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

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At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Exploring the Use of Flexible Circuit Boards to the Increase Power Density of a Rotary Triboelectric Nanogenerator

EExpansion on previous triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) research that investigated a freestanding rotary TENG. The previous prototype used a single printed circuit board (PCB) stator with exposed copper electrodes and an arcylic rotor with vinyl-cut fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) wedges. The second generation prototype again used a PCB stator but used a flexible PCB rotor consisting of alternating polyamide and copper wedges. This prototype was assembled in a stacked configuration, with the intent of increasing current output. Results indicated that the internal resistance of the prototype was decreased, allowing for higher current output. However, degradation of the power output was observed, which led to decay testing of the prototypes. To overcome charge decay, a self-exciting design is suggested as further work.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Epoxy / Silicone Potting Material Removal for Greater Recovery of Circuit Boards

This report documents an exploratory research project, “Epoxy/Silicone Potting Material Removal for Greater Recovery of Circuit Boards,” that investigated micro abrasion and laser ablation as potential cost effective methods for removal of epoxy and silicone potting material from printed circuit boards (PCBs) to expose components for testing and repair. The ability to cost effectively remove such PCB potting materials will improve PCB repair, remanufacture, and reuse opportunities with potential for sizable reductions in material use, E-waste, and energy. Laser ablation was identified as a method potentially warranting further investigation, in particular for epoxy based potting materials.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NASA NTRS1973

Space shuttle main engine controller assembly, phase C-D

System design and system analysis and simulation are slightly behind schedule, while design verification testing has improved. Input/output circuit design has improved, but digital computer unit (DCU) and mechanical design continue to lag. Part procurement was impacted by delays in printed circuit board, assembly drawing releases. These are the result of problems in generating suitable printed circuit artwork for the very complex and high density multilayer boards.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1973

Printed wiring board system programmer's manual

The printed wiring board system provides automated techniques for the design of printed circuit boards and hybrid circuit boards. The system consists of four programs: (1) the preprocessor program combines user supplied data and pre-defined library data to produce the detailed circuit description data; (2) the placement program assigns circuit components to specific areas of the board in a manner that optimizes the total interconnection length of the circuit; (3) the organizer program assigns pin interconnections to specific board levels and determines the optimal order in which the router program should attempt to layout the paths connecting the pins; and (4) the router program determines the wire paths which are to be used to connect each input pin pair on the circuit board. This document is intended to serve as a programmer's reference manual for the printed wiring board system. A detailed description of the internal logic and flow of the printed wiring board programs is included.

Brinkerhoff, C. D.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Radio frequency mixing modules for superconducting qubit room temperature control systems

As the number of qubits in nascent quantum processing units increases, the connectorized RF (radio frequency) analog circuits used in first generation experiments become exceedingly complex. The physical size, cost, and electrical failure rate all become limiting factors in the extensibility of control systems. We have developed a series of compact RF mixing boards to address this challenge by integrating I/Q quadrature mixing, intermediate frequency/LO (local oscillator)/RF power level adjustments, and direct current bias fine tuning on a 40 × 80 mm 2 four-layer printed circuit board with electromagnetic interference shielding. The RF mixing module is designed to work with RF and LO frequencies between 2.5 and 8.5 GHz. The typical image rejection and adjacent channel isolation are measured to be ~27 dBc and ~50 dB. By scanning the drive phase in a loopback test, the module short-term amplitude and phase linearity are typically measured to be 5 ×10 -4 (V pp /V mean ) and 1 ×10 -3 radian (pk-pk). The operation of the RF mixing board was validated by integrating it into the room temperature control system of a superconducting quantum processor and executing randomized benchmarking characterization of single and two qubit gates. We measured a single-qubit process infidelity of 9.3(3) × 10 -4 and a two-qubit process infidelity of 2.7(1) × 10 -2 .

