technologies that are transforming the shrinkage cracking potential, humidity Concrete Construction
traditionally old-fashioned construc- and moisture levels, and rebar corro- It is imaginable that the massive amount
tion industry. During several decades in sion rate are only some of the impor- of sensor data that is now easily collected,
the concrete lifecycle, there are various tant measurements. The existing meas- can be analyzed to provide deeper insights
types of measurements and data that urement methods are time-consuming, into the performance and predictability of
are required for stakeholders, such as not accurate, and provide delayed concrete properties. Since the world’s
engineering firms, concrete producers, results at best. A new generation of IoT infrastructure has been built by concrete,
construction companies, structural solutions leverages non-destructive test knowing all we can about this unique and
inspectors, and owners and operators, methods based on the electrical resistiv- ubiquitous material, benefits the construc-
to make informed decisions. For exam- ity measurement and electrical pulse tion industry and all of society.
ple, concrete mix consistency from one response analysis to provide instant This article was written by Dr. Aali R.
truck to another, variability of water results in real-time on the condition of Alizadeh co-founder of Giatec Scientific. For
content in concrete mixes, risk of early- concrete materials and structures. more information, contact Dr. Alizadeh at
age concrete cracking, and state of Accurately accounting for these ele- aali@giatec.ca or visit http://info.hotims.com/
deterioration in the structure during its ments allows for a more thorough 72991-143.
Driverless Forklifts
With stereo cameras, forklifts can find their own way.
lthough driverless forklifts have

A been around for about 30 years, it’s
only in the last 10 or so that they’ve been
free to maneuver anywhere around their
environment. In the early days, the ma-
chines followed a current in a wire
buried in a concrete floor. There have
since been a handful of different ap-
proaches, but all are variants on that
theme. They went from wires in the
floor to paint on the floor, to tape on the
floor, to magnets in the floor, to reflec-
tors on the walls, to QR codes on the
ground, but they were all just different
types of landmarks. So, the vehicles were
confined to a fixed path — quite pre-
dictable, but extremely inflexible.
The infrastructure-free navigation
that has commercially matured in the Figure 1. The primary navigation sensors are stereoscopic cameras, 10 of which are mounted in pairs
past 10 years enables fully self-driving on top of the vehicle.

Sensor Systems
for Commercial,
Space & Military
Applications
Figure 2. A driverless forklift can easily navigate around a corner.
Sensor Solutions for:

industrial vehicles that adapt to their and use the disparity between the two
environment based on sensor input. cameras to obtain three-dimensional Laser Communication
There is no need to depend upon spatial data. The five pairs “see” a full Fast Steering Mirrors
explicit landmark infrastructure. hemisphere over and around the vehicle Directed Energy
as it is driving. With such a very rich envi-
Airborne Night Vision Systems
Infrastructure-Free Navigation ronment of data available, the naviga-
Lidar is the standard out-of-the box tion is extremely reliable in real world
solution for infrastructure-free naviga- conditions. Wide, accurate coverage is
tion because it's relatively easy. more important than having high preci-
Unfortunately, it performs quite poorly sion but with only a small number of
in real-world production settings, where points. The cameras are used as data
environments are dynamic. In factories sensors — they’re not doing landscape
and warehouses, everything is moving, photography.
including pedestrians, so the machines
have to navigate carefully and reliably. Programming the Forklift
People don’t buy automated forklifts to Programming the vehicles is very
have them work some of the time, they're straightforward. Because Seegrid’s fork-
buying them so they never again have to lifts are built on a manual chassis, you
worry about moving pallets 24/7. can drive them like a regular truck. In
Seegrid Corporation (Pittsburgh, PA) order to program it, you just put it into
produces self-driving forklifts and tow record mode and drive the route you
tractors that use cameras for navigation. want it to take. While you are driving,
They're fully self-driving: they sense an all 10 cameras — the five stereo pairs —
environment and make decisions entire- are taking pictures continuously. As
ly onboard the vehicle. An array of cam- they find points of contrast in the
For more information about
eras has the advantage over lidar images, the disparity between the pairs our full line of products,
because it affords wide coverage of an of cameras provides a dense 3D point contact us today!
environment. With lidar, any individual cloud that covers the full space around
range measurement is highly precise, the truck. Those images are captured
but its coverage is so limited it’s almost every few centimeters as you drive. 800-552-6267
blind. A lidar unit is like a laser pointer Every time the vehicle navigates that measuring@kaman.com
on a turntable, it's just spinning around path thereafter, the system makes math- kamansensors.com
and will give a precise measurement of ematical and geometric probabilistic
how far a wall is from you, but it tells you comparisons against what it “sees” now
absolutely nothing about that wall ½ versus what it saw before. The system
inch below or ½ inch above the beam. then makes small navigation adjust-
Seegrid vehicles use the cameras in ments every fraction of a second to
pairs to capture information in stereo compensate for any differences. Since
Sensor Technology, March 2019 www.techbriefs.com Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/72991-722

