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registered trademark of The Malhworks, Inc IBM and IBM techexptorer Hypermedia Browser are trademarks of IBM in fee United States and other countries and are used under license. All rights reserved 

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The miracles jscienceFor More Information Circle No. 515
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75 -

0, TECH BRIEFS May 2001 • Vol. 25 No. 5 

ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS FOR DESIGN & MANUFACTURING

20 Sixth Annual Product of 

the Year Awards 

21 NASA Announces Inventions of 

the Year 

22 InReview 

26 e-Engineering: An e-Merging Trend 

for Manufacturers 

32 Technologies of the Month 

72 Application Briefs

36 Special Coverage: Composites and 12 Commercial Technology Team 

Plastics 14 NASA Patents 

36 Polyorganosiloxanes for Coating Porous Ceramic Insulation 16 UpFront 

38 Polyorganosiloxane Waterproofing for Porous Ceramics 

39 Attachment of Small SiC Hoops to SC-Based Ceramics 18 Reader Forum 

and Composites 24 Who's Who at NASA 

40 Improved Polymeric Composite Materials for Dental Fillings

34 Commercialization Opportunities 42 Polymer/Metal Laminate for Heat-Pipe and Radiator 

Envelopes 44 Special Coverage Products: 

42 Hybrid Composite Structures Made From Composites & Plastics 

Polybenzoxazole Fibers

79 Advertisers Index 

ft 46 Test and Measurement 

46 A Mass-Spectrometer System for Detecting Gas Leaks 

48 Electronic Components and Systems 74 Web Sites 

48 Oscillator-Stability Analyzer Based on a Time-Tag 75 Products Counter 

50 Flexible Carrier-Signal-Tracking Loop for a Transponder 76 Software 

52 Simplified Construction of Conical Log-Spiral Antenna 77 Literature 

C54 Software 

54 Program for Evaluating Spacecraft Designs and Missions 

54 Programming Language for Automated SchedLn 

Planning 

54 Communication Software for Distributed Applic, 

Programs 

54 Software for Coordinating Multiple 

56 Program Creates Code to Parse Tex 

56 Program Crenn: H - 

58 Mechanics 

58 Micromachined Double Resoi:or 

60 Mechanical Breakaway Clutch

SPECI AL SIu I J J 1 II ' 

PHOTONICS la - 22a 

Photonics Tech Briefs 

Follows page 24 in selected editions only, 

6 wv.nasatech.com NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001 
!l±J

IAlgors interactive software demonstrations range in topics from What You Need to Know 

About PEA to Motion and Impact Using Algor s Mechanical Event Simulation vs. Motion 

Load Transfer" to illustrate how Alger software meets your engineering needs.

See how you'll get started with Algor's FEA 

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See our industry-leading Mechanical Event 

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What You See Is

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The images shown here 

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Find out about FEA within CAD for solid 

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Watch our engineers do FEA modeling in 

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an Ea5tern Time 

Watch Free, One-Hour, Live Software Demonstrations

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Join Algor weekly each Tuesday at 10 a.m. Eastern Time at www.eTechLearning.com to learn 

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InCAD products for doing FEA within CAD. Viewers can phone or e-mail questions to be answered 

by Algor engineers during the Webcast. Past demos are available on the same site on demand. 

Schedule a Customized Software Demo

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Call your Algor representative today at +1(412) 967 - 2700 to schedule your customized software demonstration at www. Tech Learnin.com. At your convenience, Algor engineers will 

demonstrate on Internet TV at your computer how our Finite Element Analysis and full 

Mechanical Event Simulation software and InCAD products for doing FEA within CAD provide

See how you'll do linear static stress with solutions to meet your engineering needs. composite elements, as in this model of a wing. 

Al Europe (UK): +44 (1784) 442 246 gor, A 150 Beta Drive, Pittsburgh, tsburgh, PA 15238-2932 USA JILL1R When Engineering California: *1(714) 564-0844 

E-mail: infoiulgor.com US Phone: +1(412) 967-2700 Has to be Right wa.i'TechLearrvng.com. www.algor.com . Fax: *1(412) 967-2781 www.teaincad.com . www.pipepak.com

!Autodesk. SOLID M PARAMETRIC 

Registered Developer MEMRER CORPORATION 

CADKLY Pro/PARTNERS

All trademarks may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners, 

For More Information Circle No. 596 or Visit www.nasatech.com/596
EnCapta TM software from Vistagy

Waltham, MA, extends the power of

CAD software by capturing ann

communicating non-geometric

design data. 

16 

The DlT5200TM differential measuring system 

from Kaman Instrumentation Operations, 

Colorado Springs. CO. uses inductive technology 

to make precise angular measurements in 

pointing and tracking, forward-looking infrared, 

image stabilization, vibration and jitter compensation, and other applications. The 

DIT-5200 and other new, innovative products 

are featured in the New on the Market section 

on page 75. 

I mage courtesy of Kaman Instrumentation 

Operations) 

Pertuiss otis .utli,,riza CCitt to plistocops tints tori tttsttt.tl or perstttt.il ust'.' lii' j oist cal 

personal use at speclic clietits, is granted Its .S.ssoctatrd Business Publications, provided that 

the flat fee of $3.00 per copy be paid directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (222 Rose 

Wood Dr., Danvers, MA 01923). For those organizations that have been granted a photocopy 

license by CCC. a separate system of payment has been arranged. The fee code for users of the 

Transactional Reporting Service is: ISSN 0143-319X194 $.00t. 00 

Contents continued 

62 Machinery/Automation 

62 Molten-Carbonate Oxidation of Solid Waste 

62 Water-Jet/Ultrasonic Removal and Real-Time 

Gauging of Paint 

65 Manufacturing/Fabrication 

65 Chemical Machining of Microscopic Holes and Grooves 

in Glass 

66 Hermetic Wafer Bonding by Use of Microwave Heating

69 Bio-Medical 

69 "Breathprint" Analysis of Microbial Communities 

69 Macroextraction for Purification of Nucleic Acids 

070 Physical Sciences 

70 Simple Fiber-Optic Coupling for Microsphere 

Resonators 

71 Surface Gratings for Optical Coupling With 

Microspheres 

This document was prepared tinder the p.-- hip of the National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration. Neither Associated Business Fuhitcatisiris Co.. Ltd. nor the United States laosernment nor any person acting on behalf of the United States Government assumes any liability resulting from the use of the information contained in this document, or warrants that 

such use will be free from privately owned rights, The U.S. Government does not endorse any 

commercial product, process, or activity identified in this publication.

Tbiflk Aiit cid( 

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Published by Associated Business Publications 

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Editor/Associate Pubhsher........................................................... ............ Linda L. Bell 

Associate Publisher, Photonics Tech Briefs ............................................... Linda Silver 

Editor, Market Focus Editions .............................................. .............. .... . Robert Clark 

Senior Editor/internet Editor ................................ ...................... .... .... . Jason C. Flynn 

Production Manager ......................................................................... Margery Koen 

Assistant Production Manager ....................................... ........ ..... ...... . John Iwanciw 

Art Director ........................................................................................... Lois Erlacher 

Production Artist ................................................................. Christopher Coleman 

Circulation Manager ..................................................... Hugh J. Dowling 

BRIEFS & SUPPORTING LITERATURE: Written and produced for NASA by 

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NASA: 

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Administration, Technology Transfer Division, Washington, DC: 

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10 For More Information Circle No. 402 NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001 
InfoStations RAID Controller Module is 

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(YNNEX Bui MIcRoPRoDucTscct9$AN
NASA's R&D efforts produce a robust supply of promising technologies with applications in many 

NASA industries. A key mechanism in identifying commercial applications for this technology is NASA's 

Commercial national network of commercial technology organizations. The network includes ten NASA field cenTechnology ters, six Regional Technology Transfer Centers (RTTC5), the National Technology Transfer Center 

Team (NTTC), business support organizations, and a full tie-in with the Federal Laboratory Consortium 

(FLC) for Technology Transfer. Call (609)667-7737 for the FLC coordinator in your area. 

NASA's Technology Sources NASA Program Offices 

If you need further information about new technologies presented in NASA Tech Briefs, At NASA Headquarters there are seven major 

request the Technical Support Package (TSP) indicated at the end of the brief. If a TSP is program offices that develop and oversee 

not available, the Commercial Technology Office at the NASA field center that sponsored technology projects of potential interest to 

the research can provide you with additional information and, if applicable, refer you to the industry. The street address for these strategic 

innovator(s). These centers are the source of all NASA-developed technology, business units is: NASA Headquarters, 300 F 

St. SW, Washington, DC 20546. 

Ames Research Goddard Space Johnson Space Langley Research Marshall Space 

Center Flight Center Center Center Flight Center Carl Ray Terry Hertz 

Selected tethno- Selected techno- Selected techno- Selected techno- Selected techno- Small Business Innovation Office at Aero-Space 

logical strengths: logical strengths: logical strengths: logical strengths: logical strengths: Research Program (SBIR) Technology (Code RS) 

Information Earth and Artificial Intelli- Aerodynamics; Materials; & Small Business (202) 358-4636 

Technology; Planetary Science gence and Flight Systems; Manufacturing; Technology Transfer therfz@mail.hq.nasa.gov

Biotechnology; Missions; LIDAR; Human Computer Materials; Nondestructive Program (STIR) 

Nanotechnology; Cryogenic Interface; Structures: Evaluation; (202) 358-4652 Glen Mucklow 

Aerospace Systems; Life Sciences; Sensors; Biotechnology; cray@mall.hq.nasa.gov Office of Space Sciences 

Operations Tracking; Human Space Measurements; Space Propulsion; (Code SM) 

Systems; Telemetry; Flight Operations; Information Controls and (202) 358-2235 

Rotorcraft; Remote Sensing; Avionics; Sciences. Dynamics; Dr. Robert Norwood gmucklow@mail. 

Thermal Command. Sensors; Sam Morello Structures; Office of Commercial hq.nas.a.gov

Protection George Alcorn Communications. (757) 864-6005 Microgravity Technology (Code RW) 

Systems. (301) 286-5810 Charlene E. Gilbert s.a,morelbo@ Processing. (202) 358-2320 Roger Crouch 

Cam/ma Blake galcorn@gsfc. (281) 483-0474 larc.nasa.gov Sally Little motwood@mail.hq. Office of Microgravity 

(650) 604-1754 nasa.gov d-ia'lene.e.gilbe,fl@ (256) 544-4266 nasa.gov Science Applications 

cblake@mail. jsc.nasa.gov John H. Glenn sally.little@msfc. (Code U) 

arc.nasa.gov Jet Propulsion Research Center nasa.gov (202) 358-0689 

Laboratory Kennedy Space at Lewis Field John Mankins rcrouch@hq.nasa.gov

Dryden Flight Selected techno- Center Selected tech no- Stennis Space Office of Space Flight 

Research Center logical strengths: Selected techno- logical strengths: Center (Code MP) Granville Paules 

Selected techno- Near/Deep-Space logical strengths; Aeropropulsion; Selected techno- (202) 358-4659 Office 01 Mission to Planet 

logical strengths: Mission Fluids and Fluid Communications; logical strengths: jmankins©mail. Earth (Code Y) 

Aerodynamics; Engineering; Systems; Mate- Energy Propulsion hq.nasa.gov (202) 358-0706 

Aeronautics Flight Microspacecraft; rials Evaluation; Technology; Systems; gpaules@me.hqnasagov

Testing; Space Process Engi- High Temperature Test/Monitoring; 

Aeropropulsion; Communications; neering; Corn- Materials Remote Sensing: 

Flight Systems: Information mand, Control Research. Nonmntrusive NASA's Business Facilitators 

Thermal Testing; Systems: and Monitor Larry Vitema Instrumentation. 

Integrated Remote Sensing; Systems; Range (216) 433-3484 Kirk Sharp NASA has established several organizations 

Systems Test and Robotics. Systems; Environ- cto@grc. (228) 688-1929 whose objectives are to establish joint sponValidation. Merle McKenzie mental Engi- nasa.gov kirk.shatp@ sored research agreements and incubate 

Jenny Baer- (818)354-2577 neering and ssc.nasa.gov small start-up companies with significant 

Riedhart merle.mckenzie@ Management. business promise. (661) 276-3689 jpl.nasa.gov Jim Abide rti 

jenny.baer- (321) 867-6224 

riedhart@dfrc. Jim Aliberti-1@ Wayne P. Zeman Thomas G. Rainey 

nasa.gov ksc.nasa.gov Lewis Incubator for NASA KSC Business 

Technology Incubation Center 

Cleveland, OH Titusville, FL 

(216) 586-3888 (407) 383-5200 

NASA-Sponsored Commercial Technology Organizations B. Greg Hinkebein Joanne W. Randolph 

These organizations were established to provide rapid access to NASA and other federal Mississippi Enterprise for BizTech 

R&D and foster collaboration between public and private sector organizations. They also Technology Huntsville, AL 

can direct you to the appropriate point of contact within the Federal Laboratory Consortium. Stennis Space (256) 704-6000 

To reach the Regional Technology Transfer Center nearest you, call (800) 472-6785. Center, MS

(800) 746-4699 ,Joe Becker 

Ames Technology 

Joseph Allen Dr. William Gasko Gary Sera Chris Coburn Julie Holland Commercialization Center 

National Technology Center for Technology Mid-Continent Technology Great Lakes Industrial NASA Commercialization San Jose, CA 

Transfer Center Commercialization Transfer Center Technology Transfer Center (408) 557-6700 

(800) 678-6882 Massachusetts Texas A&M University Center Pomona, CA 

Technology Park (409) 845-8762 Battelle Memorial (909) 869-4477 Marty Kaszubowski 

(508) 870-0042 Institute Hampton Roads 

Ken Dozier Lani S. Hummel (440) 734-0094 Bridgette Smalley Technology Incubator 

Far-West Technology J. Ronald Thornton Mid-Atlantic Technology UH-NASA Technology (Langley Research Center) Transfer Center Southern Technology Applications Center Commercialization Hampton, VA 

University of Southern Applications Center University of Pittsburgh Incubator (757) 865-2140 

California University of Florida (412) 383-2500 Houston, 'TX 

(213) 743-2353 (352) 294-7822 (713) 743-9155 

John Fini 

NASA ON-LINE: Go to NASA's Commercial Technology Network (CTN) on the World Wide Web at Goddard Space Flight 

http://nctn.hqnasa.gov to search NASA technology resources, find commercialization opportunities, Center Incubator

and learn about NASA's national network of programs, organizations, and services dedicated to tech- Baltimore, MD 

(410) 327-9150 x1034 nology transfer and commercialization. 

If you are interested in information, applications, and services relating to satellite and aerial data for Earth resources, contact: Dr. Stan Morain, Earth Analysis 

Center, (505) 277-3622. 

12 www.nasatech.com NASA Tech Briels, May 2001
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Configure Your 

Measurement 

System

sjP4emi 

Over the past three decades, NASA has granted more than 1000 patent licenses in virtually every area of

technology. The agensy has a portfolio of 3000 patents and pending applications available now

for license fry, businesses and individuals, including these recently patented inventions: 

DAQ Designer 2001 

NATIONAL 

INSTRUMENTS;

Optical Path Switching Based 

Differential Absorption 

Radiometry for Substance 

Detection 

(U.S. Patent No. 6,057,923) 

Inventor: Glen W. Sachse, Langley 

Research Center 

Gas filter correlation radiometers 

((;FCRs) infer the concentration of a 

gas species along some sample path 

either external or internal to the 

GFCR. In many of them, gas sensing is 

accomplished by viewing alternately 

through two optical cells the emission/absorption of the gas molecules 

along the sample path. These two cells 

are called the correlation and vacuum 

cells. However, there are instances 

where gas correlation cells are not practical. For example, some gases are too 

dangerous and/or require a construction that is too expensive for a particular application. And gas correlation 

cells are not useful for measuring spectral absorption characteristics of liquids 

or solids because these substances have 

broad absorption features. It is an 

object of the present system to 

detect/measure any type of substance 

in a nonmechanical optical fashion 

without the need for gas correlation 

cells. An optical path switch receives 

radiation passing along a measurement 

or sample path of interest. The switch 

divides the radiation into a time series 

of alternating first polarized components and second polarized components that are orthogonal to the first. Each of these groups 

is transmitted along a separate optical 

path, and each is filtered to isolate a 

first and second wavelength band, 

which are unique. Spectral absorption 

of a substance of interest is different at 

each wavelength band. A beam combiner disposed to receive the first and second filtered radiation combines same 

into one. A detector is disposed to monitor a portion of the combined beam 

alternately at the first wavelength band 

and the second as an indication of the 

concentration of the substance in the 

sample path.