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Investigation of a Multi-Rotor Triboelectric Nanogenerator Using a Modular Flexible Circuit Board Stack

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are a nascent class of energy harvester that are being explored for scavenging energy from small ocean waves. To date, they have been integrated in wave energy converters (WECs) designed to capture random motion caused by the perturbations of the ocean surface. Blue economy applications such as ocean observation can benefit greatly from more substantial wave-derived power, as such, the power output of existing TENG WECs must be increased several-fold to become viable. This study describes the conceptualization of a rotary TENG, and the subsequent efforts to increase its power output by stacking multiple stator and rotor pairs. In the latter part of this study, we introduce a novel means of incorporating a friction element into the design of the TENG by employing flexible printed circuit board (PCB) rotors. At rest, these flexible rotors will contact the stator, building static charges due to friction, at speed, these flexible rotors will be decoupled from the stator, reducing friction and allowing faster rotation. Initial results indicate that the power output of the flexible PCB rotor does not produce more power than a rigid, acrylic disk rotor, however the current output of the prototype is boosted, and the prototype is far more compact, allowing for a higher energy density than the rigid rotor prototype.

bench testing↗
NASA NTRS1972

Improved electrical spot terminals

Improved electrical spot terminal has been developed which can be rigidly attached to terminal mounting board. Mounting board is bonded to epoxy board which in turn is bonded to printed circuit board with high temperature adhesive. Conductive lead is coupled between electrical terminal and circuit trace on circuit board. Shape is usually clover-leaf.

Baker, C. D.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Economic analysis of precious metal recovery from electronic waste through gas-assisted microflow extraction

The recycling of end-of-life (EoL) electronic products is motivated by the enormous investment of resources in their creation and the environmental concerns associated with electronic waste (e-waste). Hydrometallurgical methods that utilize conventional leaching and solvent extraction are often applied to extract target materials from e-waste; however, these techniques have significant technical and economic limitations when extracting high-value, low concentration metals from complex waste streams. This study proposes and evaluates a novel process based on gas-assisted microflow extraction (GAME) that efficiently recovers precious metals from waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs). Further, an economic analysis is conducted to verify the economic feasibility of the GAME-based process at an industrial scale. The economic outputs are further investigated to identify the most cost-effective production strategies, particularly with respect to the plant feedstock rate. It is envisioned that this study may establish a paradigm for making economically-informed decisions for sustainable technologies.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Flexible PCB Windings Size Optimization for Winding AC Resistance Minimization Under the Sinusoidal Voltage Regime

In this paper, optimization of the winding AC resistance of the flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) wire windings is performed. A one-dimensional model of the FPCB winding is introduced and an equation for the FPCB winding AC resistance and its low and medium frequency approximation are derived. The approximate FPCB winding AC resistance equation is used to derive optimum thickness of the FPCB winding conductor thickness at which minimum of winding AC resistance (global optimum) is achieved. The Finite Element Method analysis and experimental verification of derived equations (winding resistance, impedance, power loss, and temperature measurements) is performed in order validate derived model and winding resistance equation.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Detecting Hardware Trojans in PCBs Using Side Channel Loopbacks

Malicious modifications to printed circuit boards (PCBs) are known as hardware Trojans. These may arise when malafide third parties alter PCBs premanufacturing or postmanufacturing and are a concern in safety-critical applications, such as industrial control systems. In this research, we examine how data-driven detection can be utilized to detect such Trojans at run-time. We develop a flexible and reconfigurable PCB test bed derived from the popular open-source programmable logic controller (PLC) platform “OpenPLC.” We then develop a Trojan detection framework, which utilizes and analyzes multimodal side channels (e.g., timing, magnetic signals, power, and hardware performance counters). We consider defender-configurable input/output (I/O) loopback test, comparison with design-document baselines, and magnetometer-aided monitoring of system behavior under defender-chosen excitations. Our approach can extend to golden-free environments. Golden (known-good) versions of the PCBs are assumed not available, but design information, datasheets, and component-level data are available. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach on a range of Trojans instantiated in the test bed.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Intrinsic thermal interfacial resistance measurement in bonded metal–polymer foils