Applications
tion warehouse where you have pallets at
an inbound dock. Each pallet is going to
a different location — that’s the other
extreme,” he said. “For that, we create a
‘route network,’ which is a fully-connect-
ed graph of all the places it’s been. Then
when you tell the vehicle, ‘move this pal-
let from here to there,’ it will search its
entire route network and find the short-
est path for that particular task. You can
think of it as sort of a dot-to-dot connec-
tion, that goes all over your plant or
warehouse. Then, when I'm sending a
truck somewhere, it can pick the optimal
path to go anywhere within that space.
Note that you don’t want it to move just
anywhere in a plant — that’s like a deliv-
ery truck driving over your lawn to avoid
a stop sign — but it should it pick the
Figure 3. The 360-degree views of the environment are processed by software to identify and locate most productive path that is safe and
thousands of unique features on every snapshot. predictable.”
There are many different ways to
there’s much more information that is Putting the Driverless Forklifts to input instructions for a specific task,
persistent compared to what is dynam- Work depending on the customer’s applica-
ic, there's more than enough to navi- I asked Jeff Christensen, Seegrid’s VP tion. In the simplest case you can put a
gate safely and reliably. It’s similar to of Product, whether these forklifts are start and end location on the vehicle
the teach/repeat model used elsewhere best suited for repetitive tasks. “Imagine itself by punching in a couple of num-
in robotics. Seegrid calls its patented for a simple case in manufacturing that bers. In a more sophisticated applica-
system Evidence Grid technology, a vehicle does a loop around the assem- tion, it can be fully directed by Seegrid
which uses probabilities of occupancy bly line all day long bringing parts to the Supervisor, a software system that con-
for each point in space. Applying prob- line and taking others away. That's the trols entire fleets of vehicles. Supervisor
abilities to the data collected by the sen- most repetitive you might get and obvi- sends instructions to a specific vehicle,
sors compensates for the uncertainty in ously it would work for something like telling it what to pick up and where it's
the performance of sensors and in the that,” he said. However, “something supposed to go. In that case, no opera-
environment itself. maybe less obvious would be a distribu- tor actually touches it at all.
Alternatively, Supervisor has a tablet
interface that acts as more of a pull sys-
tem — there are lots of different opera-
tional modes.
The Cameras
I then asked Seegrid VP of
Engineering Sean Stetson about the
cameras. “We use stereo cameras,
which have two imaging channels —
two separate sensors and two separate
lenses. The cameras are automotive-
grade imaging sensors. We prefer glob-
al shutters because they produce better
stereo quality than rolling shutters. We
design the cameras to produce concur-
rent exposures on both cameras on a
given board, so that you're capturing
the scene at the same time. From there,
there’s a lot of math to understand the
parallax and the cyclical shifts between
specific features, between the two cam-
eras,” he said.
I then asked him how the data is used
to control the vehicle. “You can imagine
Figure 4. Seegrid's vision technology enables its vehicles to autonomously transport materials all the other different sensors we use —
throughout facilities for customers like Whirlpool. all sorts of encoders and the other

things that you typically have on vehicles
to help close feedback loops, as well as
motor control systems — it’s pretty stan-
dard stuff because we use stock powered
industrial trucks,” he said. “The math
associated with the dense stereo data to
produce reliable navigation is the hard
part.”
Driverless Forklifts vs Driverless

Cars
Another question was whether there
are significant differences between
these industrial vehicles and self-driving
automobiles. “There's not a whole lot of
difference. Obviously, there are differ-
ences in environments. The types of sce-
narios encountered are more con-
strained indoors, compared to the free-
wheeling world that autonomous cars
have to deal with. So, from a sensor
suite standpoint, you tend to have more
constrained distances and certainly
more constrained speed.” Figure 5. Autonomous forklifts can safely operate around factory personnel.
“Stereo cameras in the world of
autonomous automobiles are getting faster than that. “As the technology humans do. There's a fatality about
more prevalent, specifically in the con- advances on all fronts, we’ll see it being every week in the U.S. from a forklift
text of real-time, environmental sensing, used in increasingly fast vehicles,” said accident. It's really no surprise: you're
in order to do things like semantic seg- Stetson. “One of the challenges facing moving loads around, the weight is shift-
mentation, object detection, classifica- the autonomous car market is getting ing, and you're doing repetitive tasks.
tion, and tracking. The design goal for sensors that are reliable at, say, 250 Humans are really bad at repetitive
automobiles is to give the cars a kind of meters, because at 80 miles per hour, tasks. We get bored, and when we get
human sense of what's going on in the 250 meters is the distance needed to bored, we take shortcuts. When we're
immediate environment around them, reliably detect something, classify it, moving really heavy things, those mis-
largely independent of the navigation. decide on a course of action, and initi- takes get people hurt,” he said.
We’ve shown that cameras can be used ate the action in time to stop if need be.
for navigation in addition to these.” As for our vehicles, we have a whole col- Outlook for the Future
Stetson said. lection of safety standards imposed on Finally, I asked Christensen what he
The range of interactions with pedes- us by various organizations, one of thought about the outlook for his indus-
trians, vehicles, or objects is obviously which is ANSI B56.5. We do extensive try. He replied: “The adoption of
different and more constrained — these safety testing on our system to ensure automation is on the rise for mobile,
forklifts are installed into specific travel that we can stop within those target autonomous material handling. Man-
paths, so their movements are pre- numbers over the range of distances ufacturing is becoming much more
dictable — they stay in their path. Yet, that we deal with.” complex. Companies are doing smaller
the flexibility of the system allows those lot sizes with mass customization, which
paths to be changed as the need arises, Safety and Reliability makes supply chains far more complicat-
for example when there are changes in Christensen added: “Although we are ed, which makes material handling chal-
production flow. That’s why these fork- certainly slower in these indoor environ- lenges far more complicated. On the
lifts function so well in a typical assembly ments, we are far from light-weight. warehouse and distribution side
plant, where engineers are always look- We're transporting up to 10,000 pounds demand is growing very rapidly — the
ing for ways to improve operations and at a time, and the vehicle and battery ‘Amazonification’ of the whole industry.
reduce overhead and wasted effort. add another 3,000 pounds.” That mass You can buy everything online, and you
The required speed for processing requires extensive testing. “The proof is expect it instantaneously. The amount
the navigation information is a a func- in the pudding: this past February we of pressure that puts on the logistics and
tion of speed of the vehicle. The faster exceeded a million miles of fully supply chain is enormous and at the
it’s moving, the more quickly it needs to autonomous production travel with same time there is a labor shortage of
take in information, process it, decide zero personnel safety-related incidents. people who are capable of doing these
on a course of action, and then initiate The forklift industry is incredibly dan- jobs or want to do them.”
it. Standard, human-driven industrial gerous. In fact, safety is actually one of This article was written by Ed Brown,
trucks typically run at a maximum of the important factors growing the Editor of Sensor Technology. For more infor-
eight to nine miles an hour. Obviously, demand for autonomy. Our forklifts mation, visit http://info.hotims.com/72991-
in the streets, cars can go significantly operate significantly more safely than 142.

