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NASA NTRS2003

Advanced Data Acquisition Systems

Current and future requirements of the aerospace sensors and transducers field make it necessary for the design and development of new data acquisition devices and instrumentation systems. New designs are sought to incorporate self-health, self-calibrating, self-repair capabilities, allowing greater measurement reliability and extended calibration cycles. With the addition of power management schemes, state-of-the-art data acquisition systems allow data to be processed and presented to the users with increased efficiency and accuracy. The design architecture presented in this paper displays an innovative approach to data acquisition systems. The design incorporates: electronic health self-check, device/system self-calibration, electronics and function self-repair, failure detection and prediction, and power management (reduced power consumption). These requirements are driven by the aerospace industry need to reduce operations and maintenance costs, to accelerate processing time and to provide reliable hardware with minimum costs. The project's design architecture incorporates some commercially available components identified during the market research investigation like: Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) Programmable Analog Integrated Circuits (PAC IC) and Field Programmable Analog Arrays (FPAA); Digital Signal Processing (DSP) electronic/system control and investigation of specific characteristics found in technologies like: Electronic Component Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF); and Radiation Hardened Component Availability. There are three main sections discussed in the design architecture presented in this document. They are the following: (a) Analog Signal Module Section, (b) Digital Signal/Control Module Section and (c) Power Management Module Section. These sections are discussed in detail in the following pages. This approach to data acquisition systems has resulted in the assignment of patent rights to Kennedy Space Center under U.S. patent # 6,462,684. Furthermore, NASA KSC commercialization office has issued licensing rights to Circuit Avenue Netrepreneurs, LLC , a minority-owned business founded in 1999 located in Camden, NJ.

Perotti, J.↗

DOE OSTI2014

Field emission properties of ZnO nanosheet arrays

Electron emission properties of electrodeposited ZnO nanosheet arrays grown on Indium tin oxide coated glass substrates have been studied. Influence of oxygen vacancies on electronic structures and field emission properties of ZnO nanosheets are investigated using density functional theory. The oxygen vacancies produce unshared d electrons which form an impurity energy state; this causes shifting of Fermi level towards the vacuum, and so the barrier energy for electron extraction reduces. The ZnO nanosheet arrays exhibit a low turn-on field of 2.4 V/μm at 0.1 μA/cm{sup 2} and current density of 50.1 μA/cm{sup 2} at an applied field of 6.4 V/μm with field enhancement factor, β = 5812 and good field emission current stability. The nanosheet arrays grown by a facile electrodeposition process have great potential as robust high performance vertical structure electron emitters for future flat panel displays and vacuum electronic device applications.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2017

Simultaneous control of magnetic topologies for reconfigurable vortex arrays

The topological spin textures in magnetic vortices in confined magnetic elements offer a platform for understanding the fundamental physics of nanoscale spin behavior and the potential of harnessing their unique spin structures for advanced magnetic technologies. For magnetic vortices to be practical, an effective reconfigurability of the two topologies of magnetic vortices, that is, the circularity and the polarity, is an essential prerequisite. The reconfiguration issue is highly relevant to the question of whether both circularity and polarity are reliably and efficiently controllable. In this work, we report the first direct observation of simultaneous control of both circularity and polarity by the sole application of an in-plane magnetic field to arrays of asymmetrically shaped permalloy disks. Our investigation demonstrates that a high degree of reliability for control of both topologies can be achieved by tailoring the geometry of the disk arrays. We also propose a new approach to control the vortex structures by manipulating the effect of the stray field on the dynamics of vortex creation. The current study is expected to facilitate complete and effective reconfiguration of magnetic vortex structures, thereby enhancing the prospects for technological applications of magnetic vortices.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

NASA NTRS1988

Evaluation of the characteristics of a field emission cathode for use in a Mercury ion trap frequency standard

The performance is reported of a field emission array characterized for the purpose of replacing the filament in a trapped ion frequency standard. This dark electron emitter eliminates the need for the interference filter currently used in the trapped ion standard. While reducing the filament's unwanted light, this filter causes a significant reduction in the signal. The magnetic field associated with the filament is also eliminated, thus potentially improving the present stability of the trapped ion standard. The operation of the filament in the present system is described, as well as the associated concerns. The cathode considered for the filament's replacement is then described along with the experimental system. Experimental results, observations, and conclusions are presented.