Capacitive Extensometer 

Particularly Suited for 

Measuring In Vivo Bone 

Strain 

(U.S. Patent No. 6,059,784) 

Inventor: Gail P. Perusek, Glenn 

Research Center 

The ability of bone to form optimal 

structures to support loads and adapt 

structurally to changing loads is termed 

the "strain-adaptive remodeling response." It is thought that 1 to 2 Hz 

events during locomotion produce levels of strain on the order of 1000 to 

3000 microstrain and are osteogenic. 

Further, it has been proposed that higher-frequency events (15 to 25 Hz) of 

lower magnitude (100 to 250 Hz), possibly associated with muscular contraction to maintain posture, are of importance in maintaining bone mass. 

Removing this stimulus in environments such as those encountered during space flight will inhibit the process 

of bone deposition. It is well documented that bone loss is a physiologic effect 

of space flight. Thus, the accurate measurement of strain within this latter 

range of frequencies and amplitudes is 

important for understanding the relationships between mechanical loading 

and bone remodeling. This method is 

directed to an extensometer, and to the 

operation thereof, that measures intracortial pin displacement, from which 

strain is calculated, and from which 

principal strain magnitudes and directions, maximum shear strain, and 

strains due to bending may be calculated via strain transformation relationships and geometric parameters of the 

extensometers. The extensometer comprises at least two pins adapted to be 

inserted into the bone, and at least two 

capacitive sensors mounted across the 

pins and providing a variable capacitance whose output is varied by the 

strain to which the bone is subjected. In 

a preferred embodiment, six sensors 

are arranged into three pairs, with each 

pair being attached to a five-sided member and oriented to each of the other 

pairs by an angle of 120 degrees. 

NATIONAL 

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Tel: 5121 7940100 • nfo@ni.com For more information on the inventions described here, contact the appropriate NASA Field 

Centerc Commercial Technologe Office. See page 12 for a list of office contacts. 

For More Information Circle No. 403 NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
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[PRODUCTOF THE M ONTH j 

What's New On-Line 

M

any of our readers have asked for electronic access to NASA Tech Briefs 

for archiving and searching purposes. Later this year, we plan to offer 

the option to subscribe to a .PDF version of the magazine. Right now, you can 

download .PDF sample issues of NASA Tech Briefs, Photonics Tech Briefs, and 

Motion Control Tech Briefs, with links from articles and ads to relevant Web pages. 

We're also looking at new ways to shrink file sizes and make the .PDF issues 

quicker to download. Go to www.nasatech.com/pdfissues to download a sample. 

Let me know what you think of this service at linda@abptuf.org.

You Said "IT" 

I

n the March issue, I asked for 

your opinions on what "IT" is. 

Also known by the code name 

"Ginger," the invention of creator 

Dean Kamen has been receiving 

attention and much speculation 

from other well-known inventors. 

For example, Bob Metcalfe, 

founder of 3Com and creator of 

the Ethernet, has seen "IT" and 

claims that while it's not as important a technology as cold fusion, 

it is a bigger innovation than the 

Internet. Most guess that IT 

stands for "Individual Transport" 

and is powered by hydrogen 

instead of gasoline. Here's what 

some of you thought IT is: 

• "If IT is what I think IT is, IT is 

a powered scooter using alternate fuels like hydrogen. Not 

my idea of a revolutionary 

invention." -J.

 Palcher 

• "While on a business trip to 

British Columbia, the local 

paper had an article on the 

new car plant being built there 

for IT. IT was described as a 

small car for gated communities and the college campus. It 

would be electric powered, with 

a top speed of 30 mph, and not 

for general public roads. The 

picture of the prototype looked 

like an electrified 60s-era VW 

Beetle. Projected price would 

be $10,000 to 14,000." - N. 

Campagna 

• "IT stands for a marketing gimmick that's 'interesting and tantalizing.' Dean Kamen claims 

that everything he invents must 

he to help people have better 

lives. However, the onl y person 

who will benefit in a big way 

from IT is Dean Kamen. If he 

wanted to truly help people, he 

wotild come tip with an invention that would encourage people to exercise more, not less. 

He uses the technology he put 

into his $25,000 wheelchair to 

make a $10,000 gyro-balanced, 

one-wheel scooter that 500,000 

rich people can buy as a novelty item. Yeah, this really helps 

the human race." -J.

 Paris 

Correction 

[it our February 

2001 issue, the 

APpIIC ation Brief on 

Pl.X's mirror assemblies used on NASA's 

Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer 

page 22) featured 

an incorrect photo. 

The actual photo of 

the mirror assembly 

is pictured here. 

16 www.nasatu'ch.com NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
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Reader Forum 

Reader Forum is dedicated to the thoughts, concerns, questions, and comments of our readers. If you have a comment, a question regarding a technical problem, or an answer to a previously published question, post your letter to Reader Forum on-line at 

www.nasatech.com , or send to: Editor, NASA Tech Briefs, 317 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10017; Fax: 212-986-7864. 

Please include your name, company (if applicable), address, and e-mail address or phone number. 

I

just found an interesting article on your 

Web site called "Inflatable Fresnel 

Lenses as Concentrators for Solar Power" 

(March 1999 issue) from NASA's John 

Glenn Research Center. I would like more 

information on the current status of renewable energy programs in the US, as 

well as information on any groups that are 

dedicated specifically to supporting and 

investing in such devices. Thank you. 

Tim Starns 

tekton@montana.com

(Editor's Note: Tim, you can find out more 

about NASA Glenn's work in fresnel lenses 

and solarpowerfrv contacting Glenn Research 

Center's Commercial Technology Office at 

216-433-3484.) 

My inquiry concerns solvent recovery. 

Our company has an emission stream of 

isopropyl alcohol (IPA) in outgoing plant 

air that is routed into a thermal oxidizer

for almost total destruction. The thermal 

oxidizer runs on #2 fuel oil at 1400(F. Our 

aim is to cut down on fuel consumption 

while recovered IPA is recycled into our 

daily solvent extraction process. We emit 

280 pounds of IPA vapor per hour in 

5,000 SCFM of plant air. We want to recover as much liquid IPA from the vapor 

stream as possible. The thermal oxidizer 

will destroy whatever is unrecoverable. I 

would appreciate any advice on what 

process inay work. 

Paul G. Freeman 

freeman©cyburban.com

800-666-6454 

This is in response to a letter in the 

March 2001 Reader Forum from Carl 

Bertrand, who requested a SOUrCe for 

shaker tables that are capable of vibrating 

a full-sized van. Here at General Motors' 

Wentzville Assembly, we use a machine 

built by MTS Systems that simulates Sanous road conditions. This equipment may 

be what Mr. Bertrand is looking for. 

Lance Little 

lance.httle@gm.com

(Editor's Note: Thanks for your response, 

Lance. MTh Systems supplies mechanical testing, simulation, and analysis equipment, and is

located in Eden Prairie, MN. Tluy can be contacted at 952-937-4000, or at www.mts.com .) 

I ant researching piston loads and 

forces, using kinematic equations hacked 

up by analytical software. I require a mathematical formulation on piston skirt loads. 

The general equations found in engineering hooks are only approximate and do 

not delve deeply enough into the explicit 

nature of the "rocking effect." Any assistance would be appreciated. 

Stephen Golya 

sg(perft.('thore.(()ln 

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2000 Readers ru .. Jr:t the John Hancock 

Center in Chicago (left to right) Gregory Donahue of The MathWorks, Chuck 

Mitchell of SGI, Gold Award Winner Sue Priester of Computer Dynamics, Silver Award Winner Magnus Ringh of COMSOL Kimara Andreas of Network 

Technologies, and Geoffrey Rogers of IBM. (Photo by Michael Kardas)

tes their Gold Award. Marketing communications manager Sue Priester is flanked by (left) 

Andy Zuidema, regional sales manager, and Walter Kivett, senior 

applications engineer. (Photo by Michael Kardas) 

Sixth Annual Product 

of the Year Awards 

N

A&4 Tech Briefs 2000 Readers' Choice 

Product of the Year Awards were 

presented at a special reception in 

Chicago during the recent National Manufacturing Week show. Chosen by the 

200,000 readers of NASA Tech Briefs, the 

sixth annual awards recognized Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners, as well as nine 

Product of the Year finalists. All 12 nominees had earned Product of the Month 

honors during the year 2000. 

Each month, the editors of NASA Tech 

Briefs choose a Product of the Month 

that exhibits exceptional technical merit 

and practical value to our readers. In December, readers are asked to vote for the 

one product they feel represents the 

most innovative product introduced 

during the year to the engineering coinmunity. The product receiving the most 

votes wins the Gold award as is named 

Product of the Year. 

The 2000 Readers' Choice Product of 

the Year Gold winner was, for the first 

time in six years, not a software product. The Century-C/M series of enrloed fl,il-1iancl I iilllpIilcis and nioiiitors from Computer Dynamics of 

Greenville, SC, was the top product of 

last year. The award was accepted by 

Sue Priester, manager of marketing 

communications for Computer Dynamics (www.cdvnamics.com ). 

The Century-C/M monitors and computers feature an analog resistive touchscreen for operator input, and are available with or without a membrane

keypad. They come in four 

display sizes: 10.4" VGA, 

12.1" SVGA, 15" XGA, and 

18.1" SXGA. They feature 

Celeron CPUs to 500 MHi 

and include two RS-232 

ports, two RS-232/422 

ports, parallel port, mouse 

and keyboard/speakci 

connectors, a 6.4-Gb hard 

drive, and lO/lOOBasel 

Ethernet. The front displas 

unit also can be detach('

from the rear electroni 

unit. 

The Silver Award was pi (. 

sented to COMSOL of Burlington, MA (www.comsol. 

corn), for its FEMLAB 

multiphvsics modeling and analysis software that automates methods of parametric analysis and design optimization. 

The award was accepted by the company's vice president of sales. Magnus 

Ringh. The software runs on top of 

MATLAB technical computing software 

loiiii fhe \lttIi\Vork (Natick, MA), and 

an model virtuth y any physical 

phenomena with 

paitial differential 

equations, including heat transfer, 

fluid flow, electronagnetics, and 

trtictural mechanics. It's availd1e for most operating systems, 

and can import 

1)XF drawing files 

from CAD softstare. 

GUI Stack 

(ssivw.cuistack.com ) 

of Beaverton, OR, 

took the Bronze 

Award for the 

IESP and IESF 

Series miniature pressure sensors that 

use a proprietary material called Inastomer. The material provides elasticity 

and conductivity, allowing the sensors 

to continuousl y react to the degree of 

pressure applied. The Resin Molded 

Cover and Flexible Board sensors are 

used in clearance sensitivity, object 

contact, roll pressure, and fingertip 

contact pressure sensing. 

The following companies were 

honored as Product of the Year 

Finalists for 2000: 

• Agilent Technologies, Colorado 

Springs, CO, for the 54600 series of 

oscilloscopes (www.agilent.com ) 

• Autodesk, San Rafael, CA, for 

Autodesk Inventor Release 2 3D 

solid modeling software 

(www.autodesk.com ) 

• Capital Equipment Corp., Billerica, 

MA, for the web DAQ/1 00 

Web-based data acquisition device 

(www.cec488.com) 

• IBM Engineering Solutions, Dallas, 

TX, for CATIA Version 5 Release 4 

CAD/CAE software 

(www.ibm.com/catia)

• Labtec, Vancouver, WA, for the 

Spaceball 4000 FIX 3D motion 

controller/input device 

(www.labtec.com) 

• The MathWorks, Natick, MA, for 

Version 6 of MATLAB technical 

computing software 

(www.mathworks.com ) 

• Network Technologies, Aurora, OH, 

for the Universal Matrix KVM 

keyboard-video-mouse switches 

(www.ntil .com) 

• SGI, Huntsville, AL, for the ZxlO 

ViZual workstations (www.sgi.com ) 

• Xerox Engineering Systems, 

Stamford, CT, for the MAX 200 

wide-format digital document 

system (www.xerox.com ) 

20 www.nasatech.com NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
NASA Awards Inventions 

of the Year 

N

ASA has chosen an optical fiber 

stripping fixture and a hazardous waste conversion 

process as the top inventions of 

2000. Researchers from Goddard Space 

Flight Center have received the NASA 

Government Invention of the Year Award 

for the Optical Fiber Cable Chemical 

Stripping Fixture. NASA's Commercial 

Invention of the Year Award was given to 

a team from Kennedy Space Center for 

developing both a process and the equipment to convert hazardous waste into fertilizer. Although these products originated from NASA research centers, each 

has the ability to make an impact on a 

much wider range of industries. 

Chemical Treatment of Optical 

Fiber Cable 

In a typical fiber-optic system, one of 

the most difficult tasks is cutting and connecting cable so it is aligned precisely. 

Misalignment of even 1/10,000 of an 

inch can result in a 50% loss of transmission speed. But before a connector assembly can he attached to the terminated

- 

The delicate optical fiber cable is immersed in a 

solvent solution in order to remove the stripping. 

fiber, a certain portion of the coating 

must be removed or stripped from the 

glass fiber. 

Alexander Coleman and John Kola.sinski of NASA's Goddard Space flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, designed the Optical Fiber Cable Chemical Stripping 

Fixture - NASA's Government Invention 

of the Year - for stripping a fiber-optic 

cable chemicall y. The invention oilers

both the ability to remove a wide array of 

coatings, such as acrylate and polyimide 

coatings, and it offers precise control over 

the stripping length and resulting interface. This high degree of control helps 

eliminate damage to the fibers that can 

occur with other stripping methods. 

Common methods of removing stripping from optical fibers proved problematic. Older methods often used electrical 

wire-stripping techniques or were done 

by hand. Mechanical removal techniques 

caused nicks, scratches, and other damage to the fragile fibers. 

The fixture grips and perfectly aligns 

the fibers. It holds the jacketed glass 

fiber in a chemical solution for stripping 

of the coating layer. The fiber, with its 

inner and outer jackets trimmed away 

from its end, is threaded through the fixture's handle and body. The protruding 

end of the fiber is immersed in the stripping solution, which softens the coating 

for removal. 

The process was successfully used on 

a number of spacecraft, and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Solid State 

Recorder. Cables treated by the process 

are being used in aircraft produced by 

both Boeing and Lockheed Martin, as 

well as on the International Space Station and in other harsh environment 

applications. For more information on 

this invention, go to http://ich.nasa.gov/

10Y20001gsc13644. rtf 

Converting Hazardous Waste 

to Fertilizer 

NASA's Commercial Invention of the 

Year comes from a group of scientists and 

engineers from Kennedy Space Center 

(KSC) in Florida. Developed by Dr. Clyde 

Parrish, Dr. Dale Lueck, and Andrew 

Kelly of KSC, and Paul Gamble of Dynacs 

Engineering, the process converts hazardous rocket-fuel waste into a useful byproduct. 

The idea came from a Nay project Dr. 

Parrish had worked on 25 years ago, 

which found that an oxidizer used in battlefield illumination flares could serve as 

a fertilizer. Specifically, the process was 

created in response to an agency request 

to help reduce the hazardous waste 

stream being captured in a scrubber 

when a toxic oxidizer is transferred back 

and forth from storage tanks into the 

space shuttle's Orbital Maneuvering Subsystem (OMS) and Reaction Control System (RCS) pods. Since the shuttle's OMS

and RCS systems are used in a number of 

important orbital maneuvers, a tremendous amount of toxic nitrogen oxides 

were being produced. 

Ongoing tests proved that the new 

emissions control system could eliminate the current level of scrubber liquor 

waste and lower the nitrogen oxide emissions by one to two orders of magnitude. 

The new scrubber liquor starts with 1% 

hydrogen peroxide at a pH of 7, and automatically adds hydrogen peroxide to 

maintain the 1% concentration and 

potassium hydroxide as required to 

maintain a neutral pH. The result is the 

formation of a solution of potassium nitrate (fertilizer), which is beneficial to 

the citrus crops at KSC, where the 

process is tested. 

Researchers discovered that the new 

conversion technique eliminated tirs 

A scrubber socr trier grounds of Kennedy 

Space Center, where the hazardous materials are 

converted to fertilizer. A shuttle launch pad is 

visible in the distance. 

ond largest waste stream at KSC and provided a significant cost savings. Since 

then, the invention has been licensed to 

Phoenix Systems International (McDon- ald, OH), an engineering firm that develops technologies used in utility and fossil 

fuels. The United States Air Force also 

has expressed interest in establishing a 

version of the system at Cape Canaveral 

Air Force Station. 

Far more information, access the tech brief at 

http://www.nasatech.com/Briefs/Oct98/KSC

11884.html or visit http://dynacs.ksc.na.sa. 

tvs'/.Scnihher/, 

NASA's Government and Commercial Inventions of the Year are selected 

by NASA's General Counsel and supported by the agency's Inventions and 

Contributions Board (ICB). For a list of 

the winners and nominees for 2000, 

visit the lCB Web -site at: http://icb. 

nasa.gov/invention.html.

NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001 wwsenasatech.com 21
inreview Ix 

Algor 12: A New Face for Classic FEA 

Steven S. Ross 

There's a new face on man y of Algor's Windows packages: The finite element analysis (FEA) software company 

introduced a new user interface across 

its product line this winter. You can 

now bring up many commands with a 

right-click of the mouse, allowing you 

to modify and remove loads and 

constraints on your finite element 

analysis, whether you are using an Algor package for piping, steel beams, or 

anything else. 

The beauty is more than skin deep. 

Algor continues to make it easier to 

move designs into its analysis software 

with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of accuracy. 

Algor's InCAD-Plus product family - 

which creates finite element meshes inside standard CAD software - has expanded (there's now a complete version for Autodesk Inventor), and its 

own Superdraw package (now Superdraw III) has gotten easier to use. InCAD costs $975, no matter which version you use. You add it to your own 

GAD or solid modeling package. Rather 

than simply adding a few menu commands to the CAD package's interface, 

InCAD pops up with its own, consistent 

commands. In all cases, it can grab a 

GAD model while the model is still in 

memory. Generally, the InCAD package 

does not even have to reside on the 

rb p mill 

Welcome to the functional Superdraw Ill screen. 

Preparation for analysis and multiple views can 

be done from this command center. 

same computer as the GAD package 

that's authoring the model in the first 

place. Algor can open a model for viewing and analysis without the original 

GAD program being present. 

InAD add-ons capture the original 

part names from the CAD model. They

can model thin, solid parts such as vehicle skins or plate/shell elements by 

building an FEA mesh on the part's 

midplane, but you specify a thickness. 

Algor continues to be able to import 

"standard" CAD files such as IGES. 

DXF, CDL, STL, and ACIS, of course. 

One can sense from the releases of 

the past year that Algor has begun to 

emphasize an area of FEA that it has 

been a leader in - mechanical event 

simulation (MES). In "classical" FEA, 

you mathematically impose a load, and 

see what happens to your assembly or 

part. If yoti suspect that the results will 

he misleading because the behavior of 

the assembly or part will feed hack and 

affect the load, you break the event into 

small time steps. Each step is based on 

the load-and-deformation calculations 

of the step before it. 

This time step approach is common 

among all major FEA vendors. The trick 

is to find the right step interval. Most engineers seem to simply select a ver y small 

interval to minimize the chance that the 

calculations will diverge massively from 

reality. Besides, the calculations are performed quickly on modern computers, 

so the smaller the better, unless the expected motions are very large. Where 

motions are large, the tendency has 

been to use basic kinematics calculations 

to handle the motion, and then slam the 

finite element model to do a basically 

static finite element analysis. 

Algor's MES approach, in a sense, anticipated the needs that would be posed 

by the new class of design software. MES 

models motion, deformation, and stress 

(multiple stresses, actually) in a single 

pass. There's also a collection of "multiphysics" packages that allow modeling 

of, say, thermal and mechanical loads at 

the same time. The new interface improvements make it easier to set up an 

MES while minimizing input errors. 

Improvements are obvious in such 

areas as: 

• Defining load and constraint sets for 

various design and test (MES or plain 

FF.A) scenarios, so you can perform 

multiple tests on the same part with 

just a few keystrokes to change a variable. The FEA loads and constraints 

are nicely displayed - better than 

ever before.

The input screens for loads and constraints fully support Windows cutcopy-paste functions, so you can duplicate runs you've already made on 

another part or assembly. 

A tree view of model parts and associated data, which can be used to select individual parts and construct 

FEA "meshes" within them. You can 

also open multiple views of the same 

model on the screen. 

Surface-based constraint capabilities. 

You can apply certain loads and constraints such as boundary conditions 

to the entire surface instead of appl yai I —I 

The parts tree and analytical needs are all in the 

tree view at left. 

ing them one mesh node at a time. 

Also, you can select entire surfaces 

and parts from the tree view or by 

clicking on the model in any window. 

Need to do a complex analysis? FEA 

and MES are still not for amateurs. But 

the bar continues to get lower. Need to 

review analyses done by others? Algor offers many tutorials on-line, and a free 

Webcast every Tuesday morning at 10 

AM Eastern time. Contact Algor at: Tel: 

412-967-2700: www.algor.com

Steve Ross is an associate 

professor of journalism at Columbia University, where he runs 

the science writing program and 

teaches analytical journalism. His 

18 books and three commercial 

software packages include several on statistics and quality control. His undergraduate degree is 

in physics. 

22 wwwnasatech.com NASA Tech Briefs, Mac 2001
<. 

ime. Engineers never seem to have enough 

of it. Especially when searching for components. 

Which is where we come in. We've created 

SpecSearch, a user-friendly, product-discovery 

system that gives engineers a place to quickly 

and easily find the specific components they 

need from a growing database of over 20 million product specifications, representing over 

800 separate manufacturers. Sure you could

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volumes of catalogs and directories. But that 

wouldn't leave you with much time to do anything else. And that, after all, is the point of 

this ad. To find out more simply log on to our 

site at www.globalspec.com . And see for yourself. 70,000 engineers already use it. And 

they've discovered a way to pursue other 

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©2001 GlobaiSpec, Inc. All rights reserved. GLOBALSPEC.COM ® and ENGINEERING CLICKS HERE® 

are registered service marks. GLOBALSPECSM and SPECSEARCH SM are service marks of GlobalSpec, Inc.
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for NASA, Lee Holconv -

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NASA Administrat 

and is responsible I 

the development of information resource management strategies, policies, and 1)1 i iii 

including strategic phiiiiiiimg: standards 

in computing, networking, and security; 

and establishment of system and information architectures. 

NASA Tech Briefr. As NASA's CIO, 

what role do you play in both the 

agency's business and research areas? 

Lee Holcomb: The CIO position is a 

Congressionally mandated position in 

every agency under the Klinger-Cohn 

Act, which defines a set of responsibilities for the office such as setting policy, 

guiding capital investments in IT, developing an agency architecture, and ensuring that the workforce is adequately 

trained and staffed. My position includes 

two other important aspects. One of 

those is being accountable for IT security for the agency and overseeing the 

implementation of security aspects of all 

the non-classified, unclassified systems. 

The other important area is related to 

how I came into this job, which was from 

the Research & Development Office 

here at NASA Headquarters. Having 

worked in producing that technology, 

it's interesting to see the other side and 

try to figure out how you implement 

technology, and how you insert it into 

NASA's business. 

NTB: How do you show people that 

NASA is more than just shuttle flights 

and aerospace technologies? 

Holcomb: We are supporting an activity called e-NASA, which looks at how 

NASA does its business. We have organized the e-NASA initiative around four 

communities, one of which is suppliers. 

These are companies and universities 

that want to do business with NASA and 

we hope, through this strategy, to develop a portal that will allow them to become more knowledgeable about NASA. 

The second area is how we work with our 

partners in industry on collaborative 

projects. Our third portal is aimed at 

vwwnasatech.c,iii

employees and how we support them, including benefits, financial systems, and 

travel. The last portal supports the general public - people who are just looking 

for information from NASA, technology 

transfer, educators and students, and 

people who want life-long learning. It is 

through this fourth portal that we try to 

reach out and educate the public very 

broadly on what NASA does. 

NTB: What changes are you making to 

improve communication with these four 

target areas? 

Holcomb: On the supplier side we 

have, through our automated system, 

the ability to post opportunities to compete. Any time there's a new solicitation, 

an announcement of opportunity, or 

contract opportunity, they get posted 

electronically. But we want to go beyond 

that and provide a portal through which 

suppliers can be put on a level playing 

field with others who may want to bid. 

We need people to understand the technical and other rationale behind a particular program or project. 

We're doing a pilot with several vendors who provide electronic commerce 

capabilities so that we can do a procurement process or announcement of 

opportunity electronically. Once we actually do award a contract or a grant, we 

can get into supply chain management 

through these automated systems. And 

again, that depends on the infrastructure being in place so that you can not 

only award a contract, but you also can 

track the availability of certain components. 

NTB: What other e-NASA initiatives 

are being developed? 

Holcomb: We're looking at two initiatives. One is My NASA, a portal that you 

could come into much the way you come 

into Excite, and you can customize the 

NASA Web site for your interests. The 

other one is called My Space Link, which 

is really aimed at teachers and educators 

to help point them in the direction of relevant materials for coursework, and for 

students who want to do a project using 

data from NASA or NASA facilities. 

A full transcript of this interview appears 

online at www. nasatech. coin. Mr. Holcomb 

can be reached at lee.holcomb@hq.nasa.gov

NA.SA Tech BrieI, Mn 2001 

io

hat's 

Dening
/ 

- - '!l 

I Al 

I f a 

701 A4 %

4 The semiconductor formulation can be 

derived from Maxwell's equations and 

Boltzmann transport theory. The problem 

can be formulated for three independent 

variables and strong nonlinear dependencies are present Similar problems arise in 

the modeling of photonic devices. EEMLABS 

advanced design, which allows for arbitrary 

couplings, provides engineers the flexibility 

they need to model such phenomena. 

The design of equipment that is expected 

to perform at high voltage requires careful evaluation.This model studies the 

electrical properties of the insulation between the electrodes in an HV connector. 

The propagation of alternating fields is 

studied by using the j-w method, which is 

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I graphical user interface. FEMLAB includes a 

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FEMLAB is able to arbitrarily couple different physical phenomena. In this case, the 

heat generation in a current collector is 

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The current and heat balances are fully 

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conductivities of temperature and through 

the heat exerted by the current passing 

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Electrostatic precipitators are often employed to remove particles from effluent 

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FEMLAB employs sophisticated numerical 

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May 2001 

PHOTONICS 

Tech Briefs 

PHOTONICS SOLUTIONS FOR THE DESIGN ENGINEER 

• V -

• • - 

- 

• ______

S

'; 

MEMS Meets 

New Products—see page 22a

ppow- gai tbo%a

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The Aerotech 

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accuracj, resolution, repeatability, and 

reliability in a very small package. No oth e r 

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Our Aerotech Nano-Translation stages are readdj to take your 

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ANT- 2J. 

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FiberMax nano-positioning ystems offer an unmatched 250 mm/second speed at an industy-leading 10 nanometer 

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For More information Circle No. 500 Booth 535
Supplement to NASA Tech Briefs' 

May 2001 Issue Published by

Associated Business Publications 

Feature 

4a MEMS Invades the Photonics 

Realm 

Tech Briefs 

1 Oa Determining Particle Sizes from

Scattered-Photon Statistics 

12a Dual-Target, Single-Laser

Metrological System 

15a High-Performance Micromachined

Linear Arrays of Thermopiles 

16a Imaging Lidar System Would 

Map Surface Heights 

17a Optics for Compact, HighPerformance Imaging 

Spectrometers 

19a Snapshot SEM Imaging of 

Moving MEMS Structures 

20a Spatially Modulated Prism 

Interferometer 

Departments 

8a Photonics File - Summaries of 

photon ics-related briefs that 

appeared in NASA Tech Briefs 

22a New Products 

Editorial Advisory Board 

Bob Breault, President, Breault Research 

Organization 

Dr. Geoffrey Burnham, President, 

Semiconductor Laser International 

Dr. Jack D. Gaskill, Professor of Optics, Optical

Sciences Center, University of Arizona 

Dr. Arthur Guenther, Professor of Electrical 

Engineering and Physics & Astronomy, 

Center for High Technology Materials, 

University of New Mexico 

R. Brian Hooker, Associate Research Professor, 

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder 

Heather looker, General Manager, 

Meadowlark Optics 

EMM

On the cover: 

Pfiis __ (uttingen, Germany 

For More Infammition arcle No. 455 1

l'I,)tui1i,', [.' Ii Briefs, May 2001
WNW 

: 4 

Introducing our new compact diode-pumped solid 

state laser for UV applications. Designed with the 

experience gleaned from our more than 500 solid 

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Corn pact LI \/ S i ni pit c i ty wafer marking, plastics and wire 

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BL6 UV Laser System Based on our proven FCbar diode-pumped 

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© {KXl SpetaPh,c 

For More Information Circle No. 473 
Iii Ii'i HPIS, 11111iiiii IlllIlj/l'r i i tiiriikiq lJStlllil tin

tllili;iilIl F iIll-:ilIiiluiNsit t4I_f.lSf.11Itt1 

HEMS InUddes the Photonics Ped[M 

Diiuen by the telecommunications boom, mdnuhcfure1s dfe miryiny miciofechriotoçjy 

to phofooGs moie dud more. 

B

y now, any photonics professional 

conversant with the state of high-technology industry has encountered the 

acronym MEMS - and probably knows 

that it stands for microelectromechanical systems - particularly given the 

prominent presence of MEMS companies at SPIE's Photonics West, OSA's 

Optical Fiber Communications Conference, and other photonics trade 

shows in the last year or two. In fact, it is 

a sign of the times that, so eager are 

MEMS companies to identify their technology with photonics, they often 

expand the acronym to MOEMS, standing for micro-optoelectromechanical 

systems. And though it is the boom in 

the telecommunications 

field that has driven man\ 

MEMS manufacturers into 

the arms of the photonics 

industry, the fundamental 

methodology has been 

around for more than a 

decade, and is incorporated 

into such devices as accelerometers for air-bag deployment and other uses, into 

pressure and temperature 

sensors, digital cameras. 

medical imaging instrumentation, and a host of 

other familiar devices. 

A MEMS device can be 

inclusively defined as any 

micro- or millimeter-sized 

system that has been fashioned using the standard high-volume 

deposition and fabrication methods of 

the semiconductor wafer industry and 

includes one or more movable parts 

controlled by a computer's "intelligence." The microactuator, switch, or 

other component can be moved by magnetism, the piezoelectric effect, the electrostatic effect, or thermal changes. An 

optical MEMS device can incorporate 

actuators, sensors, integrated circuits, 

and microfluidic components. It can 

incorporate lasers, mirrors, gratings, 

couplers, attenuators, crossconnects, 

and many another photonic device. 

One prominent MEMS success story is 

IntelliSense Corporation of Wilmington, 

MA, a provider of MEMS software, 

design services, development, and manufacturing and now a subsidiary of 

Corning Inc. The company's IntelliSuite is a MEMS-specific CAD tool for 

optimizing performance, generating the 

fabrication process, determining static 

and dynamic effects, and creating manufacturable designs. The software's performance analysis capabilities include 

electrostatic, mechanical, thermal, fluidic, magnetic, piezoelectric, and package. IntelliSense's development capabilities include device and process layout, 

design for manufacturing and packaging, prototvping and transfer to manufacturing. In the latter vein, the company can do bulk and surface micromachining, and high-aspect-ratio micromachining. Process capabilities encompass 

lithography, wet and dcv etch, deep reactive ion etching, sputtering, evaporation, 

electroplating, and more. Test and 

assembly strengths include metrology, 

wafer, die and wire bonding, dicing, flipchip bonding, optical assembly and testing, and wafer, die, mechanical and electrical testing. 

In a recent white paper titled 

"Building Reliable MEMS Micromirrors," the IntelliSense team of Dan 

Green, director of telecommunications 

marketing, Ajay Pareek, MEMS development engineer, and Greg Kirkos, MEMS 

design and development engineer, 

describe the intersection of MEMS and 

photonics in the production of silicon 

micromirrors. As MEMS devices have 

reached into more and more applications, they say, engineers in a variety of 

fields learned of their durability. In the 

aerospace industry, MEMS sensors came

to be relied upon for inertial guidance 

in aircraft. The devices were soon finding their way into automotive fuel systems and air-bag inflators. Nozzles for 

household printers reliably metered ink 

onto pages. Tiny biosensors went into 

portable analytic equipment for highly 

accurate assays. 

Finally, the telecom industry, in need 

of reliable and compact means of switching signals from fiber to fiber, had to be 

persuaded that a synchronized field of 

tiny silicon mirrors could be employed 

to reflect millions of streams of light 

from a bundle of fibers in optical switches. The telecom industry demanded a 

small-form-factor, high port-count, transparent, and very reliable 

switch. From IntelliSense's 

point of view, it was evident 

that silicon was up to the job. 

With a strength many times 

that of steel and a resistance to 

plastic deformation, silicon 

had proven that it was a 

resilient material that easily 

returned to its original state 

when twisted or bent. "When 

well engineered and combined with intelligent packaging and systems design," the 

authors say, "silicon micromirrors can meet the challenge of 

reliably switching signals from 

fiber to fiber for years." 

IntelliSense has tested the 

fatigue characteristics of the 

various silicon flexure designs it knows 

of by running them in durability tests. In 

a recent accelerated life-trial test, an 

array's mirrors were flexed through 

more than a billion cycles without discernible permanent deformation or 

fatigue. At ordinary switch addressing 

rates, the company says, the installed life 

of a micromirror array would be more 

than a century. 