Tech Briefs
Researchers Develop Sensors to Detect and Measure
Cancer’s Ability to Spread
Biosensors have been designed to monitor multiple signaling programs that drive tumor
metastasis.
University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA
he spread of invasive cancer cells The team used novel engineered
T from a tumor’s original site to distant
parts of the body is known as metastasis.
biosensors and sophisticated micro-
scopes to monitor the modification of
It is the leading cause of death in people GIV and found that, indeed, fluorescent
with cancer. University of California San signals reflected a tumor cell’s metastatic
Diego School of Medicine researchers tendency. They were then able to meas-
have designed sensors that can detect ure the metastatic potential of single can-
and measure the metastatic potential of cer cells and account for the unknowns
single cancer cells. of an evolving tumor biology through
Although there are many ways to this activity. The result was the develop-
detect metastasis once it has occurred, A tumor cell that has acquired high metastatic ment of Fluorescence Resonance Energy
there has been nothing available to see potential during chemotherapy lights up with Transfer (FRET) biosensors.
high FRET biosensor readout, whereas the cells
or measure the potential of a tumor cell that are sensitive to chemotherapy (and hence, Although highly aggressive and adap-
to metastasize in the future. The low potential) stay dark. tive, very few cancer cells metastasize, and
researchers engineered biosensors that metastatic potential comes and goes.
designed to monitor multiple signaling becomes difficult. By comparing proteins If metastasis can be predicted, this data
programs that drive tumor metastasis; and protein modifications in normal ver- could be used to personalize treatment to
upon sensing those signals a fluorescent sus all cancer tissues, the researchers individual patients. For example, patients
signal would be turned on only when identified a particular protein and its whose cancer is not predicted to metasta-
tumor cells acquired high potential to unique modification called tyrosine-phos- size or whose disease could be excised
metastasize, and therefore turn deadly. phorylated CCDC88A (GIV/Girdin) that surgically might be spared from highly
Cancer cells alter normal cell commu- is only present in solid tumor cells. toxic therapies. Patients whose cancer is
nications by hijacking one of many signal- Comparative analyses indicated that this predicted to spread aggressively might be
ing pathways to permit metastasis to modification could represent a point of treated with precision medicine to target
occur. As the tumor cells adapt to the convergence of multiple signaling path- the metastatic cells.
environment or cancer treatment, pre- ways commonly hijacked by tumor cells For more information, contact Yadira
dicting which pathway will be used during metastasis. Galindo at ygalindo@ucsd.edu.
Enabling “Internet of Photonic Things” with Miniature

Sensors
Whispering gallery mode photonic resonators’ recorded real-time temperature data while
mounted on a drone.
Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
team of researchers at Washington magnetic interference. But optical sen- famous whispering gallery in St. Paul’s
A University in St. Louis is the first to
successfully record environmental data
sors are immune to electromagnetic
interference and can provide a signifi-
Cathedral in London, where someone
on the one side of the dome can hear a
using a wireless photonic sensor res- cant advantage in harsh environments. message spoken to the wall by someone
onator with a whispering-gallery-mode Optical sensors based on resonators on the other side. Unlike the dome,
(WGM) architecture. have small footprints, extreme sensitivi- which has resonances or sweet spots in
In the world of the internet of things ty, and a number of other functionali- the audible range, this sensor resonates
(IoT), there are vast numbers of spatially ties, all of which lend capability and flex- at light frequencies and also at vibra-
distributed wireless sensors predomi- ibility to wireless sensors. tional or mechanical frequencies.
nately based on electronics. These Whispering gallery mode resonators, The sensor itself is made of glass and
devices are often hampered by electro- are so named because they work like the is the size of a human hair; it is connect-

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Tech Briefs
ed to the mainboard by a single optical
fiber. A laser light is used to probe the
sensor. Light coupled out of the sensor
is sent to a photodetector with a trans-
mission amplifier. A processor controls
peripherals such as the laser current
drive, monitoring circuit, thermo-elec-
tric cooler, and Wi-Fi unit.
In the WGM, light propagates along
the circular rim of a structure by con-
stant internal reflection and rotates 1
million times. Over that space, light
waves detect environmental changes,
such as temperature and humidity, for
example. The sensor node is monitored
by a customized operating system app
that controls the remote system and col-
lects and analyzes sensing signals.
The researchers had to address stabil- Polymer biosensor. (Image courtesy of KAUST)
ity issues, which were handled by the cus-
tomized operation systems app they flew from one measurement location practices such as soil mapping, which
developed, and miniaturization of bulky to others, the resonance frequency of enables precise fertilizer and chemical
laboratory measurement systems. A the WGM shifted in response to tem- applications and choice of seed selec-
smartphone app was developed to con- perature variations. The measurements tion for more efficient and profitable
trol the sensing system over Wi-Fi for matched well with results from the farming.
real-time remote control of the system. commercial thermometer. The successful demonstrations show
In June 2017, the group mounted Applications for wireless sensors the potential applications of their wire-
the whole system on the outside wall of encompass environmental and health- less WGM sensor in the IoT, according
a building and accumulated a plot of care monitoring, precision agricultural to the researchers. There are numerous
the frequency shift of the resonance. practices and smart cities’ data-gather- promising sensing applications possible
They compared their data with the ing, among other possibilities. Smart with this technology, including magnet-
commercial thermometer. They also cities are connected cities driven by ic, acoustic, environmental, and medical
mounted their system on an internet data-harvesting. Precision agri- sensing.
unmanned drone alongside the com- culture uses digitized geographic infor- For more information, contact Brandie
mercial thermometer. When the drone mation systems for precision agricultural Jefferson at brandie.jefferson@wustl.edu.
Photonic Radiation Sensors Survive Huge Doses