Christman, J. M.↗

DOE OSTI2018

The Mochi LabJet Experiment for Measurements of Canonical Helicity Injection in a Laboratory Astrophysical Jet

The Mochi device is a new pulsed power plasma experiment designed to produce long, collimated, stable, magnetized plasma jets when set up in the LabJet configuration. The LabJet configuration aims to simulate an astrophysical jet in the laboratory by mimicking an accretion disk threaded by a poloidal magnetic field with concentric planar electrodes in front of a solenoidal coil. The unique setup consists of three electrodes, each with azimuthally symmetric gas slits. Two of the electrodes are biased independently with respect to the third electrode to control the radial electric field profile across the poloidal bias magnetic field. This design approximates a shear azimuthal rotation profile in an accretion disk. The azimuthally symmetric gas slits provide a continuously symmetric mass source at the footpoint of the plasma jet, so any azimuthal rotation of the plasma jet is not hindered by a discrete number of gas holes. The initial set of diagnostics consists of current Rogowski coils, voltage probes, magnetic field probe arrays, an interferometer and ion Doppler spectroscopy, supplemented by a fast ion gauge and a retarding grid energy analyzer. The measured parameters of the first plasmas are ~10 22 m -3 , ~0.4 T, and 5–25 eV, with velocities of ~20–80 km s -1 . Finally, the combination of a controllable electric field profile, a flared poloidal magnetic field, and azimuthally symmetric mass sources in the experiment successfully produces short-lived (~10 μs, ≳5 Alfvén times) collimated magnetic jets with a ~10:1 aspect ratio and long-lived (~100 μs, ≳40 Alfvén times) flow-stabilized, collimated, magnetic jets with a ~30:1 aspect ratio.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2014

Physiologically gated microbeam radiation using a field emission x-ray source array

Purpose: Microbeam radiation therapy (MRT) uses narrow planes of high dose radiation beams to treat cancerous tumors. This experimental therapy method based on synchrotron radiation has been shown to spare normal tissue at up to 1000 Gy of peak entrance dose while still being effective in tumor eradication and extending the lifetime of tumor-bearing small animal models. Motion during treatment can lead to significant movement of microbeam positions resulting in broader beam width and lower peak to valley dose ratio (PVDR), which reduces the effectiveness of MRT. Recently, the authors have demonstrated the feasibility of generating microbeam radiation for small animal treatment using a carbon nanotube (CNT) x-ray source array. The purpose of this study is to incorporate physiological gating to the CNT microbeam irradiator to minimize motion-induced microbeam blurring. Methods: The CNT field emission x-ray source array with a narrow line focal track was operated at 160 kVp. The x-ray radiation was collimated to a single 280 μm wide microbeam at entrance. The microbeam beam pattern was recorded using EBT2 Gafchromic{sup ©} films. For the feasibility study, a strip of EBT2 film was attached to an oscillating mechanical phantom mimicking mouse chest respiratory motion. The servo arm was put against a pressure sensor to monitor the motion. The film was irradiated with three microbeams under gated and nongated conditions and the full width at half maximums and PVDRs were compared. An in vivo study was also performed with adult male athymic mice. The liver was chosen as the target organ for proof of concept due to its large motion during respiration compared to other organs. The mouse was immobilized in a specialized mouse bed and anesthetized using isoflurane. A pressure sensor was attached to a mouse's chest to monitor its respiration. The output signal triggered the electron extraction voltage of the field emission source such that x-ray was generated only during a portion of the mouse respiratory cycle when there was minimum motion. Parallel planes of microbeams with 12.4 Gy/plane dose and 900 μm pitch were delivered. The microbeam profiles with and without gating were analyzed using γ-H2Ax immunofluorescence staining. Results: The phantom study showed that the respiratory motion caused a 50% drop in PVDR from 11.5 when there is no motion to 5.4, whereas there was only a 5.5% decrease in PVDR for gated irradiation compared to the no motion case. In thein vivo study, the histology result showed gating increased PVDR by a factor of 2.4 compared to the nongated case, similar to the result from the phantom study. The full width at tenth maximum of the microbeam decreased by 40% in gating in vivo and close to 38% with phantom studies. Conclusions: The CNT field emission x-ray source array can be synchronized to physiological signals for gated delivery of x-ray radiation to minimize motion-induced beam blurring. Gated MRT reduces valley dose between lines during long-time radiation of a moving object. The technique allows for more precise MRT treatments and makes the CNT MRT device practical for extended treatment.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1993