Heat conduction through bonded metal–polymer interfaces often limits the overall heat transfer in electronic packaging, batteries, and heat recovery systems. To design the thermal circuit in such systems, it is essential to measure the thermal interfacial resistance (TIR) across ~1 µm to 100 µm junctions. Previously reported TIR of metal–polymer junctions utilize ASTM E1530-based two-block systems that measure the TIR by applying pressure across the interface through external heating and cooling blocks. Here, we report a novel modification of the ASTM-E1530 technique that employs integrated heaters and sensors to provide an intrinsic TIR measurement of an adhesively bonded metal–polymer junction. We design the measurement technique using finite element simulations to either passively suppress or actively compensate the lateral heat diffusion through the polymer, which can minimize the systematic error to ≲5%. Through proof-of-concept experiments, we report the TIR of metal–polymer interfaces made from DuPont’s Pyralux double-side copper-clad laminates, commonly used in flexible printed circuit boards. Our TIR measurement errors are <10%. We highlight additional sources of errors due to non-idealities in the experiment and discuss possible ways to overcome them. Our measurement technique is also applicable to interfaces that are electrically insulating such as adhesively joined metal–metal junctions and sputter-coated or welded metal–polymer junctions. Altogether, the technique is capable of measuring TIR ≳10 –5 m 2 KW –1 in bonded metal–polymer foils and can be tailored for in situ measurements in flexible electronics, circuit packaging, and other hybrid metal–polymer systems.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
NASA NTRS2017

Spacecube V2.0 Micro Single Board Computer

A single board computer system radiation hardened for space flight includes a printed circuit board having a top side and bottom side; a reconfigurable field programmable gate array (FPGA) processor device disposed on the top side; a connector disposed on the top side; a plurality of peripheral components mounted on the bottom side; and wherein a size of the single board computer system is not greater than approximately 7 cm.times.7 cm.

Petrick, David J.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Boards having solderless interconnects

This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus related to printed circuit boards. In one aspect, a device includes a first board and a second board. The first board includes at least two pins defined at an end of the first board. The first pin and the second pin are positioned along a first line and parallel to the first line. The second board includes at least two slots defined at an end of the second board. The first slot and the second slot are positioned along a second line and are angled from the second line by about ±10° to 15°. Each of the pins in the first board is engaged with each of the slots in the second board and forms an electrical connection between the first pin and the first slot and the second pin and the second slot.

Wielandt, Stijn↗
NASA NTRS2013

Impedance Discontinuity Reduction Between High-Speed Differential Connectors and PCB Interfaces

High-speed serial communication (i.e., Gigabit Ethernet) requires differential transmission and controlled impedances. Impedance control is essential throughout cabling, connector, and circuit board construction. An impedance discontinuity arises at the interface of a high-speed quadrax and twinax connectors and the attached printed circuit board (PCB). This discontinuity usually is lower impedance since the relative dielectric constant of the board is higher (i.e., polyimide approx. = 4) than the connector (Teflon approx. = 2.25). The discontinuity can be observed in transmit or receive eye diagrams, and can reduce the effective link margin of serial data networks. High-speed serial data network transmission improvements can be made at the connector-to-board interfaces as well as improving differential via hole impedances. The impedance discontinuity was improved by 10 percent by drilling a 20-mil (approx. = 0.5-mm) hole in between the pin of a differential connector spaced 55 mils (approx. = 1.4 mm) apart as it is attached to the PCB. The effective dielectric constant of the board can be lowered by drilling holes into the board material between the differential lines in a quadrax or twinax connector attachment points. The differential impedance is inversely proportional to the square root of the relative dielectric constant. This increases the differential impedance and thus reduces the above described impedance discontinuity. The differential via hole impedance can also be increased in the same manner. This technique can be extended to multiple smaller drilled holes as well as tapered holes (i.e., big in the middle followed by smaller ones diagonally).

Navidi, Sal↗