Undamaged
New tests can hasten use of small precision devices in medicine, food safety, and
spacecraft.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD
hotonic sensors convey information NIST launched a program to address addition, the space industry needs to
P with light instead of electric currents
in wires. They can measure, transmit,
the issue. The test results indicate the
sensors could be customized for measur-
know how these devices would function
in high-radiation environments. This
and manipulate, streams of photons, typ- ing radiation dose in both industrial study shows is that for a certain class of
ically through optical fibers, and are applications and clinical radiotherapy. devices and radiation, the damage is
used to gauge pressure, temperature, The NIST results suggest the sensors negligible.
distance, magnetic fields, environmental could be used to track levels of ionizing The researchers found that oxide-coat-
conditions, and more. They are attrac- radiation (with energy high enough to ed silicon photonic devices can withstand
tive because of their small size, low alter the structure of atoms) used in radiation exposure up to 1 million grays
power consumption, and tolerance of food irradiation to destroy microbes and (the SI unit for absorbed radiation). One
environmental variables such as me- in medical device sterilization. gray represents one joule of energy
chanical vibration. But the general con- There is also interest in deploying absorbed by one kilogram of mass and
sensus has been that high levels of radia- photonic sensors that can function corresponds to 10,000 chest X-rays. This is
tion would modify the optical properties accurately in very harsh environments, roughly what a sensor would receive at a
of their silicon, leading to incorrect such as close to nuclear reactors, where nuclear power plant and is also the upper
readings. radiation damage is a major concern. In limit of what NIST calibration customers

typically care about. The devices can strive to treat cancers and other con-
thus be assumed to work reliably at ditions with the lowest effective levels
industrial or medical radiation levels, of radiation focused on the smallest
which are hundreds or thousands of dimensions to avoid affecting healthy
times lower. Food irradiation, for tissue, including electron, proton,
example, ranges from a few hundred and ion beams. That application
to a few thousand grays, and is typically requires radiation sensors with
monitored by its effects on pellets of extraordinarily high sensitivity and
alanine, an amino acid that changes its spatial resolution. The long-term
atomic properties when exposed to goal is to develop chip-scale devices
ionizing radiation. for industrial and medical applica-
To determine the effects of radia- tions that can determine absorbed
tion, the NIST researchers exposed dose gradients over distances in the
two kinds of silicon photonic sensors range of micrometers and thus pro-
to hours of gamma radiation from vide unprecedented detail in meas-
cobalt-60, a radioactive isotope. In urements.
both types of sensors, small variations The team’s results will have large
in their physical properties change implications for new medical thera-
the wavelength of the light that trav- pies that employ extremely narrow
els through them. By measuring beams of protons or carbon ions and
those changes, the devices can be medical sterilization processes that
used as highly sensitive thermome- use low-energy beams of electrons.
ters or strain gauges. This remains These sensors are naturally small, and
true in extreme environments like chip-scale, as compared to current
space flight or nuclear reactors only if dosimeters, which are on the order of
they continue to function properly A NIST prototype photonic thermometer. (Photo cour- millimeters to centimeters and can
under exposure to ionizing radiation. tesy of J.L. Lee/NIST) therefore give erroneous readings for
The results indicated that these pho- fields that vary over those dimensions.
tonic devices are robust in even extreme radiation at very small length scales. In the next stage of the research, the
radiation environments, which suggests Photonic sensors could then be devel- team will test arrays of sensors simultane-
they could be also used to measure radi- oped to measure low-energy electron ously in identical conditions to see if
ation via its effects on physical proper- and X-ray beams used in medical device variations in dose over small distances
ties of irradiated devices. U.S. manufac- sterilization and food irradiation. can be resolved.
turers are anxious to serve the large and They will also be of great interest to For more information contact Ben P. Stein
growing market for precise delivery of clinical medicine, in which physicians at benjamin.stein@nist.gov
New Wristband Provides Personalized and Real-Time

Tracking of UV Exposure
Wearable ultraviolet (UV) sensors warn users when their exposure to the sun has
become dangerous.
University of Granada, Granada, Spain and RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
paper-based sensor, which can be Skin cancer, one of the most common tion, without distinguishing between
A worn as a wristband, features happy
and sad emoticon faces drawn in an in-
types of cancer throughout the world, is
primarily caused by overexposure to
UVA, UVB, and UVC, each of which has
a significantly different impact on
visible UV-sensitive ink. They succes- ultraviolet radiation (UVR). In Spain, human health. In contrast, the new
sively light up as you reach 25%, 50%, over 74,000 people are diagnosed with paper-based sensor can differentiate
75%, and finally 100% of your daily rec- non-melanoma skin cancer every year, between UVA, UVB, and UVC radiation.
ommended UV exposure. The research while a further 4,000 are diagnosed with Prolonged exposure to UVA radiation is
team also created six versions of the melanoma skin cancer. In regions such associated with skin aging and wrinkling,
color-changing wristbands, each of as Australia, where the ozone layer has while excessive exposure to UVB causes
which is personalized for a specific skin been substantially depleted, it is estimat- sunburn and increases the likelihood of
tone — an important characteristic ed that approximately 2 in 3 people will skin cancer and eye damage.
given that darker people need more sun be diagnosed with skin cancer by the Ultraviolet radiation is determined by
exposure to produce vitamin D, which is time they reach the age of 70. aspects such as location, time of day, pol-
essential for healthy bones, teeth, and Sensors currently available on the lution levels, astronomical factors,
muscles. market only measure overall UV radia- weather conditions such as clouds, and