Near-IR imaging of moderate redshift galaxy clusters

We have obtained near-IR imaging of 3 moderate-z clusters on the 1.3 m at KPNO with SQIID, a new camera offering wide-field (5.5 arcmin) simultaneous JHK band imaging. Our photometry on a sample of approximately 100 likely member galaxies in one of the clusters, Abell 370 at z = 0.37, shows that we can obtain magnitudes good to 20 percent down to K = 18, considerably below the estimated K* = 16.5 at this redshift. These data indicate that there are no systematic problems in obtaining photometry at faint levels with SQIID. With the development of larger arrays, the field is open to progress. The resulting J, H, and K data for three clusters are combined with previously obtained multiband optical photometry. We present an investigation of the spectral properties and evolution of the dominant cold stellar populations by comparing optical-to-IR colors and color-magnitude diagrams to predictions from population synthesis models and galaxy spectral evolution codes.

Stanford, S. A.↗

DOE OSTI2024

Reconstructing Richtmyer–Meshkov instabilities from noisy radiographs using low dimensional features and attention-based neural networks

We develop an ML-based approach for density reconstruction based on transformer neural networks. This approach is demonstrated in the setting of ICF-like double shell hydrodynamic simulations wherein the parameters related to material properties and initial conditions are varied. The new method can robustly recover the complex topologies given by the Richtmyer-Meshkoff instability (RMI) from a sequence of hydrodynamic features derived from radiographic images corrupted with blur, scatter, and noise. A noise model is developed to characterize errors in extracting features from synthetic radiographs of the simulated density field. The key component of the network is a transformer encoder that acts on a sequence of features extracted from noisy radiographs. This encoder includes numerous self-attention layers that act to learn temporal dependencies in the input sequences and increase the expressiveness of the model. This approach is shown to exhibit an excellent ability to accurately recover the RMI growth rates, despite the gas-metal interface being greatly obscured by radiographic noise. Our approach can be applied in a broad array of fields involving shock physics and material science.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2022

Photovoltaic module antireflection coating degradation survey using color microscopy and spectral reflectance

Abstract Commercial antireflective coatings (ARCs) on photovoltaic (PV) module glass can improve module power by 2.5%–3.0%, but their long‐term field performance requires additional study. In this paper, we investigate ARC performance on fielded modules using two nondestructive techniques: reflectance spectroscopy and RGB microscopy, finding a large variation in coating durability and performance. For new coatings, the fleet average nominal power enhancement is 2.8%. This power enhancement is observed to degrade at approximately −0.05%/year absolute over the first 8 years of fielding in arrays that are not regularly cleaned. Interferometry and imaging results imply that coating loss for these modules is due to slow chemical thinning of the initial 125 nm thick coating by 1.4 to 5.0 nm/year. Due to the physics of interference coatings, the performance loss is projected to accelerate as the coating is further thinned, resulting in a coating lifetime (time to 80% of initial performance) of 7.5 to 25 years. At the higher 5.0 nm/year coating loss rates, we estimate that −0.14%/year power degradation of the module can be attributed solely to ARC degradation over the first 20 years. Extreme coating loss is observed on some modules where after 8 years fielding, the coating can be completely removed with a single wet wipe with a lens tissue. A case study is also presented comparing ARC and noncoated modules installed at a single site in 2013. We find that the ARC modules have a 2.6% higher soiling power loss than the noncoated modules; this exceeds the ARC power enhancement of 2.4% and leads to the surprising conclusion that the ARC lowers production for modules in this location due to increased soiling. These results demonstrate that RGB microscopy is a powerful, field‐capable, and quantitative characterization technique for assessing degradation of PV module ARCs.