IntelliSense's is not the only optical 

MEMS design platform available. 

Coventor of Cary, NC, is offering 

CoventorWar&", which is based on the 

company's MEMCAD. Coventor says 

that the new program extends the standard to include capabilities for systemlevel design that will save months of 

designs time and yield a more thoroughly analyzed design. Among the 

optical components the software 

4a www.nasatech.com Photonics Tech Briefs, May 2001
iuiiij.:.\ 

Dime. Engineers Engineers never seem to have enough 

of it. Especially when searching for components. 

Which is where we come in. We've created 

SpecSearch, a user-friendly, product-discovery 

system that gives engineers a place to quickly 

and easily find the specific components they 

need from a growing database of over 20 million product specifications, representing over 

800 separate manufacturers. Sure you could

do it the old-fashioned way. Laboring through 

volumes of catalogs and directories. But that 

wouldn't leave you with much time to do anything else. And that, after all, is the point of 

this ad. To find out more simply log on to our 

site at www.globalspec.com . And see for yourself. 70,000 engineers already use it. And 

they've discovered a way to pursue other 

goals, as well.

Engineering clicks here® 

©2001 GlobaiSpec, Inc. All rights reserved, GLOBALSPEC.COM ® and ENGINEERING CLICKS HERE® 

are registered service marks. GLOBALSPECSM and SPECSEARCH SM are service marks of GlobalSpec, Inc. 

For More Information Circle No. 497
Photonics Tech Briefs 

For More Information Circle No. 459

enables are tunable lasers and filters, 

variable optical attenuators and equalizers, optical add/drop multiplexers, 

optical switches and crossconnects, dispersion compensators, polarization controllers, planar lightwave circuits, modulators, wavelength division multiplexers 

and demultiplexers, and integrated 

optical systems. 

Starting with the software's optical 

MEMS parametric models, CoventorWare lets the designer evaluate their 

behavior along with the behavior of 

other optical elements, electronic control circuitry, and the packaging. The 

company says a first-pass accurate simulation is possible in a matter of minutes. 

When design is complete, the user can 

perform selective verification - including finite element, boundary element, 

optical beam propagation, finite difference, and volume of fluids modeling. 

Then he can output a file for mask generation and fabrication. 

Many of the products on display at 

the recent SPIE and OSA conferences 

were for the testing and characterization of MEMS devices. Typical of these 

was the new MEMS Motion Analyzer 

from Etec Inc. of Peabody, MA. The 

company describes the Motion Analyzer as combining video microscopy, 

stroboscopic illumination, and proprietary algorithms to analyze the motions 

of individual microstructures, or arrays 

of microstructures, simultaneously. 

The system measures motion in six 

degrees of freedom, with nanometer 

resolution, at frequencies from 1 Hz to 

10 MHz. Etec calls the Motion Analyzer 

suitable for testing and characterizing 

the complex motions of virtually any 

MEMS/MOEMS device, including variable optical attenuators, optical switches, optical crossconnects, and 2D and 

3D micromirror arrays. Among the 

parameters the system can analyze are 

resonant behavior, transient response, 

settling time, switching time, and complex motion profile, all with simple 

point-and-click operation. 

Late last year Etec and Edmund 

Industrial Optics of Barrington, NJ, 

entered into a strategic alliance to 

develop and produce wafer and die test 

systems for optical MEMS. Edmund 

Industrial Optics is a designer and 

manufacturer of optics and optical svstems for high-performance machine 

vision and optical analysis systems. 

Edmund will provide the optiial 

metrology engine that will interface to 

Etec's M/SteP" automated MEMS test 

system. 

Cascade Microtech of Beaverton, OR, 

has integrated its Summit Series wafer 

www.nasatech.com

probing system with the Polytec MicroScanning Laser Vibrometer (MSV), 

making possible automated noninvasive 

device characterization during MEMS 

optical switch manufacturing. Cascade 

says that the Polytec MSV does noncontact deflection measurement using a targeted laser spot at selected points on 

each device. In the MSV's vibration-isolated and shielded MicroChamber 

switch response characteristics such as 

deflection amplitudes, settling times, 

resonant frequencies and crosstalk can 

be determined. 

Roger Grace, president of Roger 

Grace Associates of Naples, FL, a leading 

consultancy in MEMS technology, will 

chair an all-day session addressing 

"Microelectromechanical Systems 

(MEMS), Microsystems Technologies 

(MST), and Micromachines" at the 

Sensors Expo Spring 2001 in Rosemont, 

IL, on Wednesday,June 6.Joining Grace 

will be more than 25 other leaders in the 

subject area, who will present information on technology roadmapping, market size, current research, and applications. A technical poster session is also 

planned for the day. 

The exhibition and technical conference will be held at the Donald E. 

Stephens Convention Center (formerly 

Rosemont Center) in Rosemont, IL, 

near Chicago, from June 4-7. For further 

information, contact Kristen Blankenship or Roger Grace at Roger Grace 

Associates; (941) 596-8738; fax: (941) 

596-8762; e-mail: rgrace@grace.com.

A recent Roger Grace/Nexus study 

reports that the worldwide MEMS/ 

MST/Micromachines market will grow 

from approximately $14.2 billion in 

2000 to a projected $30.4 billion by the 

year 2004. 

Get connected with the 

GompdrlieS mentioned 

in this drfice: 

_c- f 1) 

www.intellisense.com

www.coventor.com

Cascade Mkrotech 

www.cascademicrotech.com

Etec Inc. 

www.etec-inc.com

Edmund industrial Optics 

www.edmundoptics.com

Photonics Tech Briefs, May 2001

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Age

PHOTONICS 4€e 

Recent photonics briefs published in NASA Tech Briefs 0 

Many photonics-related briefs from NASA field cemer laboratories appear in NASA 

rech Briefs rather than in the Photon/cs Tech Briefs supplement. Listed here are some from 

ssues of NASA Tech Briefs just past, edited for brevity and indexed with reference to ongnal publication and the availability of a Technical Support Package on Photonics Tech 

Briefs' web site. 

NASA Tech Briefs January 2001, 

page 46 

Humidity Interlock for 

Protecting a Cooled Laser 

Crystal (NPO-20901)

NASA Tech Briefs February 2001, 

page 58 

Process for Polishing Bare 

Aluminum to High Optical 

Quality (GSC-14147) 

A humidity interlock has been developed atJet Propulsion Laboratory to prevent damage that could be caused by condensation of water on a delicate and 

expensive laser crystal that must be maintained at a temperature below ambient 

during operation. The interlock is 

installed in conjunction with the laser's 

temperature controller system. Whenever 

the humidity inside the laser housing rises 

beyond a safe level, the humidity interlock 

turns off power to a thermoelectric cooler 

on which the laser crystal is mounted. 

For further information, access the 

Technical Support Package (TSP) free on-line 

at www.ptbmagazine.com under the ElecII()iii( (oiflpoiietits and Systems category. 

NASA Tech Briefs February 2001, 

page 44 

Heterodyne Interferometer 

with Phase-Modulated 

Carrier (NPO-20740) 

Researchers at Jet Propulsion Laborhol y say that a heterodyne optical interIcrometer of a type used to measure 

small displacements can be augmented 

to suppress a phenomenon, called "selfinterference," that tends to limit the 

achievable resolution and working distance and can even render the interferometer inoperable. Self-interference is 

caused by optical scattering, imperfections in optical surfaces, and misalignment of optical components. An interferometer of this type includes a target 

and a reference optical path. Self-interference typically manifests itself as leakage, along the reference path, of part of 

the optical signal power intended to 

propagate solely along the target path. 

This leakage, in turn, manifests itself as a 

heterodyne signal with incorrect phase 

that competes against the heterodyne 

signal with the correct phase. 

/Or further information, access the 

h nical Support Package (TSP)free on-line 

at www.ptbmagazine.com under the Elech n ic Components and Systems category.

Scientists at Goddard Space Flight 

Center have devised a process for making precise, high-quality curved or flat 

mirror surfaces on bare aluminum substrates. It consists of diamond turning to 

establish the desired surface figure, followed by a polishing subprocess that is 

mostly conventional except that the polishing compound is India ink, sometimes diluted with water. This process 

can maintain a surface figure accurate to 

within a peak-to-valley error of as little as 

1/8 wavelength and can produce a finish 

characterized by a root-mean-square 

roughness of less than 8 angstroms. The 

process creates the possibility of fabrication of precise mirrors that, because they 

could be made entirely of aluminum, 

would be lightweight, relatively inexpensive, and thermally stable over wide temperature ranges. 

For further information, access the 

Technical Support Package (TSP) free online 

at www.ptbmagazine.com under the 

Manufacturing/Fabrication category. 

NASA Tech Briefs April 2001, page 38 

A Metric for Visual Quality of 

Digital Video (ARC-14236) 

A research team at Ames Research 

Center has developed "digital video 

quality" (DVQ), a metric for evaluating 

the visual quality of digitized video 

images. It was developed in an effort to 

incorporate mathematical models of 

human visual processing while maintaining computational efficiency so that 

accurate metrics can be computed in 

real time by use of modest computational resources. DVQ incorporates aspects 

of early visual processing, including 

dynamic adaptation to changing brightness, luminance, and chromatic channels, dynamic contrast masking, and 

summation of probabilities. 

For further information, access the 

Technical Support Package (TSP)free on-line 

at www.ptbmagazine.com under the Information Sciences category. 

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A Portable Optoelectronic Instrument illuminates a liquid sample with coherent light, counts photons scattered from 

particles suspended in the liquid, and computes the average size of the particles from photon-counting statistics. 

Photonics Tech Briefs 

Determining Particle Sizes From Scattered-Photon Statistics 

A relatively simple, compact apparatus quickly yields approximate results. 

John H. Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio 

A method of determining sizes of particles suspended in liquids and engaging 

in Brownian motion involves statistical 

analysis of counts of photons of laser light 

scattered by the particles. The method 

can be implemented by a compact, 

portable apparatus that can be used, for 

example, in monitoring of colloidal suspensions, characterization of suspended 

protein molecules, and the like. 

In the prior state-of-the-art light-scattering method for determining particle 

sizes, one performs a digital correlation 

followed by an ill-conditioned inversion 

to obtain a particle-size distribution. The 

disadvantage of the prior method is that 

the equipment (especially the computer 

needed to perform the correlation) is expensive and usually too large and complex to he portable, and the measurements and computations take a few 

minutes. In the present method, one 

does not obtain a particle-size distribution; on the other hand, one can estimate 

the average size of light-scattering particles in a sample after a measurement and 

computation time of a few seconds. 

This method is an instance of photoncorrelation spectroscopy (PCS). As such, 

it is closely related to dynamic-light-scattering (DLS) methods, which are based 

on the concept of extracting information on the sizes and motions of lightscattering particles from the spatial and 

temporal dependence of the loss of coherence of scattered laser light. The differences between DLS and PCS arise 

from the fact that in DLS, one operates 

photodetectors and associated signalprocessing circuits in a photocurrentmeasuring regime, whereas in PCS, one 

operates in a photon-counting regime. 

The theoretical basis of the present 

method is not simple; the mathematical 

derivation would greatly exceed the 

space available for this article. However, 

the underlying theory yields an important benefit: In comparison with other 

light-scattering methods for measuring 

particle sizes, this method is relatively 

simple in practice and involves much 

less computation. 

A typical apparatus used in the present method (see figure) includes a 

laser diode as the source of light. A 

monomode optical fiber delivers the 

light to a probe that is placed in contact with, or proximity to, a sample. A 

short length of multimode optical 

fiber with a gradient in the index of refraction is fusion-spliced to the end of 

the monomode fiber to provide focussing of the light delivered by the 

probe to the sample. The light emerging from the probe illuminates a small 

volume in the sample. A portion of the 

light back-scattered from particles in 

the sample is collected by the probe, 

and a second optical fiber couples this 

collected light to a photomultiplier 

tube. Under control by a microprocessor, the photomultiplier output is 

processed by an amplifier/discriminator to obtain equal-amplitude voltage 

pulses at times that correspond to the 

times of arrival of the collected scattered photons and then processed by a 

data-acquisition module. 

The aforementioned lengthy mathematical derivation elucidates the relationships among temporal coherence of 

scattered light, photon-counting statistics, and average particle size. One of the 

results of the derivation is that the temporal coherence of the scattered light depends on both the integration time and 

the particle diameter. Consequently, it is 

possible to estimate the average particle 

size from the degrees of coherence of 

the photon counts accumulated during 

two different integration 

times - Tand KT. The values of Tand Kare chosen 

to cover a reasonable 

range of particle sizes by 

use of the fastest available 

electronic circuitry. For example, the choice of T = 

200 ns and K= 25 makes it 

possible to estimate diameters from 5 to 3,000 nm. 

This work was done b' 

Harbans S. Dhadwal and 

Kwang I. Suh of the State 

University of New York for 

Glenn Research Center. 

For further information, access the 7echncai Support 

Package (TSP)free on-line at 

www.na.satech.com under the 

Physical Sciences category. 

Inquiries concerning rights 

for the commercial use of this 

invention should be addressed 

to NASA Glenn Research Center, Commercial Technology 

Office, Attn: Steve Fedor Mail 

Stop 4-8, 21000 Brookpark 

Road, Cleveland, Ohio 

44135. Refer to LEW16706. 

lOa www.nasatech.com Photonics Tech Briefs, May 2001
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Photonics Tech Briefs 

Dual-Target, Single-Laser Metrological System 

It is not necessary to use two lasers with separate sets of components. 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 

A single-laser-based, heterodyne opto- laser) that must be aligned separately. flector on target A and a retroreflector 

electronic system that measures the dis- The present system contains only one on target B along an optical path beplacements of two targets along the laser, and with the exception of the tar- tween each target and a fiducial retroresame lines of sight has been developed, gets themselves, all optical and elec- Hector. (The portion of the optical path 

Heretofore, it would have been neces- tronic components function together as below beam splitter 2 in the figure is 

sary to construct a two-target laser a single system that generates a separate common to both targets.) Light from 

metrological system as two partly or measurement of the displacement of the single laser is launched along a sinwholly independent subsystems, each each target. gle-mode optical fiber, which is split into 

containing a set of optoelectronic com- More precisely, the system (see figure) two arms. The beams in the arms are 

ponents (including, possibly, its own measures the displacement of a retrore- shifted in frequency by f, and J, respecRetroreflector on Ai4 - Quarter-Wave Plate Target A 

BS - Nonpolarizing Beam Splitter 

PBS - Polarizing Beam Splitter 

P01 - Polarizer 

FC - Fiber-Optic Collimator

1

Retroref lector on — Target B 

Frequency Phase > 

Shifter Modulator BS2 

f=fi—f2 F L --- 

t

BS1 PBS2 A14 Signal P01 Photodetector 

-

- Frequency Laser (T Shifter

=Ll PBS1

?J4 

f2 P01 

Reference 7 Fiducial 

Photodetector etroreflector 

Signal 

Generator 

fpm 90,

TL 7fff Band-Pass f 

at 

Phase Meter 

Channel

1 

Channel 

1 

-----------------------

2

Using Only One Laser and One Set of Optical Components, the apparatus depicted schematically within the dashed outline generates separate 

indications of the displacements of targets A and B. 

12a www.nasatech.com Photonics Tech Briefs, May 2001 
How do we ta 

to all these in 

S

 MS 

YSTEMS 

tively, such that the difference frequency 

(f = fi— fi) is a convenient heterodyric 

radio frequency. Phase modulation at 

radio frequency fpNl is applied to the f 

arm only. The outputs of the two arms 

are arranged to he orthogonally polarized and collimated, and the resulting 

beams are combined in polarizing beam 

splitter 1. 

The subsequent propagation of the 

light is very similar to that in a standard 

heterodyne interferometer of prior design. A small fraction of each beam is reflected by a nonpolarizing beam splitter 

1, and the radio-frequency signals of the 

two beam fractions are mixed in the reference photodetector. The component 

of the reference-photodetector output 

at heterodyne frequency f serves as a 

phase reference, against which the 

phases of other signal components are 

measured as described below. 

The light transmitted by nonpolarizing beam splitter I enters polarizing 

beam splitter 2. The p-polarized light 

(with frequency shift J) is transmitted 

directly to the signal photodetector. The 

s-polarized light (with frequency shift j 

and phase modulation at frequency fpi) 

is reflected toward the fiducial retroreflector, from whence it is reflected back 

toward polarizing beam splitter 2. On its 

way to and from the fiducial retroreflector, this portion of the light makes a double pass through a quarter-wave plate 

and is thereby converted to p polarization. Now p-polarized, this portion of 

the light passes through polarizing beam 

splitter 2 and propagates to the target 

retroreflectors. [Although the target-B 

optics are shown as a combination of 

nonpolarizing beam splitter 2 and the 

target-B retroreflector, the target-B optics can also be realized as a retroreflector (only) that intercepts a fraction of 

the same light beam that propagates toward target A.] Like the light that goes 

to and from the fiducial retroreflector, 

the light that goes to and from the targets makes a double pass through a 

quarter-wave plate; thus, the returns 

from the targets are converted back to s 

polarization, so that upon arrival at polarizing beam splitter 2, they are reflected toward the signal photodetector. 