Tech Briefs
can be heightened by reflective surfaces exposed, the paper begins to turn blue;
like bodies of water, sand, and snow. But the greater the exposure to UV radiation,
UV rays are not visible to the human eye the faster the paper turns blue.
(even if it is cloudy UV radiation can be Additionally, by tweaking the ink compo-
high) and until now the only way of sition and the sensor design, the team was
monitoring UV intensity has been to use able to make the ink change color faster
the UV index, which is given in weather or slower, allowing them to produce dif-
reports and indicates 5 degrees of radia- ferent sensors that are tailored to the six
tion; low, moderate, high, very high, or different types of skin color.
extreme. However, despite its usefulness, This low-cost, paper-based sensor
the UV index is a relatively limited tool. technology will not only help people of
For instance, it does not clearly indicate Six versions of the UV-sensitive wristband have all colors to strike an optimum balance
what time of the day or for how long you been created to reflect variations in skin tone. between absorbing enough vitamin D
should be outside to get your essential and avoiding sun damage — it also has
vitamin D dose, or when to cover up to The research team set out to tackle the significant applications for the agricul-
avoid sunburn and a heightened risk of drawbacks of the traditional UV index by tural and industrial sectors. UV rays
skin cancer. Moreover, the UV index is developing an inexpensive, disposable affect the growth of crops and the shelf
normally based on calculations for fair and personalized sensor that allows the life of a range of consumer products. As
skin, making it unsuitable for ethnically wearer to track their UV exposure in real the UV sensors can detect even the
diverse populations. While individuals time. The sensor paper they created fea- slightest doses of UV radiation, as well
with fairer skin are more susceptible to tures a special ink, containing phospho- as the most extreme, this new technolo-
UV damage, those with darker skin molybdic acid (PMA), which turns from gy has vast potential for industries and
require much longer periods in the sun colorless to blue when exposed to UV companies seeking to evaluate the pro-
in order to absorb healthy amounts of radiation. They can use the initially-invis- longed impact of UV exposure on prod-
vitamin D. The UV index is therefore ible ink to draw faces — or any other ucts that are cultivated or kept out-
not an accurate tool for gauging and design — on paper and other surfaces. doors.
monitoring an individual’s recommend- Depending on the type and intensity of For more information, contact José Manuel
ed daily exposure. the UV radiation to which the ink is Domínguez Vera at josema@ugr.es.
Using Inkjet Printers to Build a New Biosensor for Less

Invasive Breast Cancer Detection
A novel, low-cost, less invasive diagnostic biosensor detects breast cancer.
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, Bethesda, MD
esearchers at the National Institute immobilizes HER-2 proteins found
R of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengi-
neering (NBIB) have created a novel,
within the sample. Researchers des-
cribed HER-2 as being the white filling
low-cost biosensor to detect Human Epi- of an Oreo sandwiched between two
dermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 antibodies — the chocolate cookies —
(HER-2), a breast cancer biomarker in on the sensor chip. Each cookie layer is
the blood, allowing for a far less invasive an antibody specific to recognizing
diagnostic test than the current prac- HER-2. A chemical solution flows over
tice, a needle biopsy. The scientists com- the “HER-2 Oreo” to generate a meas-
bined microfluidic technology with di- urable electrical signal that correlates
An inkjet printer layers gold nanoparticle ink
agnostics, including electrochemical constructing a batch of biosensors capable of to the amount of HER-2 protein pres-
sensors and biomarkers, into a powerful forming the detection platform for a breast can- ent in the sample.
package that can give results in about 15 cer protein in blood. In this photo, the printer is The Centers for Disease Control and
depositing ink in a specific pattern to construct
minutes. the sensor chip. (Photo courtesy of Colleen E. Prevention (CDC) has reported that
The biosensor chip was partially con- Krause) collectively, all breast cancers make up
structed using an inkjet printer, which the most common cancer among
layers nanoparticle inks onto a plastic abnormal levels, indicates a specific women, regardless of ethnicity. It can
surface to create an array of electrodes. breast cancer type. Knowing the type take up to two weeks for a patient to
The printed biosensor chip was deposit- helps determine treatment. receive a diagnosis following a biopsy
ed into a prefabricated microfluidic The patient’s blood sample flows exam. According to the researchers, it is
device that directs fluids to flow in a con- through the microfluidic device and important to keep in mind diagnostic
trolled manner. It can measure levels of the sensor chip, which is coated with tools are only helpful when accurate.
the protein HER-2, which when found at antibodies. The antibody captures and This biosensor works in the clinically

relevant range and has one of the lowest HER-2 as one of the only breast cancer ready has the capability of being modi-
reported HER-2 detection limits, so biomarkers. Recent reports suggest fied to detect multiple biomarkers in
fewer false positives and negatives will monitoring HER-2 levels in the blood the blood. Further efforts are directed
occur. may be useful throughout and after at decreasing the size of the device,
Typically, breast cancer is initially treatment for disease progression sta- using printed circuit boards to con-
diagnosed through a mammogram or tus. While still in the early stage of struct a portable electrochemical unit
ultrasound and followed by an invasive development, re searchers said the like that of a glucose meter that can fit
needle biopsy, where tissue or fluid is advancement of biosensors could yield in your palm. In their ongoing efforts,
removed from the suspicious area and the opportunity for non-invasive breast the researchers believe it is now vital to
examined under a microscope. Clin- cancer testing. initiate partnerships with the medical
icians identify specific biomarkers from As medicine and biosensors progress, community to get input on the design
the biopsy and determine breast can- researchers foresee clinicians testing of the developing technology.
cer type in order to develop a treat- multiple biomarkers to achieve a more For more information, contact Patricia
ment strategy. The FDA recognizes accurate diagnosis. The biosensor al- Wiley at nibibpress@mail.nih.gov.
Graphene’s Magic Is in the Defects