Karin, Todd↗

DOE OSTI2018

Study of Plasma Flow Modes in Imploding Nested Arrays

Results from experimental studies of implosion of nested wire and fiber arrays at currents of up to 4 МА at the Angara-5-1 facility are presented. Depending on the ratio between the radii of the inner and outer arrays, different modes of the plasma flow in the space between the inner and outer arrays were implemented: the sub-Alfvénic (V{sub r} < V{sub А}) and super-Alfvénic (V{sub r} > V{sub А}) modes and a mode with the formation of the transition shock wave (SW) region between the cascades. By varying the material of the outer array (tungsten wires or kapron fibers), it is shown that the plasma flow mode between the inner and outer arrays depends on the ratio between the plasma production rates ṁ{sub in} /ṁ{sub out} in the inner and outer arrays. The obtained experimental results are compared with the results of one-dimensional MHD simulation of the plasma flow between the arrays. Stable implosion of the inner array plasma was observed in experiments with combined nested arrays consisting of a fiber outer array and a tungsten inner array. The growth rates of magnetic Rayleigh−Taylor (MRT) instability in the inner array plasma at different numbers of fibers in the outer array and different ratios between the radii of the inner and outer arrays are compared. Suppression of MRT instability during the implosion of the inner array plasma results in the formation of a stable compact Z-pinch and generation of a soft X-ray pulse. A possible scenario of interaction between the plasmas of the inner and outer arrays is offered. The stability of the inner array plasma in the stage of final compression depends on the character of interaction of plasma jets from the outer array with the magnetic field of the inner array.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2021

The HETDEX Instrumentation: Hobby–Eberly Telescope Wide-field Upgrade and VIRUS

The Hobby–Eberly Telescope (HET) Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) is undertaking a blind wide-field low-resolution spectroscopic survey of 540 deg 2 of sky to identify and derive redshifts for a million Ly α -emitting galaxies in the redshift range 1.9 < z < 3.5. The ultimate goal is to measure the expansion rate of the universe at this epoch, to sharply constrain cosmological parameters and thus the nature of dark energy. A major multiyear Wide-Field Upgrade (WFU) of the HET was completed in 2016 that substantially increased the field of view to 22' diameter and the pupil to 10 m, by replacing the optical corrector, tracker, and Prime Focus Instrument Package and by developing a new telescope control system. The new, wide-field HET now feeds the Visible Integral-field Replicable Unit Spectrograph (VIRUS), a new low-resolution integral-field spectrograph (LRS2), and the Habitable Zone Planet Finder, a precision near-infrared radial velocity spectrograph. VIRUS consists of 156 identical spectrographs fed by almost 35,000 fibers in 78 integral-field units arrayed at the focus of the upgraded HET. VIRUS operates in a bandpass of 3500–5500 Å with resolving power R ≃ 800. VIRUS is the first example of large-scale replication applied to instrumentation in optical astronomy to achieve spectroscopic surveys of very large areas of sky. This paper presents technical details of the HET WFU and VIRUS, as flowed down from the HETDEX science requirements, along with experience from commissioning this major telescope upgrade and the innovative instrumentation suite for HETDEX.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2016

A high performance cost-effective digital complex correlator for an X-band polarimetry survey