For each target, the output voltage of 

the signal photodetector includes a coinponent

sin [2irft+ 27txj2t] 

sin [27tfp i (1— t,) + 

where i represents either A or B, Ax, is 

the difference between the length of the 

optical path from the laser straight 

through polarizing beam splitter 2 to 

the signal photodetector and the length 

of the optical path from the laser to tarYou have a specific challenge to meet. We have a precise solution. 

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Photonics Tech Briefs, Ma' 2001 For More Information Circle No. 493 13a
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Photonics Tech Briefs 

get ito the signal photodetector, X is the 

laser wavelength, (is the present time, 'r, 

is time of propagation between the 

phase modulator and the signal photodetector via target i, and 0 is an adjustable constant component of the 

phase of the fpM signal. 

The output of the signal photodetector is demodulated in two channels by 

mixing with two differently phase-sifted 

versions of a signal of frequency fpm, 

then filtering. The i component of the 

resulting waveform in the jth channel is 

given by 

V,jmoj OC sin[27tfl + 27tAxjX] 

cos[2itfptt, - - 

where c,, is a constant component of 

the phase of the demodulating signal of 

frequency fP\f in the fth channel (a 1 = 

7t/2, ct2 = 0). The sine factor term is the 

heterodyne beat-frequency factor, the 

phase of which depends directly on the 

optical-path difference. The cosine factor establishes the amplitude of the heterodyne signal. 

The waveforms in the two channels 

are fed to a phase meter that separately 

compares their phases with the phase of 

the output of the reference photodetector. This is the same phase-comparison 

process as that in a standard heterodyne 

laser metrological system of prior design. By choosing 0 = 2fpMTB, one can 

make channel I of the phase meter generate a null response to the return signal 

from target B. By also choosing fp = 

one can make channel 1 of 

the phase meter generate a maximum 

response to return signal from target A. 

These choices further cause channel 2 

to generate a null response to target A 

and a maximum response to target B. 

Thus, the responses to the two targets 

are separated, making it possible to 

monitor their displacements separately. 

This work was done by Oliver La V and 

Serge Dubovitsky of Caltech for NASA's Jet 

Propulsion Laboratory. For further information, access the Technical Support Package 

(TSP) free on-line at www.na.catech.com

under the Electronic Components and Systems 

category. 

In accordance with Public Law 96-517, 

the contractor has elected to retain title to this 

invention. Inquiries concerning rights for its 

commercial use should be addressed to 

Technology Reporting Office 

JPL 

Mail Stop 249-103 

4800 Oak Grove Drive 

Pasadena, CA 91109 

(818) 354-2240 

Refer to NPO-21032, volume and number 

of this NASA Tech Briefs issue, and the 

page number.

Photonics Tech Briefs, May 2001
High-Performance Micromachined Linear 

Arrays of Thermopiles 

These uncooled infrared detectors can be useful in dispersive 

spectrometers, thermal imagers, and horizon sensors. 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 

Linear arrays of thermopile infrared 

detectors made of high-performance 

thermoelectric materials have been fabricated on silicon substrates by micromachining processes. Such detector arrays 

can be useful in dispersive spectrometers for chemical analyses, including exhaust and environmental monitoring, in 

inexpensive thermal imaging systems for 

predictive and preventative maintenance, such as looking for hot spots on 

train wheels or power generating equipment, and in horizon sensors for satellite attitude control. 

For some applications, thermopiles 

offer advantages over other uncooled infrared detectors. Thermopiles can operate over a broad temperature range 

without temperature stabilization. They 

are passive devices, generating a voltage 

proportional to the incident infrared 

power without electrical bias. They require no chopper. Thus, for some applications, thermopiles can be supported 

by simpler, lower-power, more-reliable 

ancillary components than are needed 

for the operation of such infrared devices as bolometers, pyroelectric or ferroelectric detectors. Another advantage 

is that if thermopiles are read out with

high-input-impedance amplifiers, they 

exhibit negligible excess low-frequency 

(11f) noise. Thermopile response is typically highly linear over many orders of 

magnitude in incident infrared power. 

Prior to the development of the present high-performance devices, arrays of 

thermopiles had been fabricated by micromachining of silicon, but those arrays 

contained metal or silicon-based thermoelectric materials, which are characterized by low thermoelectric figures of 

merit. [A material's thermoelectric figure of merit is defined by Z = 

where cx is the Seebeck coefficient, p is 

the electrical resistivity, and X is the thermal conductivity.] The signal-to noise 

ratio of an infrared detector can be described by the specific detectivity, (D*). 

The D* of a thermopile is approximately 

proportional to 

The present devices are 63-element 

linear arrays, with each element containing 11 Bi-Te/Bi-Sb-Tie thin-film thermocouples, which are supported on a silicon nitride membrane over a hole in the 

silicon substrate to maximize the thermal isolation of the thermocouple junctions from the substrate (see figure). 

The thermocouple films were deposited

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Bi1,0Te35/Bi055Sb145Te350 Thin-Film Thermocouples electrically connected in series were fabricated on a 

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Photonics Tech Briefs ' 

by sputtering from targets of Bi20Te35 

and Bi055Sb1 45Te30. The Bi-Sb-Te-Se family of compounds has the highest known 

thermoelectric figure of merit at room 

temperature. The thin-film thermoelectric wires are electrically connected to 

each other and gold interconnect wiring 

with contact pads made of gold film deposited over titanium film. 

When exposed to radiation from a 

1,000 K black-body source, the detectors 

exhibited zero frequency responsivity 

values of 1,100V/W and specific detectivites of D* = 1.4 x 109 cm•Hz" 2 /W, with 

a response time of 99 ms. The only meaA proposed optoelectronic system 

based on imaging-lidar and differentialaltimetry techniques would generate 

data equivalent to a height map of a surface area. Originally conceived for use in 

determining spatial-frequency characteristics of ocean waves with high temporal resolution, the system could also be 

used to generate high-resolution topographical maps of terrain or to study the 

roughness properties of land areas of geological interest. 

The system would include a pulsed laser, 

an electro-optical modulator serving as an 

electronic shutter, a high-speed digitizerand-trigger unit, beam splitters, photodetectors, a computer-and-timing-circuit unit,

surable noise at frequencies above 20 

mHz was Johnson noise from the detector resistance. These performance figures are the best reported to date for an 

al-ray of thermopile detectors. 

This work was done by Marc Foote, Eric 

Jones, and Thierry Caillat of Caltech for 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

This invention is owned by NASA, and a 

patent application has been filed. Inquiries 

concerning nonexclusive or exclusive license 

for its commercial development should be addressed to the Patent Counsel, NASA Management Office—JPL; 818-354-2240. Refer to 

APO-20402. 

and two charge-coupled-device (CCD) 

array detectors. The two CCDs must be radiometrically calibrated and co-registered 

so that corresponding pixels receive light 

from the same points in the scene. 

In operation, the system would illuminate the target surface with a short laser 

pulse, and both CCDs would image laser 

light reflected from the target surface. 

However, the electronic shutter would be 

activated to truncate the optical return to 

CCD1 at a time, T0 , after the initial lasertriggering pulse. With knowledge of the 

time dependence of the laser-pulse intensity, along with the time dependence 

of the shutter transmittance, it is possible 

to compute, for each pixel, the roundCCD1 

Imaging Lidar System Would 

Map Surface Heights 

Potential uses include high-resolution topographical mapping. 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 

Pulsed Electronic Shutter 

Laser (Electro-Optical 

Modulator) 'N fli 

Lens 

Digitizer and CD2 

Trigger --Fc Beam Beam' +iL 

Photodetector Splitter Splitter

Trigger 

Optional 

tjl 

By Suitable Timing of The Electronic Shutter with respect to the laser-trigger pulse, this system would 

generate different images of the same scene in the two CCDs. One could compute round-trip lighttravel times from ratios between light signals integrated by the two CCDs. 

For More Information Circle No. 451 www.nasatech.com Photonics Tech Briefs, May 2001
Like A HORSE AND CARRIAGE 

trip light travel time (I) corresponding 

to the local surface height. 

For this purpose, T0 is set to some 

value = T, such that the shutter would be 

in the process of closing just as the optical return pulse reached CCD1. It can be 

seen that nominally To corresponds to 

the mean height of the target surface. 

The mathematical model for computing T (and thus the surface height) 

would utilize the output signals proportional to the received radiant flux integrated over time. For a given surface 

point and the corresponding pixel on 

CCD1, this signal would depend on the 

round-trip and shutter times and is 

therefore denoted S1 (T,T0 ). On the 

other hand, CCD2 would integrate the 

entire return optical pulse, so that the 

signal from the corresponding pixel of

CCD2 would be denoted by S2(T,o). 

Both S1 (T,T0 ) and S2 (T,00) would be 

influenced by the reflection coefficient 

of the surface and laser-speckle characteristics. The effect of these unknown 

factors is eliminated by applying a ratiometric approach: 

E(T,T0) 2S1 (T,T0 )- S(T,00) =

S2(T,00) 

This function increases monotonically 

with T0 - T, and can be inverted to compute T[E(S1 ,S2 )]for each pixel, thus 

yielding a relief map of the scene with 

high temporal resolution. 

This work was done by Ernesto Rodriguez, 

Robert T Menzies, David M. Tratt, and Carlos Esproles of Caltech for NASA's Jet 

Propulsion Laboratory. 

APO-18812 ob Lam Controller 

Light Source 

Optics for Compact, High-Performance 

Imaging Spectrometers 

An off-axis, telecentric telescope/camera is combined with 

convex diffraction grating spectrometers. 

NASAJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 

Several high-fidelity imaging spectrometers have been designed with convex diffraction gratings for wavelengths ranging 

from the ultraviolet to the thermal infrared. All the designs are telecentric and 

can be combined with a flat-field, threemirror anastigmatic telescope that also 

functions as a panchromatic camera. 

The spectrometers are derivatives of 

an elegant relay disclosed by Offner in 

the early 1970's. The original "Offner 

relay" was a mask aligner consisting of 

two concentric spherical mirrors for projecting a telecentric image of a mask 

onto a semiconductor wafer. A few years 

later Thevenon suggested replacing the 

convex secondary mirror of the relay 

with a diffraction grating to form an 

imaging spectrometer. 

In 1992, an Italian firm decided to act 

on Thevenon's suggestion and developed 

the first compact Offner imaging spectrometer for the Cassini mission to Saturn. Dubbed the "VIMS-V", the prototype 

was delivered to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for integration into the 'Visible Infrared Mapping Spectrometer." 

The grating for the VIMS-V was manufactured by a German company using holographic recording and ion-beam milling. 

The gratings can also be fabricated using 

electron-beam lithography. 

The Offner spectrometer was initially de

veloped to overcome the inherent limitations of another popular concentric spectrometer invented by Dyson in the late 

1950's. The Dyson uses a concave grating and 

controls optical aberrations with a thick 

plano.convex lens placed immediately in 

front of the slit-detector plane. Unfortunately 

a lens in this position back-scatters the input 

white light directly onto the focal plane array 

(FPA), and it does not leave space for a cold 

stop. Without a cold stop the entire spectrometer must be cooled to the FPA temperature, thereby increasing the low temperature cooling load by a factor of 10 or more. 

A cold Dyson spectrometer would 

also be sensitive to misalignment because its grating reflects the chief rays at 

large angles to the optical axis before 

they can be made telecentric by the 

lens. Hence, a small shift in the position 

of the lens distorts the image and the 

spectrum. For example, a shift within a 

typical position tolerance of 10 pm generates 8 percent distortion at the edge 

of a spectrum only 5 mm long. 

An acceptable uncalibrated distortion 

limit is 1 percent of a pixel, which is easily controlled in the Offner when the 

spectrum is confined to a narrow, annular zone less than a few millimeters wide. 

Two examples of miniature Offner designs with less than 10 nm distortion (0.1 

percent of a pixel along a 16 min image) 

are listed at http://focus. software. ain/

file-exchange/index. html. 

Photonics Tech Briefs, May 2001 www.nasatech.com
This Imaging Spectrometer/ camera uses a convex grating in a iaterai urrner COflTi9UIdtiOfl 50 reuuce 

distortion to less than 1 percent across a 12-mm spectrum with a 16-mm image. 

Photonics Tech Briefs 

Distortion increases as the cube of the 

spectral length, so it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain performance 

across large-area FPAs. The new designs 

use several variations of Offner configurations to maintain high performance 

across large areas. In the design shown 

in the figure, the image is 16 mm long 

and the spectrum is 12 mm long, yet the 

spectral distortion is less than 1 percent 

of a pixel. This is accomplished by tilting

the two relay mirrors of a lateral Offner 

configuration (the grating and FPA are 

displaced laterally from the slit line). 

In another design the image is 12 mm 

long and the spectrum is 16 mm long, so 

the Offner is put into a vertical configuration (the grating and FPA are displaced 

vertically above the slit line). A single, aspheric relay mirror helps control optical 

aberrations. The vertical configuration enables the grating to be divided into two secdons that are blazed for positive and negative diffraction orders. Each section is optimized for its own FPA spectral passband 

and resolution. This technique is used in 

an imaging spectrometer being developed 

for the comet rendezvous mission Rosetk. 

The spectrometer can cover the 0.25 - 5 

pm spectral band without the need for a 

dichroic beam splitter. Dichroic beam splitters limit the spectral passband considerably, especially when the passband extends 

from the ultraviolet to the infrared. 

This work was done by Francis Reininger 

of Caltech for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For further information, access the 

Technical Support Package (TSP) free on-line 

at www.nasatech.com under the Physical 

Sciences category. 

In accordance with Public Law 96-517, 

the contractor has elected to retain title to this 

invention. Inquiries concerning rights for its 

commercial use should be addressed to 

Technology Reporting Office 

JPL 

Mail Stop 249-103 

4800 Oak Grove Drive 

Pasadena, CA 91109 

(818) 354-2240 

Refer to NPO-20239, volume and number of this NASA Tech Briefs issue, and the 

page number. 

18a For More Information Circle No. 466 ['hotonics Tech Briefs, Ma y 2001
Snapshot SEM Imaging of Moving MEMS 

Structures 

The principle of stroboscopy would be extended to scanning 

electron microscopy. 

NASA Jel Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 

A stroboscopic scanning electron microscope (SEM) has been proposed as a 

means of generating still or slow-motion 

pictures of moving structures in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). 

Such imaging is used in characterizing 

the dynamics of MEMS; characterization 

of the dynamics is a critical component 

of the MEMS development cycle. 

Conventional strobed-illumination 

microscopy with visible or infrared light 

provides adequate temporal resolution 

but insufficient spatial resolution for 

measuring subwavelength motions in 

the main plane of a typical MEMS. A 

conventional SEM provides adequate 

spatial resolution, but is inadequate for 

resolving motions at frequencies greater 

than several tens of hertz because the illuminating electron beam is continuous. 

The proposed stroboscopic SEM would 

offer both the spatial resolution of a 

conventional SEM and the temporal resolution of conventional optical stroboscopy, making it possible to form crisp 

images of moving (e.g., vibrating) 

MEMS structures. 

According to the proposal, a conventional SEM would he augmented with an 

electronic beam blanker that would be 

operated in coordination with a signal 

generator. The output of the signal generator would control the vibrational excitation of a MEMS device mounted in 

the SEM (see figure). 

In one mode of operation, the blanking-pulse-repetition frequency would be 

set equal to the frequency of vibration, 

so that the resulting SEM image would 

"freeze" the motion at some phase in the 

vibration cycle. The phase could be varied by adjusting the phase offset between the vibration-waveform and blanking-pulse generators. In another mode 

of operation, the blanking-pulse-repetition frequency would be made to differ 

slightly (no more than a few hertz) from 

the vibration frequency, yielding a sequence of images at slightly different 

phases (in other words, a slow-motion 

picture). Freeze-motion images taken at 

different phases could be used to quantify the shape of a vibrational mode at 

the frequency of excitation, while slowmotion pictures could be used to obtain 

qualitative understanding of the motion. 

This work was done b Kirill Shcheglov 

and Russell Lawton of Caltech for NASA's 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For further information, access the Technical Support Package (TSP) free on-line at www.nasatech.com

under the Physical Sciences categor. 

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Photonics Tech Briefs 

Spatially Modulated Prism Interferometer 

Advantages include high efficiency over a very broad spectral bandwidth, compactness, 

mechanical stability, spectral radiometric purity. 