New insights for precise engineering of ultra-small, ultra-sensitive electrochemical sensors.
New York University Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY
team of researchers at the New York
A University Tandon School of Engi-
neering and NYU Center for Neural Sci-
ence has solved a longstanding puzzle of
how to build ultra-sensitive, ultra-small,
electrochemical sensors with homoge-
nous and predictable properties by dis-
covering how to engineer graphene
structure on an atomic level.
Finely tuned electrochemical sensors
(also referred to as electrodes) that are
as small as biological cells are prized for
medical diagnostics and environmental
monitoring systems. Demand has
spurred efforts to develop nanoengi-
neered carbon-based electrodes, which
The density of intentionally introduced point defects is directly proportional to the sensitivity of a
offer unmatched electronic, thermal, graphene electrode. If the density of these points is maximized, an electrode can be created that’s
and mechanical properties. Yet these up to 20 times more sensitive than conventional electrodes.
efforts have long been stymied by the
lack of quantitative principles to guide achieve a desired level of sensitivity. synthesis, thereby enabling industrial-
the precise engineering of the electrode In a surprise finding, the researchers scale production of carbon-based elec-
sensitivity to biochemical molecules. discovered that only one group of trodes with reliable and reproducible
The researchers have revealed the rela- defects in graphene’s structure — point sensitivity.
tionship between various structural defects defects — significantly impacts elec- Currently, carbon-based electrodes
in graphene and the sensitivity of the electrode sensitivity, which increases linearly are impractical for any application that
trodes made of it. This discovery opens the with the average density of these defects, requires a dense array of sensors. The
door for the precise engineering and within a certain range. By optimizing results are unreliable due to large varia-
industrial-scale production of homoge- these point defects in number and den- tions of the electrode-to-electrode sensi-
neous arrays of graphene electrodes. sity, they can create an electrode that is tivity within the array. These new find-
Graphene is a single, atom-thin sheet up to 20 times more sensitive than con- ings will enable the use of ultra-small
of carbon. There is a traditional consen- ventional electrodes. carbon-based electrodes with homoge-
sus that structural defects in graphene These findings stand to impact both neous and extraordinarily high sensitivi-
can generally enhance the sensitivity of the fabrication of, and applications for, ties in next-generation neural probes
electrodes constructed from it. However, graphene-based electrodes. Today’s car- and multiplexed “lab-on-a-chip” plat-
a firm understanding of the relationship bon-based electrodes are calibrated for forms for medical diagnostics and drug
between various structural defects and sensitivity post-fabrication, a time-con- development, and they may replace opti-
the sensitivity has long eluded suming process that hampers large-scale cal methods for measuring biological
researchers. This information is particu- production. But the researchers’ find- samples including DNA.
larly vital for tuning the density of differ- ings will allow for the precise engineer- For more information, contact Davood
ent defects in graphene in order to ing of the sensitivity during the material Shahrjerdi at davood@nyu.edu.

New Products
Torque Measurement System Multi-Turn Absolute Encoders
To address the demand for a more accurate, Sensata technologies (Swindon, UK) is
reliable, customizable, and easy-to-use force introducing model MH multi-turn
measurement device, Interface Force encoders with either Ethernet/IP or
Measurement Systems (Scottsdale, AZ) has ProfiNet interfaces. They provide up to 16
introduced the AxialTQ torque measurement bits per turn and 14 bits of turns counting.
system. At the heart of its innovation is its rotor The compact packaging allows these
and high-precision sensing element technolo- encoders to be integrated into existing designs with a (-40 to +85C) tem-
gy, which when combined with next-generation electronics, produces perature range and an IP65 rating. Included in the design is a geared
outstanding accuracy. AxialTQ is specifically designed for the expand- turns counter that is immune to electrical or magnetic interference. In
ing torque measurement needs in the automotive industry, as well as addition, they feature reverse polarity and short circuit protection as
the aerospace and industrial sectors. Features that allow the system to standard.
be fully customizable and flexible include its ability to use simultaneous Applications include packaging, where they help to identify the posi-
analog and digital outputs to enable real-time control and data collection of products along the process line; in metal forming for determin-
tion. Additionally, the flexible capability of the stator and output mod- ing the absolute position of strips, bars, rolls, or tubes that need to be
ule mounting offers an infinite number of configurations to meet any marked, scored, slit, inspected, or formed. They are also often used to
application needs. determine the angle of rotation and position of a crane boom, as well
For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-145 as the amount of cable payout.
Particulate Matter Sensor
The SPS30 particulate matter (PM) sensor 1D Time-of-Flight Sensor
represents a technological innovation in optical The new sensor from ams (Premstaetten, Austria) is designed for
PM sensors. Its measurement principle is based implementing presence detection, for example to trigger the operation
on laser scattering and makes use of Sensirion's of a facial recognition system when the
(Staefa ZH, Switzerland) contamination-resis- user’s face is in range. Supplied in a
tance technology. This technology, together 2.2mm × 3.6mm × 1.0mm package, the
with high-quality and long-lasting components, enables accurate meas- TMF8701 sensor fits in a narrow bezel,
urements from the device's first operation and throughout its lifetime helping smartphone manufacturers to
of more than eight years. It can sense particulate matter with particle realize widescreen phone designs that
diameter down to 2.5 microns (PM2.5). These particles are among the have a high display screen to body ratio. It
most dangerous air pollutants. Due to their small size, PM2.5 particles integrates a VCSEL infrared emitter, multiple SPAD (single photon ava-
can travel deep into the human lung and cause a variety of health lanche photodiode) light detectors, time-to-digital converter, and a his-
issues; for instance, by triggering asthma attacks or contributing to car- togram processing core. The device implements all histogram-based
diovascular disease. The SPS30 will enable the implementation of inno- presence detection, distance measurement, and proximity sensing algo-
vative air quality monitoring devices that prevent air pollution damage. rithms on-chip. It also separately identifies reflections from fingerprint
For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-146 smudge contaminations on the display screen and optical reflections
from objects beyond the cover glass, such as the user’s face, maintaining
Wireless Pressure Gauge reliable performance even when the sensor’s aperture is dirty.
Emerson Automation Solutions (Austin,
TX) has introduced a WirelessHART® pres-
sure gauge. The Rosemount Wireless Confocal, Compact Sensor
Pressure Gauge enables remote collection of The new, confocal chromatic confocalDT
field data, keeping operators updated on IFS2404-2 sensor from Micro-Epsilon (Raleigh,
changing field conditions and improving per- NC) is used for high precision distance and
sonnel safety by reducing manual operator thickness measurements of transparent materi-
rounds and field exposure. als. With a diameter of 12 mm, it can be inte-
The gauge utilizes piezoresistive sensor grated into restricted installation space. The
technology. With the flexibility to accommo- lens enables high measurement accuracy and a small light spot diameter.
date changing process conditions, it also has up to 150X overpressure Together with the confocalDT 2421/2422 controller, the new sensor
protection compared to traditional gauges, which provides for a safer offers an excellent price/performance ratio for OEM purposes.
field environment by using two layers of process isolation. Available as either a single- or a dual-channel version, these confocal
Bourdon tube gauges have traditionally been a mainstay for pres- chromatic measuring systems are an economical solution, particularly
sure readings but are limited to visual indication of process condi- for high volume applications. They operate on a non-contact, and
tions when an operator is present. They also use moving parts, which therefore wear-free, basis while the active exposure regulation feature
can break or wear over time due to use and vibration. This wireless in the CCD line accurately and rapidly compensates for changing sur-
pressure gauge, however, eliminates the common weak points and its faces. Data is output in real time via an EtherCAT interface. The thick-
4.5-inch gauge face provides easy field visibility. ness calibration feature enables precise thickness measurements across
For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-147 the entire measuring range of the sensor.