The detailed knowledge of the Milky Way radio emission is important to characterize galactic foregrounds masking extragalactic and cosmological signals. The update of the global sky models describing radio emissions over a very large spectral band requires high sensitivity experiments capable of observing large sky areas with long integration times. Here, we present the design of a new 10 GHz (X-band) polarimeter digital backend to map the polarization components of the galactic synchrotron radiation field of the Northern Hemisphere sky. The design follows the digital processing trends in radio astronomy and implements a large bandwidth (1 GHz) digital complex cross-correlator to extract the Stokes parameters of the incoming synchrotron radiation field. The hardware constraints cover the implemented VLSI hardware description language code and the preliminary results. The implementation is based on the simultaneous digitized acquisition of the Cartesian components of the two linear receiver polarization channels. The design strategy involves a double data rate acquisition of the ADC interleaved parallel bus, and field programmable gate array device programming at the register transfer mode. The digital core of the back-end is capable of processing 32 Gbps and is built around an Altera field programmable gate array clocked at 250 MHz, 1 GSps analog to digital converters and a clock generator. The control of the field programmable gate array internal signal delays and a convenient use of its phase locked loops provide the timing requirements to achieve the target bandwidths and sensitivity. This solution is convenient for radio astronomy experiments requiring large bandwidth, high functionality, high volume availability and low cost. Of particular interest, this correlator was developed for the Galactic Emission Mapping project and is suitable for large sky area polarization continuum surveys. The solutions may also be adapted to be used at signal processing subsystem levels for large projects like the square kilometer array testbeds.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2015

WE-AB-BRB-04: A Novel Monolithic Silicon 2D Detector Array for Use in Stereotactic Applications

Purpose: To assess the capability of a novel 2D monolithic silicon detector array in measuring stereotactic photon fields. Methods: The silicon array detector used in this work, named Magic Plate-512 (MP512), is a thin monolithic silicon wafer (52 × 52 × 0.47 mm{sup 3}) with 512 ion-implanted diodes (0.5 × 0.5 mm{sup 2}). Adjacent pixels are spaced evenly with 2 mm pitch, covering a maximum detection area 46 mm wide. Its fast, FPGA based read-out system is synchronised with the linac to allow readout of all pixels pulse-by-pulse. A clinical SABR lung plan (consisting of 9 single segment beams, 6MV) was measured with the array at 1.5 cm depth in a solid water phantom (100 cm SSD). The typical field size was in the range of 3 × 3 cm{sup 2} to 4 × 4 cm{sup 2}. Each beam was delivered at perpendicular incidence to the detector plane so as to avoid the need for angular dependence corrections. The fields were measured under the same conditions using Gafchromic EBT3 film for comparison. The film was scanned at 72 dpi resolution, with the red channel data used for analysis. Results: Average gamma passing rates of (92.3 ± 1.8) % for 2%/2mm criteria, and (86.6 ± 2.3) % for 1%/2mm criteria were achieved for MP512, using EBT3 film as the reference distribution. The detector array was able to accurately measure the full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM), to within (0.77 ± 0.01) mm accuracy when compared to film. The penumbral widths (80%-20%) were measured to within (0.30 ± 0.01) mm accuracy to film. Conclusion: The MP512 is a feasible option for measurement of stereotactic photon fields, with its high density of detection points making it useful for small field applications. The prototype array has demonstrated merit; in the future the development of a larger array detection area would be beneficial for clinical applications.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2018

A Facile Approach to Improve Interchain Packing Order and Charge Mobilities by Self‐Assembly of Conjugated Polymers on Water

Abstract Development of facile and economic approaches for assembling organic semiconductors into more ordered structures toward high charge mobilities is highly demanding for the fabrication of organic circuits. Here a simple and facile approach is reported to prepare conjugated polymer thin films with improved crystallinities and charge mobilities by self‐assembling semiconducting polymers on water. The formation of polymer thin films with more ordered structures is attributed to coffee ring effect induced by solvent‐evaporation on water, and the hydrophobic nature of conjugated polymers that forces the polymer chains to pack densely and orderly on water surface. This approach is applicable to typical semiconducting polymers, and charge mobilities of their thin films are boosted remarkably. Finally, this new method can be utilized to easily fabricate the array of field‐effect transistors with high charge mobilities in an economic way.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2015

An improved understanding of the natural resonances of moonpools contained within floating rigid-bodies: Theory and application to oscillating water column devices