NASA 'cJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 

A spatially modulated prism interferometer (SMPI) has been 

developed that overcomes the complexities of traditional interferometers and the inherent limitations of diffraction gratings, 

dispersion prisms, and spectral selection filters. Applications include atmospheric sounding, geologic mapping, in-situ mineralogy, oceanography pollution monitoring, poisonous gas detection, medical spectroscopic imaging, and industrial inspection. 

At the heart of the SMPI is the prism triplet shown in Figure 

1. Its function is to shear the input beam into two mutually coherent output beams with chief rays that are parallel to the optical axis. A Fourier optical system, shown in Figure 2, collimates the two beams, tilts them, and then recombines them at 

1.00 Pnsrn I,,le,leromeler 

0.75

Grating 050 

o2

5 10 15 20 

0 (pm)

Figure 1. The Beam-Shearing Prism Triplet is made from a single-crystal material to maintain the same optical path length for both beams. Its unique 

design enables the spatially modulated prism interferometer to have double the efficiency of conventional interferometers and a much broader 

spectral pass-band than grating spectrometers. 

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a pupil plane. The tilted wavefronts generate a spatially modulated interference pattern that is recorded as an interferogram 

by a detector array. If the Fourier optical system is made 

anamorphic, then a line image is formed in a direction orthogonal to the series of interferograms. Interferometers with 

a 25° image field have been designed. 

Because the SMPI generates instantaneous interferograms at 

a pupil plane, it benefits from the following attributes: 

• Field-Widened: The entrance slit can be widened to any 

width to increase the signal flux without affecting the spectral 

resolution. This gives it a significant advantage over grating 

and prism spectrometers, which must trade throughput for 

spectral resolution. Image plane interferometers suffer a similar fate because their modulation efficiency degrades in proportion to the slit width and fringe frequency, a phenomenon known as self-apodization. 

• Broadband Efficiency: As shown in Figure 1, the SMPI efficiency is nearly constant with wavelength. In contradistinction, the efficiency of a grating spectrometer is high only at 

the blaze wavelength, and then it diminishes rapidly. The 

SMPI has double the efficiency of the Michelson, Sagnac, 

and Wollaston prism interferometers because it utilizes all 

(instead of half) the incident light. 

• No Stray Light Induced Spectral Errors: Stray light in the 

SMPI increases the noise floor but does not necessaril y contribute to an erroneous spectral signal. In filter, prism, and 

grating spectrometers, stray light is indistinguishable from 

spectral signals and introduces large radiometric errors. 

Gratings are particularly troublesome because they behave 

like badly scratched mirrors. The edge of each groove, even 

when perfectly fabricated, scatters the incident white light directly across the spectrum. 

• Radiometric Purity: When the detector array is at a pupil 

plane the radiance contributions from the various objects in 

the field are uniformly distributed across the pixels in the 

array. A pupil plane interferometer has the additional benefit of distributing all the colors of the spectrum uniformly 

across all the pixels of the array. This simplifies calibration 

and eliminates the radiometric errors that are routinel y generated in image-plane spectrometers and filters when high 

radiance objects are lost in the dead zones between pixels. 

Responsisitv variations across the active regions of pixels also 

contribute to radiometric errors in image-plane spectrometers, which is why they should not be used in science applications that require high spectral radiometric accuracy. 

• Single Instrument Line Shape Function: There are no diffraction effects at a pupil plane, so the SMPI can he designed 

to have a single line shape for all colors and field positions. 

This greatly simplifies calibration and spectral retrievals in 

comparison to image-plane gratings, dispersive prisms, and 

filters. The line shape generated by these devices broadens 

with wavelength-dependent diffraction and changes with the 

aberration-dependent point-spread function. 

• Instantaneous Interferogram: The entire interferogram is 

recorded instantaneously across the detector array, which 

eliminates recording errors. Scanning interferometers and 

filters that require the movement of the observational platform or an optical component are prone to irrecoverable 

spectral errors when the platform motion is not perfectly rec-

- 

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tilinear or the scene changes during 

the scan period. 

• Mechanical Stability Unlike Michelson 

interferometers, the SMPI is relatively 

insensitive to mechanical shock, focal 

plane jitter, and misalignment because 

there are no moving parts, and because 

the two beams converging on the detector array are collimated. The collimation attribute relaxes the focal plane 

axial position tolerance: a 1-mm axial 

shift generates less than 0.5-percent 

change in the spectral line width at 5 

cm-'resolution, and no change in the 

spectral line position. Since a typical 

axial position tolerance is 10 pm and 

the typical axial vibration amplitude of 

an active cooler is 1 pm, the detector 

array can be mounted directly onto the 

cold finger without concern for vibration-induced spectral errors. This significantly reduces the cooling power requirements and the complexity of the 

thermal-mechanical focal-plane mount. 

The SMPI incorporates several important optical design characteristics that 

enable it to achieve high spectral resoltition and high efficiency in a compact 

form. The telescope is designed with a 

shifted pupil so that the chief ray strikes 

the edge rather than the middle of the 

detector array. This shifts the zero path 

difference point to one side of the array 

and effectively doubles the maximum 

possible optical-path difference and 

spectral resolution without requiring a 

doubling of the pupil width. 

The beam-shearing prism is designed 

so that the beam splitter (BS) coating on 

prism A is tilted less than 100 to the input 

beam. This prevents total internal reflection at the airgap between prisms A and 

B, and it eliminates the need for an oil or 

adhesive to fill the gap. Adhesives have 

strong absorption features in the thermal 

infrared, so their omission is desirable.

The prism configuration is 

governed by a requirement to 

maintain the same optical 

path length for two light 

beams whose chief rays must 

emerge parallel to each other 

and perpendicular to a flat 

output surface. When the entrance and exit surfaces are 

perpendicular to the chief 

rays, then astigmatism and dispersion are eliminated. Astigmatism reduces the spectral 

resolution of the interferometer, and dispersion changes 

the instrument line shape as a 

function of wavelength. 

The prism is designed for 

minimum volume and maximum beam shear. The beam 

shear distance, AS, is proportional to the 

spectral resolution. A thumb-sized beamshearing prism with a 60-mm focal 

length Fourier lens can achieve a spectral resolution of I cm. This is a factor 

of 40 reduction in volume with respect to 

an equivalent Sanac interferometer. 

Likewise, a 0.5 cm prism interferometer 

can improve by a factor of two the NEAT 

of the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder 

(AIRS) and reduce its volume by a factor 

of 25. AIRS is a pupil plane grating spectrometer. 

The high-resolution performance of 

the SMPI is due in no small part to the 

recent advances in large format, GaAs 

based Quantum Well Infrared Photoconductor (QWIP) detector arrays. The 

SMPI requires a large array of pixels with 

high pixel operability and uniform responsivity, which are two unique characteristics of the QWIP arrays being developed at JPL (see Tech Briefs, Vol. 24, 

No. 5, p. 26a-30a). The QWIP arrays also 

have low 1/f noise, which increases the 

calibration stability of the detector array 

and of the interferometer. 

This work was done fr Francis Reininger of 

Callech for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For further information, access the Technical Support Package (TSP) free on-line at 

ww'w.nasatech. corn under the Physical Sciences category. 

In accordance with Public Law 96-517, 

the contractor has elected to retain title to this 

invention. Inquiries concerning rights for its 

commercial use should be addressed to 

Technology Reporting Office 

JPL 

Mail Stop 249-103 

4800 Oak Grove Drive 

Pasadena, CA 91109 

(818) 354-2240 

Refer to NPO-20647, volume and number 

of this NASA Tech Briefs issue, and the 

page number.

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Photonics Tech Briefs, May 2001 www.nasatech.com
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22a www.nasatech.com Photonics Tech Briefs, May 2001
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themselves in order to survive in the coinpetitive Internet world. No longer can 

any of these groups be single entities - 

they all must be players on the same 

team. It's a community, according to 

Peter Ostrow, president and CEO of TestS!' •

- 

team V,ewer 

ri 

Om 

F -------

RedSpark's RAPlDteam is a collaborative 

product development (CPD) platform for 

project managers, engineers, supply 

chain managers, and purchasing 

personnel to work together.

Mart, a leading information and commerce marketplace for the test and measurement industry. 

"Community is the sense of collaborative workflow. It's a big word that means 

sharing ideas, in real-time, using the Internet. The Internet for engineers, in particular, provides access to significant content that in the past they had much more 

limited access to," Ostrow said. 

That content comes in many forms 

from mans' different places on the Internet. "There's a hierarchy of needs in 

terms of what engineers are using the Internet for," said Ostrow. "And what almost 

every engineer at this point is using it for 

is research, whether it's product specifications or research on specific applications and concerns." The next level in the 

hierarchy is price comparison, and at the 

highest level of use, full-blown c-commerce on-line, according to Ostrow. 

Engineers are using the Internet as a 

read-only application, according to Chuck 

Grindstaff, vice president of 

products and opeiauoiis 101 

UGS (formerly Unigraphics 

Solutions). "1 don't really 

think engineers Nvill get the 

full value of the Internet 

until they use it effectively as 

a design-oriented, multipoint conference call that's 

got mechanical definitions 

moving across the connection." UGS's e-vis connect 

private business-to-business 

exchange service provides 

manufacturers and their 

suppliers with what Grindstaff calls "back-office connectivity projected out 

across the Internet," taking 

advantage not only of the 

basic collaboration advantages of the Internet, but 

also the visual tools, linked 

viewing and markup, analysis, and data management opportunities it 

can provide to a supply chain. 

'We started with the realization that engineers spend an average of 23 hours per 

week in their desktop design application, 

and a lot of the rest of the time is spent 

sourcing the supply chain," said Dominic 

Gallello, president and CEO of 

RedSpark, a spinoff of Autodesk that pro-

'ides manufacturers with a common, 

inter-enterprise platform (called 

RAPIDteam) for project mangers, engineers, suppl y chain managers, purchasers, and direct materials suppliers to 

work together via the Web. 

"The process of integrating suppliers is 

paper-based," Gallello added. "We're try

-ing to help manufacturers manage their 

suppliers' suppliers and their customers' 

customers. One level deep may not he 

enough. Integrating your suppliers is 

great, but they have suppliers, too." 

Manufacturers are eager to shorten 

their time to market and expand the 

roles of their suppliers by using a variety 

of Internet tools, according to Forrester 

Research. But what types of tools are they 

using? How are they connecting everyone 

who needs to be connected, and how 

quickly is all of this really happening? 

"It's shocking how many companies 

are just now starting to think of collaborative Web sourcing with their suppliers," said Gallello. "How do you make an 

engineer's life a lot easier with useful, 

configurable, specified, searchable, and 

clownloadable product information? 

There is tons of activity on the manufacturer's side." That activity, he explained, 

won't take place overnight. In the next 

two years, Gallello estimated, "The manufacturers' Web sites that you're interacting with today are going to change 

dramatically." 

Companies like Tecnomatix and Workgroup Technology Corp. (WTC) are trying to change the way manufacturers use 

the Internet. Tecnomatix offers eM-

- 

26 www.nasatech.com NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
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Power, which provides electronics manufacturers with a collaborative environment that allows the planning departments, plants, and contractors to 

collaboratively create and operate their 

facilities. They also provide for the capture and aggregation of process information in something called an eBOP, or eBill of Processes, which describes all of 

the parts, resources, operations, and relationships among all of the elements required to produce a part. WTC's offering, 

called ProductCenter, is a product data 

management software package that gives 

rnaii I ilacturing tcaiii I( 1 tic access to

product data via the Web. It also puts upto-date product information right on the 

factory floor. 

Andrew Rodger, executive vice president of SmarTeam, already can see the effects of what happens when manufacturers use the Web to reduce the cost of 

doing business. SmarTeam offers Webbased collaborative product commerce 

solutions - such as SmartBriefcase - 

that allow users to exchange product design data with supply chain partners 

through e-mail or over the Web using a 

data exchange concept similar to the 

Zip hic.

"I can see people moving and swapping data over the Web," Rodger said. "1 

see supply chain management beginning 

to be managed over the Web, including 

the bill of materials, sharing and passing 

of information to suppliers, and CAD 

collaboration. It's really moving very 

quickly," he said. 

His company, he explained, is a "recession-advantaged solution." According to 

Rodger, SmarTeam was made possible because of the Internet. "We've enabled a 

data management solution for medium 

and smaller sized companies, and guess 

what? That's about 98 percent of Amencan industry. If medium and smaller sized 

companies don't invest in the data management arena, they will be out of business in five years because the rest of the 

world won't tolerate being unable to 

work electronically with them." 

Watch That Data 

Despite the fact that manufacturers 

tic eager to become "electronic," there 

are a number of weighty obstacles that 

stand in their way, including Internet security. For instance, many manufacturers are looking to outsource more of 

their engineering work, and the Internet would appear to be the perfect vehicle for distributing procurement and 

quoting requests. Or is it? 

"If you look at the kinds of transactions 

that happen between the manufacturer 

and the supply base, clearly one of them 

is describing what it is you want built, and 

getting back a response that, 'yes, I can 

build that, and here's the cost and the 

lead time.' I think there's more to it than 

that," said Grindstaff. 

Manufacturers are interested in using 

the Web to put out requests for quotes 

(RFQs), but according to Rachael Dalton 

Taggart, vice president of marketing for 

PlanetCAD, what they don't do is close 

the deal on the Web. "They'll use the 

Web as a tool to send it out and get RFQs 

back pretty quickly, but when they select 

the company they're going to use as a 

supplier, they pick up the phone and talk 

to them." 

Gallello agrees that manufacturers are 

nervous about putting RFQs on the Internet that may include proprietary specifications on a companys product. "I'm 

not going to throw my RFQ onto the Web 

and hope someone bites at it. I want to 

know someone before I release any confidential information to them." The bottom line, according to Gallello, is security. "Protecting your intellectual 

property still has to figure into the 

process of when you use the Internet." 

MSC.Software is hoping that manufacturers will use the Internet as a quick, easy, 

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28 For More Information Circle No. 406 or Visit www.nasatech.com/406 NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
PlanetCAD's data management 

site includes 3Dshare.com , which 

translates and heals 3D models, 

and prescientQA" for improving 

enq n p erinci data quality 

:

quote 

—w 

and secure process to retain qualified engineering consultants. The company's Engineering Exchange links customers to a 

virtual engineering environment that captures the information necessary to define 

a problem. Templates define the work 

statement, organize the specifics of a 

product, supply industry and government 

standards, and supplier limitations and 

cost restraints. To identif the best-qualified resources, client companies sort 

through a database of engineering consultants by discipline and industry experience. On-line Pre-Bid Sessions occur between client companies and the 

prospective providers. Security concerns 

are addressed through the use of passwords to ensure that project definitions 

and bids are solicited only by invitation. 

Companies realize that in order to 

truly work collaboratively with their supply chain, they will have to share significant amounts of proprietary data. Most 

Web-based engineering and data management services already know the security drill. "You really wouldn't put any 

kind of engineering details out on the 

Internet if you couldn't restrict who can 

see it," said UGS's Grindstaff. "I don't 

know of one of our customers who 

would even consider mov

ing information across the Internet if they didn't 

feel the tools they were using provided a 

high degree of security." 

Internet data security is a larger issue 

for manufacturers than it is for other industries, according to PlanetCAD's Dalton Taggart. "With 3Dshare.corn [the 

company's Internet site for translating 

and healing 3D design models], we find 

that inantiLscturers love it, but they may 

not he authorized to send their proprietary design data over the Internet. They 

are very paranoid about losing their data 

or getting it pirated."

TestMart's Ostrow, on 

the other hand, believes 

that manufacturers are, for 

the most part, comfortable 

•,.. putting their data on-line. 

TestMart - which provides 

information for customers 

looking to buy, lease, or sell 

new, used, or refurbished 

test equipment — updates 

price and availability information in real time using secure and controlled remote 

parf access. Users can find the 

product information they 

need and make a secure 

purchase transaction 

without leaving the site. 

SmarTeam's Rodger 

agrees that security is an 

issue, but that the Web really is a very secure environment. "The 

concern is there, but the solutions are 

there, too. There are ranges of software 

from cheap to very expensive that address the security issue in a good way," 

said Rodger. "There's definitely a learning curve for people to learn how to work 

better over the Web."

come a lot more realistic, and a lot more 

expensive." 

Gallello agrees that bandwidth is only 

the tip of the Internet iceberg. "Companies will have to re-architect their internal 

and external productivity networks, because they're going to be putting a lot 

more of their business out there. I'm not 

so worried about the bandwidth issue at 

all. The problems are re-thinking the 

strategy of firewalls, and pushing suppli- ers on how to do it." 

More bandwidth is always nice, but the 

bigger issue is interoperahility, according 

to Grindstaff. Industry-accepted standards that enable various applications to 

interact with each other will help manufacturers and their suppl y chains use the 

Internet more, and with better results, 

"As our partner applications take advantage of new XML standards, that interoperability will allow information to 

smoothly move between applications. 