Sensor Development Kit Environmental Sensors
ON Semiconductor (Nuremberg, Based on MEMS
Germany) is introducing the RSL10 Sensor Technology
Development Kit, designed to provide engi- Bourns’ (Riverside, CA) new
neering teams with a comprehensive plat- sensors feature state-of-the-art tech-
form for developing IoT applications with nologies that provide the ability to
smart sensor technology, enabled by operate in conditions that typically
Bluetooth Low Energy radio. cause many sensors to fail. The BPS110 and BPS120 pressure sensor
The kit brings together the RSL10 System-in-Package (RSL10 SIP) models deliver extremely accurate ultra-low pressure sensing capabili-
with a range of low power sensors from Bosch Sensortec. The devel- ties for sensitive applications. They offer fully calibrated and compen-
opment platform provides 9 degrees of freedom (DoF) detection and sated output for more efficient processes as well as long-term stability
environmental monitoring, including ambient light, volatile organic for reliable repeatability.
ompounds (VOC), pressure, relative humidity, and temperature. An The Model BPS130 pressure sensor line features harsh media com-
ultra-low noise digital microphone is also included, along with a user- patibility and high temperature operation with high accuracy. This sen-
programmable RGB LED, three programmable push-button switch- sor family offers particularly stable performance over the product’s
es, and 64 Kbit of EEPROM. It includes Sensortec’s highly integrated lifespan, and the ability to work with a wide range of pressures. Bourns
BME680 environmental sensor to detect a broad range of gases for also offers port configuration and calibration customization for all
air quality applications, the BMM150 geomagnetic sensor, and the three BPS pressure model families.
BHI160 smart sensor for high accuracy motion sensing. The Model BPS230 family offers precision relative humidity sensing
For Free Info Visit: http://info.hotims.com/72991-152 in a small (2.0 × 2.0 × 0.75 mm) surface mount package. Bourns’ new
line of humidity sensors features low current consumption for battery
Tiny MEMS Pressure Sensor supported applications and low voltage operation compatibility with
high reliability over the life of the sensor.
The LPS22HH MEMS piezoelectric
absolute pressure sensor from
STMicroelectronics (Geneva, Switzerland)
is so accurate and stable that manufactur-
ers can eliminate one-point calibration
(OPC) after soldering, to increase throughput and efficiency.
With a pressure noise equivalent to 5cm, the LPS22HH enhances
controls such as collision avoidance for drones or other unmanned
vehicles. Its high accuracy also improves features of smartphones and
sport watches, such as indoor navigation. Its temperature compensa-
tion relieves the load on the host microcontroller or application
processor. It has a fully molded package with miniaturized apertures
that prevent particle contamination. Energy-conscious features
include a 0.9μA power-down mode and low active power, drawing 4μA
at 1Hz, including temperature compensation, to maximize battery
runtimes. It supports I2C, SPI, and MIPI I3C, 2-wire sensor-bus inter-
face connectivity, and has a 128-bit FIFO for storing sensor data to
minimize host intervention.
BACnet™ Temperature/Humidity Sensor

The BN Series room temperature and humidity
networked sensors from ACI (Middleton, WI) are
a cost effective, single or dual point native
BACnet™ sensing solution designed to reduce the
need for additional input modules or building
management controllers when a limited number
of input points are available. The BTL
Certification provides confidence that these sen-
sors may be used in any new or retrofit installation using a BACnet
MS/TP controller with third party BACnet devices. The reduced num-
ber of BACnet objects helps to reduce the sensor cost and simplifies
installation and programming time. They’re designed for measuring
ambient air temperature/humidity in office buildings, schools, clean
rooms, pharmaceutical labs, hospitals, data centers, and retail stores.