The fundamental interactions between waves, a floating rigid-body, and a moonpool that is selectively open to atmosphere or enclosed to purposefully induce pressure fluctuations are investigated. The moonpool hydrodynamic characteristics and the hydrodynamic coupling to the rigid-body are derived implicitly through reciprocity relations on an array of field points. By modeling the free surface of the moonpool in this manner, an explicit hydrodynamic coupling term is included in the equations of motion. This coupling results in the migration of the moonpool's natural resonance frequency from the piston frequency to a new frequency when enclosed in a floating rigid-body. Two geometries that highlight distinct aspects of marine vessels and oscillating water column (OWC) renewable energy devices are analyzed to reveal the coupled natural resonance migration. The power performance of these two OWCs in regular waves is also investigated. The air chamber is enclosed and a three-dimensional, linear, frequency domain performance model that links the rigid-body to the moonpool through a linear resistive control strategy is detailed. Furthermore, an analytic expression for the optimal linear resistive control values in regular waves is presented.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2015

Window-assisted nanosphere lithography for vacuum micro-nano-electronics

Development of vacuum micro-nano-electronics is quite important for combining the advantages of vacuum tubes and solid-state devices but limited by the prevailing fabricating techniques which are expensive, time consuming and low-throughput. In this work, window-assisted nanosphere lithography (NSL) technique was proposed and enabled the low-cost and high-efficiency fabrication of nanostructures for vacuum micro-nano-electronic devices, thus allowing potential applications in many areas. As a demonstration, we fabricated high-density field emitter arrays which can be used as cold cathodes in vacuum micro-nano-electronic devices by using the window-assisted NSL technique. The details of the fabricating process have been investigated. This work provided a new and feasible idea for fabricating nanostructure arrays for vacuum micro-nano-electronic devices, which would spawn the development of vacuum micro-nano-electronics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2018

Uncertainty Quantification Study of CTF for the OECD/NEA LWR Uncertainty Analysis in Modeling Benchmark

This work describes the results of a quantitative uncertainty analysis of the thermal-hydraulic subchannel code for nuclear engineering applications, Coolant Boiling in Rod Arrays-Three Field (COBRA-TF). CTF is used, which is a version of COBRA-TF developed in cooperation between the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors and North Carolina State University. Four steady-state cases from Phase II Exercise 3 of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency Light Water Reactor Uncertainty Analysis in Modeling (UAM) Benchmark are analyzed using the statistical analysis tool, Design Analysis Kit for Optimization and Terascale Applications (Dakota). The input parameters include boundary condition, geometry, and modeling uncertainties, which are selected using a sensitivity study and then defined based on expert judgment. Here, a forward uncertainty quantification method with Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) is used, where the sample size is based on available computational resources.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2015

Three-Dimensional Event Localization in Bulk Scintillator Crystals Using Optical Coded Apertures

Scintillator-based detectors are among the most commonly used methods for detecting ionizing radiation. Scintillators provide a reliable, cost-effective, and simple way to make large-volume detectors. Furthermore, localizing the position of the interactions in three dimensions within the crystals is useful to a wide array of fields. The most straightforward way of doing this is to pair the crystal with a position-sensitive phototransducer (PT). This allows for measurement of the shape of the light spot at the PT plane. Using this information, various methods exist to localize the gamma-ray interaction in the crystal; however, the position resolution worsens the farther the event occurs from the PT plane. To improve on the localization ability, this work uses an optical coded-aperture shadow mask between the crystal and the PT. In addition, the recorded detector response is used in reconstructing the event over the entire depth of the crystal, and the “sharpest” reconstructed image gives an event's depth. The lateral position is given from the standard coded-aperture image reconstruction. Lastly, experimental results obtained by emulating a 26-mm-thick crystal using a thin 1-mm-thick NaI(Tl) crystal and different amounts of light pipe between the crystal and the PT plane achieved ~ 1 to 2-mm resolution in all three dimensions throughout most of the 26-mm-thick crystal.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