That will be the biggest change. We can 

always use more bandwidth, but our applications have ways around it." 

Here Today, Where Tomorrow? 

Let's face it - empty office spaces pop 

up every day, where there used to be a 

".com" on the door. The Internet can he 

come companies' best friend, or it can he 

their downfall. But for all of the dot-corn 

failures, there are successes, and many of 

them are c-engineering ventures. What's 

the recipe for survival? TestMart's Ostrow 

sees his company's success as a simple 

matter of a sound business model. 

"What we focused on was that you 

could take the 'dot.com' out of the name 

- .____, •,___ 

MSC.Englneering-e.com (a division of

MSC.Software) provides separate areas

on its Engineering Exchange Site for

clients and consultants. All communications are logged into a Message Board

for clarity. 

of the company and almost any company 

that's in business, especially newer businesses, would locus on the same things: 

customer acquisition, relationships with 

manufacturers and suppliers, repeat business, revenue, and increasing margin 

Bandwidth and More 

As more and more manufacturers 

change their business to incorporate the 

Web, the Internet itself faces changes of 

its own. Many companies agree that the 

Internet must evolve in a number of ways 

in order to provide engineers with an 

even better set of tools and opportunities 

than it currently offers. That evolution includes improved bandwidth, ease of use, 

and accessibility. 

"Two years ago, many manufacturers had one Internet systern in their design office on a 

separate desk, and it wasn't autoniaucally on everyone's desktop," 

explained Dalton Taggart. 

"That's changing. Many engineers have immediate access to 

Ti lines straight from their

desks." 

Accessibility continues to improve, according to Ostrow. 

"More and more engineers are - 

getting faster and faster access to 

the Internet. That's a very positive 

sign for the evolution of c-engineering." But, lie added, manufacturers still aren't convinced 

that engineers are going to move 

to a full on-line environment. "If you ask 

manufacturers, they have it real challenge 

at this point. Job itiiniher one is manufacturing and marketing the equipment. 

Job number two is finding alternative distribution for it. All of a sudden, it's beNASA Tech Briefs, May 2001 www.nasatech.com 29
Get Connected to the Companies Featured In this Article: 

Forrester Research Tecnomatix Technologies 

www.forrester.com www.tecnomatlx.com

MSC.Software/ TestMart 

MSC.Engineering-e.com www.testmart.com

http://exchange.englneering-e.com

UGS 

PlanetCAD www.ugs.com

www.planetcad.com www.e-vls.com

RedSpark Workgroup Technology Corp. 

www.redspark.com www.workgroup.com

For More Information Circle No. 404

cri>wth. Those are all things you vould 

hear with or without a 'dot.com' after it." 

The Internet companies that fail. Ostrow explained, thought primarily about 

cool technology or a tricky infrastructure. 

Those firms, he continued, were the pretenders to the throne. "Only those companies that provide tangible value to the 

ustorners and to their investors are still 

standing." TestMart, he believes, is on its 

way to being one of those that is still 

standing. But it's not over yet. "Until TestMart is a profitable, significantly growing 

business, I don't think we're out of the 

woods, either. But I think that's a healthy 

close of realism that, if anything, is going 

to get us over the hill." 

Having a basic, sound business rationale that addresses traditional business 

needs is also how Grindstaff sees UGS 

succeeding in the Internet arena. "What 

sse did was take a relatively conservative 

TestMart offers a .J 

one stop shop for 

renting, buying, esmar 

and selling new 

and used test 

equipment, in ----, 

addition to news, 

applications 

support, and and

databases of

information on

more than 10,000

products from 500

manufacturers 

view of the Internet. We didn't put the 

whole company at risk to put up our cvis.corn. The Internet piece of your business may speed the technology evolution, 

and may actually change priorities of 

what is most important to implement in 

our whole product suite. We've certainly 

adopted mans' of the Internet technoloSmarTeam

www.smarteam.com

www,iiasatech,coiii

gies. but we haven't thrown the bab y out 

with the bath water." 

SmarTeam's Rodger sees a huge difference between consumer-oriented Internet ventures and business-to-business 

(B2B) sites. Dot-corn companies at the 

consumer level fail, he said, because of 

over-hype, over-expectation, and overmarketing. That's not the same as the 

B2B world, where economic fundamentals are stressed. "The kind of crash of the 

dot-corn types is not what's going to happen here at all," Rodger predicted, "because it's a much more mature approach 

to what the opportunities are." 

What's working in the Internet realm 

today, added Rodger, are the same things 

that will work 20 or 30 years from now. 

"The Web is here to stay. What's working 

today is the data management piece of 

this business because it's like the nervous 

system that's reaching out to all different 

clients and drawing 

together the data." 

= - Fundamentals are 

MOOM working, Rodger said, 

and that's what manufacturers are focusing on. "Companies 

need to save money,

they need to reduce 

costs, they need to reuse their data, they 

need to share data efficiently, and they 

face the enormous 

problem of getting to 

market first and 

btster. If thes don't accomplish that, they 

end up selling black bananas, and who 

wants to buy black bananas? When we 

talk technology, the bottom line is the 

bottom line." 

Visit unmanasatech.com/ftatures for more 

comments from industry leaders on engineering and the Internet. 

NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001 
• T 

... 

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•, 

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•

•. d 

of • • • 

,

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Technologies of the Month 

Sponsored by ye t4com 

For more information on these and other new, licensable inventions, visit

www.nasatech.com/techsearch

Optical Technology Enables 

Wireless Monitoring of Shallow 

Exploration Drilling 

Sandia Laboratories 

A new optical transmission system monitors drilling activities 

in real time, without wires or cables to get tangled or (sit. ttilizing infrared beams to transmit data, Sandia 

Laboratories has developed an optical 

telemetry system that uses inexpensive light . 

emitting diodes (LEDs) or laser diodes to 

send data to the surface from sensor' 

mounted near the drill bit. A large number 

of drilling parameters and soil conditions

can be monitored instantly. 

Individual sensors can be deployed in a Ir I

floating housing within the drill pipe with VL-.

no direct electrical contact with the drill 

or drill barrel. All sensor data is transmitted from the hit to 

the floating telemetry system by electromagnetic: signals. 

From the floating telemetry system the data is transmitted via 

infrared. A voltage converter converts the transmission back 

to a digital signal for display purposes. 

Get the complete report on this technology at:

www.nasatech.com/techsearch/tow/sandia.html

New Technology Strengthens 

Advanced Ceramics 

Dr. Jack Solomon, Director, Technology Planning, Praxair 

Typically, ceramic products are created by combining ceramic 

particles or powders, such as alumina, with an organic binder to 

form a malleable mixture that can be shaped by tape-casting, injection-molding, or extrusion. Once the ceramic has been 

shaped, the "green body," as the unfired ceramic is called, is 

heated, or "sintered" in a furnace, removing the organic binder 

(debinding) and hardening the ceramic. As the ceramic is 

heated, the gases generated by the oxidation or decomposition 

of the organic binder can cause damage to the part, including cracking, 

bloating, and warping. 

- .. Praxair has developed a method to 

slow the rapid outgassing by introduring an inert gas into the binder 

removal zone, significantly reducing 

- the oxygen concentration in the air

and controlling the rate of binder removal. The result is a substantial reduction in rejects and the 

ability to produce stronger, more consistent ceramic parts. 

Get the complete report on this technology- at: 

www.nasatech.com/techsearch/tow/praxair.html

Maximizing Profits From Intellectual 

Properties: GE's New IP Asset 

Management System 

Gerard Devine, IP Counsel, GE industrial Systems 

GE Industrial Systems (GElS) has developed an electronic 

system for managing intellectual property assets and agreements, now available for license to third parties from GElS. 

The software application runs on common computer hardware, and provides comprehensive cataloging and monitorrig of GElS's licensing agreements. The IP management system uses a platform built around Microsoft's Internet 

lislormation Server 4.0 and Microsoft Access 97, enabling GE 

to electronically capture key elements of each licensing 

agreement for future tracking, collections, and general management. The entire system is web-based, enabling GElS personnel to get up-to-date information via the company's intranet on licensing by product line, licensee, territory, and 

agreement type. 

Get the complete report on this technology at: 

www.nasatech.com/techsearch/tow/ge.html

New Plastic Laminate Provides Same 

Quality Paint Surface as Metal 

John Markey, Avery Dennison 

Engineered by Avery Dennison, a new technology enables 

thermo-formable plastic to accept a uniform painted finish, 

including a Class A automotive finish that previously was attainable only on metal parts. Avery Dennison has created a 

laminate that features an electrically conductive layer. This 

first layer is the key to the new 

process and acts as a primer to attract and hold electrostatically 

sprayed paint. 

Cast onto a temporary flexible casting sheet, the primer 

layer starts as a liquid polymeric 

film that includes a highly conductive particulate such as carbon black for a uniform finish, 

and fumed silica to aid drying 

and produce a smooth surface. The primer layer is transferred by heat lamination from the temporary casting sheet 

onto a thin, semi-flexible, thermo-formable plastic face 

sheet, which then can be thermo-formed into a 3D part. 

The primer layer also can be formulated as a resistive layer, 

making it suitable for electromagnetic interference (EMI) 

and radio frequency (RF) shielding in data and telecommunication components. 

Get the complete report on this technology at:

www.nasatech.com/techsearch/tow/avery.html

32 www.nasatech.com NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
Instrument Control Toolbox 

Filter Design Toolbox 

Financial Derivatives 

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Embedded Coder 

Simulink Performance Tools 

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MATLAP) 6. 

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The new MATLAB desktop interface provides embedded systems, as well as design of large-scale 

easy and intuitive access to all of the 

powerful features in new MATMB 6. control, DSP, and communications systems. 

The next generation of MATLAB is available now. See what it can do for you. 

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isave *0 CompetitIon In Y Vake 

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Polyorganosioxane Waterproofing for Porous Ceramics 

Whereas the previously developed 

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can be applied by ordinary coating procedures. 

(See page 38.) 

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Attachment of Small SiC Hoops 

to SiC-Based Ceramics and 

Composites 

This technique prevents the detachment of lead wires from thin-film sensor systems surface mounted on ceramic substrates for high-temperature 

tests. 

(See page 39.) 

-E YES3 

0 

STEREOGRAPHIC S'

A Mass-Spectrometer System for 

Detecting Gas Leaks 

This system was originally designed to 

perform leak detection and measurement of cryogenic propellants from a remote location during a shuttle launch. 

This versatile, expandable system can be 

adapted to other applications that require monitoring from remote locations. 

(See page 46.) 

Simplified Construction of 

Conical Log-Spiral Antenna 

This design provides for mating parts, 

the faying surfaces of which enforce 

alignment initially during construction 

and maintain alignment subsequently 

during use. 

(See page 52.) 

Micromachined Double 

Resonator 

This design was inspired by the realization that solid mounting is not necessarily desirable and that if the substrate 

of a resonator is suspended on thin 

springs, what is formed is a double-mass 

resonator that can have a Qgreater than 

tIit of the original resonator. 

(See page 58.) 

Molten-Carbonate Oxidation of 

Solid Waste 

This process completely oxidizes 

wastes as diverse as polytetrafluroethvlene, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene 

terephthalate, polyethylene, wheat straw, 

and other materials. The process can operate at atmospheric pressure without 

flames and without direct feed of fuel 

into the oxidation chamber. 

(See page 62.) 

Hermetic Wafer Bonding by Use 

of Microwave Heating 

The technique has the potential to become a standard one for bonding in the 

fabrication of microelectromechanical 

systems. 

(See page 66.) 

Macroextraction for Purification 

of Nucleic Acids 

Nucleic acids can he quickly extracted 

from relatively large volumes of starting 

materials. This technique can facilitate 

diagnoses and studies of infectious and 

genetic diseases. 

(See page 69.) 

ore

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34 For More Information Circle No. 410 NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
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For Mor. Infonnotlon Cbd. No. 544
M. 

k4/ Special Coverage: Composites and Plastics 

O Polyorganosioxanes for Coating Porous Ceramic Insulation 

Protective coating and repairs can be performed relatively easily. 

Ames Research Center Moffett Field, California 

Liquid and paste poiyorganosiloxane formulations 

(which become high-temperature- and oxidation-resistant organosilicone-based ceramics upon curing) have 

been invented for use in (1) 

protecting porous, lightweight ceramic thermal insulation materials against 

aeroconvective thermal 

degradation and (2) repairing and bonding such materials. These formulations 

were originally intended especially for application to 

the fibrous refractory composite insulation (FRCI) 

tiles that protect parts of 

the space shuttles during 

re-entry into the terrestrial 

atmosphere; they may also 

be suitable for application 

to similar insulating tiles in 

laboratory and industrial 

furnaces. 

A formulation of this type 

starts out as a mixture of (1) 

one or more liquid di- and 

tn-functional organosilanes; 

(2) one or more suitable 

fillers to enhance chemical, 

mechanical, and/or thermal properties of the uncured mixture and/or the 

organosilicone end product; and (3) water. The 

functionality of the organosilanes resides in alkoxy 

groups attached to the silicon atoms. Before applicaUon to a ceramic thermalinsulation surface that one 

protect or bond, the mixture 

to cure partially at room temp 

the hydrolysis and partial con 

of the organosilanes with 

yielding liquid polyorganosilo; 

completely polymerized organosilicones) with unreacted silanol groups. 

Also formed in the condensation reaction are alcohols, which become dissolved in the remaining water. The resulting mixture can be applied to the

is altemperature to

t. The mixture

continues to cure at room temperature,

eventually becoming a hard polyorganosiloxane coat. The continued

curing occurs by condensation of the

unreacted silanol groups. If desired, curing can be accelerated by heating. When

exposed to still higher temperature (especially in an 

extreme oxidative and aeroconvective environment like 

that experienced by a spacecraft during re-entry), the 

coat becomes an oxidationresistant and thermally stable protective ceramic on 

the underlying ceramic insulation. 

A low-viscosity, watery formulation of this type, with 

or without one or more 

fillers, would ordinarily be 

applied to a porous ceramic 

tile and allowed to soak into 

a surface layer of pores so 

that, upon curing, it could 

form a protective surface 

layer within and on the ceramic substrate to prevent 

the entry of hot gases. A viscous liquid formulation containing larger amounts of 

fillers could be applied to 

the surface of the ceramic 

tile to form a hard, impermeable layer on the external surface of the ceramic. A 

highly viscous formulation 

in the form of a paste could 

be suitable as an adhesive 

and/or filler for fabrication 

or repair. For example, the 

paste could be used to fill 

small holes caused by chipping or to cement plugs in 

place to fill larger holes (see 

figure). 

This work was done by 

Daniel B. Leiser Ming-ta S. 

I Timothy S. Chen of Ames Reenter. For further information, acTechnical Support Package (TSP) 

e at www.nasateth.com under the 

category. 

yen/ion has been patented by NASA 

(U.S. Patent No. 5,985,433). Inquiries concerning nonexclusive or exclusive license for 

its commercial development should be addressed to the Patent Counsel, Ames Research 

Center, (650) 604-5104. Refer to ARC14077. 

Original Protective 

Glassy Coat on Tile

Damaged Region 

Porous

Ceramic Tile

I 

Cylindrical Hole Bored in 

Damaged Region 

Cylindrical Plug 

y r .r/)/,rr1,)r z,i 

Plug Cemented in 

Bored Hole 

Gap in Surface Layer Repaired With Bond Formed With Organopolysiloxane-Based Liquid - Organolysiloxane-Based Paste 

t77 /71 

A Damaged Region of a Thermal-Insulation Tile is bored out to a cylindrical 

shape to receive a cylindrical repair plug. Prior to insertion of the plug in the 

hole, the side and bottom of the plug and/or the hole are coated with a viscous 

polyorganosiloxane .based adhesive. After insertion, the outer surface of the 

plug is coated with a dilute organopolysiloxane formulation to close the opening in the original glassy protective coat. 

seeks to surface of the ceramic insulation by Hsu, our 

is allowed spraying, brushing, rolling, flowing, or search Ci 

36 www.nasatech.com NASA Tech Bnefs, May 2001
Ne 

performance lubricants 

Thermal Stability of Krytox Grease 

TEMPERATURE l) 

100 

200 300 400 500600

700 9)) low 1200 140) 00)) 

j

kPiD 

 o Ix 

0

0 100 ))O 400 500 500 700 5001000 

TEMPERATURE C) 

WITHDUPONT TM KRYTOX5 BUILT INTO THE EQUATION,

YOU'LL FIND THE PERFECT SOLUTION. 

Designing critical parts that have to last One formula fits any equation— Krytox'. 

bear;, The most advanced lubricant formulated from space-age fluoropolymer technology. 