New Products
Automotive Time-of-Flight Flow Meter Analog Output Sensor
Portfolio for In-Cabin The AW-Lake Company (Oak Creek, WI) introduces
Monitoring Systems the FAC-S™ Analog Output Sensor that hardwires with
Melexis (Tessenderlo, Belgium) is announcing new ToF sensors suit- any flow meter to provide voltage, current, or Bluetooth
able for automotive applications including gesture recognition, driver connectivity of readings. It also supports a Bluetooth
monitoring, and people/object detection. The MLX75024 ToF QVGA interface for remote programming and flow monitor-
sensor doubles the sensitivity of the previous generation while maintaining from a smart phone. A Bluetooth-enabled mobile
ing the same resolution and ambient light robustness. This allows it to app connects to the FAC-S, enabling wireless setup and
operate in lower light levels or reduce the illumination power required troubleshooting from a mobile device. The mobile application also sup-
by at least 30%. System efficiency is further enhanced by a 50% reduc- ports basic scaling and advanced functions, allowing for remote correction
tion in current consumption. The resulting lower heat generation of nonlinear flow meters to keep a linear analog output. The sensor input
allows the design of more compact cameras. The SNR is two times bet- range is from 0.25Hz to 5,000 Hz with five user-selectable outputs including
ter in low light conditions and distances greater than 1m. 4 – 20mA, 0 – 5V, 1 – 5V, 0 – 10V, and 2 – 10V.
Digital Force Measurement Gages Health Sensor Platform

The DFC and DFG Series Digital Handheld Force Gages from L.S. The MAXREFDES101 Health Sensor
Starrett Co. (Athol, MA) are optimized for pro- Platform 2.0 from Maxim Integrated (San Jose,
duction and quality control. Advanced automat- CA) incorporates a comprehensive range of
ic testing can be attained with the DFC Force Maxim products to provide a rapid prototyp-
Gage controlling a Starrett FMM Digital Force ing, evaluation, and development platform for
Tester, or basic testing can be performed using medical applications, providing accurate mon-
the DFG gage. They feature an easy-to-view high- itoring of body temperature, heart rate, and electrocardiogram (ECG).
resolution OLED color backlit display and auto- It’s comprised of a watch enclosure that houses a display, battery, micro
off function. Primary and secondary windows show test results, and board, and sensor board, a power-management IC, dual-mode Bluetooth®
out-of-tolerance results displayed in red. A multi-function keypad has technology, and a six-axis accelerometer and gyroscope. The platform’s
programmable softkeys. Adjustable sampling rates help capture peak sensor board includes an optical sensor, integrated biopotential and bioim-
loads, and filters can be applied to peak and display values. The gages pedance analog front-end (AFE), temperature sensor, and biometric sen-
have a USB port for transmitting data to a computer. sor hub. The real-time data can be accessed from anywhere.
Ultra-Precision Dimensional Compact Precision Laser

OPTICALLY CLEAR EPOXY Gaging Probes Measurement Sensor
for Bonding & Coating
NewTek Sensor Solutions (Pennsauken,

NJ) introduces the MBB Series of Ultra-
Very high flexibility Precision Dimensional Gaging Probes engi-
Elongation
Elongation 50-100%
50-100% neered for highly accurate and repeatable
measurement of dimensional parameters in a Banner Engineering (Minneapolis, MN),
Cryogenically serviceable variety of quality control, industrial metrology, announced the release of the LM Series laser
down to 4K and inspection equipment applications. measurement sensor designed for high stabil-
Offering excellent linearity, high precision, ity, reliability, and precision. It has 0.004 mm
Low viscosity and infinite resolution, these spring-loaded resolution and repeatably measures targets of
600-1,100
600-1,100 cps
cps AC-LVDTs are ideal for use in roundness varying color and reflectivity, not just a white
measurements, automotive testing, metal card. It can function in actual industrial envi-
Excels in e-textile component gaging, and materials testing. ronments where ambient temperature, vibra-
packaging They feature a stainless-steel probe assembly tions, and other conditions can greatly impact
and 8 mm diameter housing protected to IP-65. measurement accuracy. With response speeds
Incorporating a linear ball bearing assembly fit- as fast as 0.5 ms and a sampling rate of 0.25
ted to a non-rotating probe shaft, the probes ms, it can be used for high speed applications
produce an output voltage linearly proportional with fast-moving targets and it has a tempera-
to the probe’s shaft position with minimal radial ture effect of just +/-0.008 mm/°C. They can
play. The use of an AC-operated LVDT for be programmed via IO-Link, with the remote
probe shaft displacement reduces errors due to Teach function, or using the removeable
friction, resulting in a highly precise measure- remote sensor display (RSD), which enables
ment of the position of a target surface. They’re simple sensor setup, recipe control, and con-
designed for greater than 100 million cycles with figuration storage, as well as easy monitoring
+1.201.343.8983 ∙ main masterbond.com linearity of better than 0.05% of full range. of sensors in difficult-to-access locations.
For Free Info Visit: For Free Info Visit:
www.masterbond.com http://info.hotims.com/72991-151 http://info.hotims.com/72991-397
Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/72991-726 www.techbriefs.com Sensor Technology, March 2019

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72 NASA Spinoff: Rocket Fuel Technology Creates Art

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44 Nanoscale Pillars Act as Memory Foam Departments

46 Multi-Purpose, Flexible Wing Structure for Small Unmanned 14 Q&A

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50 System Selectively Sequesters Toxins from Water Special Section

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54 Sublimable Propellant Source for Iodine-Fed Ion Propulsion

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