Krytoxe is nonflammable, chemically inert, and compatible with 

metals, elastomers and engineering plastics. It also stands up to harsh solvents.

• 

And it won't migrate. At temperatures ranging from -70°F to 650°F (where most 

lubricants degrade), Krytox excels -extending the life of critical components. No n tatict hat 

you're designing, the logical conclusion for durability is Krytox For more information on 

Krytox" and other DuPont performance lubricants, call 1-800-424-7502. 

a/teEnIEr Or visit our new, redesigned website at www.krytox.com . 

The DuPont Oval Logo, DuPont'", The miracles of sciencemn, and Krytox are 

trademarks or registered trademarks of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. The miracles f science 

H 11TH 

DUPONT DIFFERENTIAL THERMAL M4AIYSIS 

HEATING RATE - 5-C per ,flI,IH 

ATMOSPHERE - Ninmmgenr 00,,L per ,,eerte 

JISREOF 

DECOMPOSITION 

THICKENER 

MELTS

2 

For More Information Circle No. 551
Composites and Plastics 

S Polyorganosioxane Waterproofmg for Porous Ceramics 

Relatively nontoxic coating materials can be applied and cured easily. 

Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Cah[ornia 

Liquid waterproofing agents based 

on polyorganosiloxanes have been invented for use in treating porous, lightweight, fibrous ceramic thermal-insulation materials in both tile (rigid) and 

blanket (flexible) forms. Whereas 

silane-based waterproofing materials 

developed previously for this purpose 

are toxic and volatile and must he apA) RESEARCH 

SYSTEMS 

A Kodak Company 

Telephone: 303.7869900 

lnfo@ResearchSystems.com

ft n ft,tcwfldS,'4sb 

NQterrt,cTe!Ie,tç,dydt! ,c4*.eo*ce

plied in tedious procedures (involving 

repeated injection at multiple locations 

by use of syringes), the present formulations are nontoxic and nonvolatile 

and can be applied by ordinary coating 

procedures. 

Waterproofing of lightweight, fibrous 

ceramic thermal-insulation materials is 

needed for the following reasons:

These materials are often hygroscopic. 

Because of its porosity and hygroscopicity, such a material can absorb as much 

as five times its own weight in water. In 

addition to adding unacceptably to the 

weight of the insulation, absorbed 

water could give rise to freeze/thaw 

damage or to damage from explosive 

vaporization upon sudden exposure to 

very high temperature. 

A waterproofing agent of the present type is formulated as an aqueous 

solution of di- and tri-alkoxyfunctional 

organosilanes, the molecules of which 

contain hydrocarhyl groups of between 1 and 10 carbon atoms. The 

functionality resides in alkoxide 

groups attached to the silicon atoms. 

Before application to a ceramic thermal-insulation material, the solution is 

allowed to cure partially at room temperature by the hydrolysis and partial 

condensation of the organosilanes 

with the water, yielding low-molecularweight polyorganosiloxanes with unreacted silanol groups. Also formed in 

the condensation reaction are small 

amounts of alcohols, which become 

dissolved in the water. If desired, alcohol can be added to the solution to facilitate drying; however, it has been 

Ibund that the addition of water alone 

yields satisfactory results. Thus, unlike 

previously developed waterproofing 

materials, which generally contain 

such toxic, volatile solvents as toluene, 

xylene, naphtha, and/or lacquer thinner, this waterproofing agent is relatively nontoxic and nonvolatile. 

The resulting solution can be applied to the ceramic insulation that 

one seeks to render waterproof by any 

suitable conventional coating technique - for example, spraying, brushing, rolling, or flowing. The solution 

penetrates the ceramic substrate to 

some depth by capillary action in the 

pores. Thus, what is formed is not a 

(ontinuous coat on the exterior surl:ice that would seal against penetration of all liquids and gases; instead, 

the interior surfaces of the pores beone coated with a thin layer of water-

)roofing material that adds little to the 

overall weight of the ceramic. The waterproofing treatment is completed by 

mild heating (typically to no more than 

about 100 °C) to drive the condensation reaction to completion and to dry 

the coated ceramic substrate. Heating 

For More Information Circle No. 411 NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
•1-

-:, 

;s. 

•

'•. •4

NASA-Glenn 

Research Center

CM 12345 

SAMPLES 

c ---- .. LAS...-.. 

IDEALIZED CROSS SECTION THROUGH ONE HOOP 

Semicircular SiC Hoops that have been reaction-bonded to SiC/SiC composite substrates are used to 

hold wires in place. The substrates shown here are flat, but the concept has also been demonstrated 

on curved substrates. 

can be effected by use of a heat gun, 

heat lamp or any other convenient 

means. 

This work was done by Daniel B. Leiser, 

Domenick E. Cagliostro, Ming-ta S. Hsu, 

and Timothy S. Chen of Ames Research

Center. For further information, access 

the Technical Support Package (TSP) free 

on-line at www.nasatech.com under the 

Materials category. 

This invention has been patented by 

NASA (U.S. Patent No. 5,766,322). Inquiries concerning nonexclusive or exclusive 

license for its commercial development 

should be addressed to the Patent Counsel, 

Ames Research Center, (650) 604-5104. 

Refer to ARC-14068. 

P Attachment of Small SIC Hoops to SiC-Based Ceramics 

and Composites 

These hoops can be used to hold sensor lead wires in place. 

John H. Glenn Research Center Cleveland, Ohio 

A technique for holding sensor lead 

wires in place on substrates made of 

SiC-based monolithic ceramic or 

SiC/SIC fiber-reinforced ceramic-matrix composite materials involves routing the wires through semicirciilii 

hoops that have been reaction-bonded 

to the substrates. These hoops 

made of SIC-based materials similar 

identical to the substrate materi;d 

This technique was devised to prestill 

the detachment of lead wires from sui 

face-mounted thin-film sensor system, 

(e.g., thermocouples and strain 

gauges) during testing of the substrates 

(panels, subcomponents, etc.) at temperatures >1,000 °( in the presence of 

high-speed gas flows. 

The reaction-bonding process used to 

join the hoops to the substrates is called 

"ARCJoinT" (which signifies "Affordable, Robust Ceramic Joining Technology"). This process was described in several previous NASA Tech Briefs articles. 

including "Joining of SiC-Based Ceramic 

and Fiber-Reinforced Composite Parts" 

(LEW-l6405), Vol. 22, No. 5 (May 1998), 

page 54; "Reaction-Forming Method for 

Joining SiC-Based Ceramic Parts" (LEW16661), Vol. 23, No. 3 (March 1999), 

page 50; and "Reaction-Forming Method 

for .joining SiC-Based Parts" (i.EW16827), Vol. 24, No. 4 (April 2000), page 

59. To recapitulate: A carbonaceous mixtare is applied between the parts to be 

joined. The parts are heated to a temperature of 115±5 O( for 10 to 20 minutes. This action cures the mixture, 

bonding the parts with moderate 

strength. Next, silicon or a silicon alloy in 

tape, paste, or slurry form is applied to 

the joint regions. The parts are heated to 

a temperature between 1,250 and 1,425 

°C for 5 to 10 minutes, causing the silicon to melt, infiltrate the joints, and 

react with carbon. The finished, fullstrength joints contain silicon carbide 

with minor amounts of silicon and other 

phases. The joints are expected to retain

mechanical strength and integrity at temperatures up to 1,350 "C in air. 

Once hoops have been joined to a 

substrate via this approach, the

lead wires can be slipped through the 

hoops (see figure) and connected to 

the sensors. Any excess space between 

the lead-wire insulation and the hoop 

NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001 www.nasatc-ch.com 39
Composites and Plastics 

can be filled with a refractory cement 

or another nonreactive material, if 

necessary, to prevent the wires from 

moving. 

As an alternative to SiC as a starting 

material, hoops could be made initially 

of carbon - more specifically, graphite. 

If carbon hoops are used, then additional silicon is applied to the joints and

the carbon is converted to silicon carbide during the bonding process. The 

advantage of this approach is the relative 

ease of machining graphite (vs. machining SiC). 

This work was done ly J.

 Douglas Kiser 

Jih.Fen Li, and Lisa C Martin of Glenn Research Center and Mrilyunjay Singh ofDynacs Engineering Co. For further information, access the Technical Support Package 

(TSP) free on-line at wwmnasatech.com

under the Materials category. 

Inquiries concerning rights for the commercial use of this invention should be addressed 

to NASA Glenn Research Center Commercial 

Technology Office, Attn: Steve Fedor Mail 

Slop 4-8, 21000 Brookpark Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44135. Refer to LEWJ 7009. 

S Improved Polymeric Composite Materials for Dental Fillings 

In comparison with prior formulations, these materials shrink less. 

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Genter, Houston, Texas 

Composite materials that include 

combinations of metal oxide and silica 

nanoparticles in polymeric matrices 

have been invented for primary use as 

dental fillings, dental and bone adhesives, and the like. There have been 

previous efforts to develop polymeric 

replacements for the amalgam used 

traditionally as dental filling material, 

but those efforts involved polymers 

that exhibited unfavorable characteristics, including shrinkage and poor adhesion to bone. Strong adhesion is desirable and zero shrinkage is essential 

for a dental filling material because accumulated stresses from shrinkage can 

cause debonding with consequent 

leakage and attack by microbes. The 

present materials are formulated to 

obtain stronger adhesion and less 

shrinkage. 

A somewhat detailed presentation of 

historical and technical background is 

prerequisite to a meaningful description 

of the invention. One polymeric material that had been suggested previously 

for use in dental fillings is made from 

the monomer bis-glycidylmethylmethacrylate (bis-GMA). The use of bisGMA together with other ingredients 

usually included in dental adhesives or 

fillings yields materials with desirable 

physical properties, but these materials 

exhibit considerable post-shrinkage and 

adhere poorly to teeth. 

Other polymeric filling materials also 

exhibit less than the desired amounts of 

adhesion to tooth surfaces. In order to 

obtain desired bonding on enamel or 

dentin, the protein coatings on the 

enamel or the smear level on the dentin 

must be removed. Traditionally, this has 

been done by use of such organic acids 

as phosphoric, citric, lactic, and diamine 

dicarboxylic acid. Thus, many tooth-filling products contain polyacids as stirface-cleaning and priming agents for

enamel and dentin. Because bis-GMA is 

not inherently adhesive to tooth surfaces, similar provisions for etching by 

acids would have to be made if bis-GMA 

were to be used. 

Another class of candidate dental 

adhesive and filling materials includes 

some nematic liquid crystals that can 

be photopolymerized within seconds, 

at temperatures in the vicinity of 90 

°C. These materials form densely 

cross-linked networks of reaction extent greater than 95 percent and exhibit very little polymerization shrinkage because of the high packing 

efficiency that already obtains in the 

nematic state. However, polymerization at lower temperatures (including 

room temperature) results in undesirable intervening smectic and crystalline phases that make the materials 

unsuitable as medical and dental 

restoratives. This completes the background information. 

In a representative composite material 

of the present invention, the matrix 

resin preferably consists of, or at least includes, an acrylate or methacrylatebased nematic liquid-crystal monomer 

that is photopolymerizable at room temperature and exists in the nematic state 

(with suppression of crystallinity) at 

room temperature. The resin is formulated to be able to accommodate a high 

loading of metal oxide or metal oxide 

and silica nanoparticles, to enable the 

resin/particle mixture to flow when 

pushed into cavities to be filled, and to 

form a high-molecular-weight polymer, 

with little or no shrinkage upon polymerization. 

The metal oxide and silica nanopartides help to provide strength. The metal 

oxide particles can also be used to impart opacity for x-ray photography. 

While any metal capable of forming one 

or more amphoteric oxide(s) could be

used, tantalum is particularly advantageous for imparting x-ray opacity to the 

composite. 

For compatibility with teeth, the metal 

oxide particles must not exhibit high 

surface acidity. The surface acidity of 

tantalum oxide nanoparticles is neutralized by mixing, with the particles, a polymerizable, biocompatible, heterocyclic 

base (e.g., an alkene-terminated imidazole or phosphate) that can form complexes with the acid sites on the surfaces 

of the particles. 

In many cases, it is desirable to formulate resin/ n an oparticle filling mixtures to be translucent or transparent. 

In a typical dental restorative procedure, a liquid or pasty filling material 

is placed on a tooth and ultraviolet 

light used to effect the polymerization 

(cure) into a high-strength, hard, xray-opaque coating or filling, with essentially zero shrinkage. The transparency or translucency makes it 

possible to effect photopolymerization 

of a thicker layer of filler than would 

otherwise be possible, thus making it 

unnecessary to apply and photocure 

multiple thinner layers. 

This work was done by Stephen T Wellinghoff of Southwest Research Inst ituteforJohnson Space Center. For further information, 

access the Technical Support Package (TSP) 

free on-line at wwmnasateth.com under the 

Materials category. 

In accordance with Public Law 96-517, 

the contractor has elected to retain title to this 

invention. Inquiries concerning rights for its 

commercial use should be addressed to 

Stephen T Wellinghoff 

Southwest Research Institute 

6220 Culebra Road 

Drawer 28510 

San Antonio, TX 78228 

Refer to MSC-22842, volume and number 

of this NASA Tech Briefs issue, and the 

page number 

40 www.nasatech.com NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
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:C k VNWAINKNON 040
Material Thickness of Layer, mm Notable Characteristics of Layer Material 

Polyvinyl Fluoride (Tedlar 0.0380 Ultraviolet Diffuse Reflector. Emissivity = 0.826, 

TWH15BL3 or Equivalent) Absorptivity = 0.393 

Copper 0.0340 Roll-Annealed, Surface Treated With 

Electroplated Copper 

Polyvinyl Fluoride (Tedlar 0.0254 High Yield Elongation, Low Moisture 

TWH1OBS3 or Equivalent) Transmission 

Copper 0.0340 Roll-Annealed, Impermeable, Strong 

Polyvinyl Fluoride (Tedlar 0.0254 High Yield Elongation, Low Moisture 

TWH1 OBS3 or Equivalent) Transmission 

Polypropylene 0.0952 Very High Yield Elongation, Negligible Moisture 

Transmission, Heat-Sealability

This Six-Ply Polymer/Metal Laminate offers a combination of flexibility, strength, and thermal stability not available from any of the laminate materials taken by itself. The laminate has an overall thickness of 0.252 mm and an areal mass density of 40 gIft2 (0.43 kg/m'). 

Composites and Plastics 

• Polymer/Metal Laminate for Heat-Pipe and Radiator Envelopes 

This material is durable, flexible, hermetic, and heat-sealable. 

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Gentei; Houston, Texas 

A thin polymer/metal laminate has 

been developed for use as an envelope 

material for lightweight heat pipes and 

heat-pipe radiators that operate at temperatures up to 360 K. The material is 

flexible enough to make it possible to 

roll or fold heat pipes compactly for 

transport and to unfurl them for use. 

The material is durable enough to withstand folding or rolling without incurring leaks. In addition, it is heat-sealable 

and thus an attractive alternative to 

metal heat-pipe envelope materials, 

which must he welded or brazed at temperatures much greater than those 

needed for heat sealing. 

A polymer/metal laminate was selected for development because neither 

a metal nor a polymer foil exhibits the 

required properties, whereas the combination of materials could he expected to 

exhibit those properties. A metal foil can 

serve as a leak-proof pressure boundary 

for containing a heat-transfer fluid, but 

it fatigues easily and fails through 

growth of cracks and/or pinholes at the 

highly stressed tips of wrinkles that form 

during flexing. A polymer film has the 

required flexibility and does not develop 

cracks or pin holes when flexed; however, air and the vapor of the heat-transfer fluid can diffuse through a polymer 

film. When the two materials are 

bonded together in a laminate, the 

metal foil serves as the fluid-containment and pressure boundary, while the 

polymer film supports the metal foil, 

preventing large localized stresses and

thus increasing the flex-fatigue resistance of the metal foil. With the proper 

selection of laminate layers, a laminate 

can he designed to exhibit such desired 

characteristics as flex-fatigue resistance, 

high emissivity, and resistance to ultraviolet radiation. 

The present laminate contains six 

plies. It is an improved derivative of 

four-ply polymer/metal laminates that 

are used commercially to package 

foods and medicines and that do not 

have the strength or the high-temperature stability required for the heat-pipe 

application. 

The table describes the six layers. The 

two copper layers provide the hermetic 

seal; in contrast, all commercial laminates use only single metal layers. The 

use of two metal layers in this laminate 

affords redundancy for protection in the 

event that a leak arises in one metal 

layer. The innermost layer is made of a 

heat-sealable polymer to ease fabrication. The outer polyvinyl fluoride layer 

provides the optical properties needed 

for efficient radiation of heat. 

This work was done hvJohn D. Cornwell 

o[ Johnson Space Center and Jo/in F. 

Fate and Nelson .j. Gernert of Thermacore, 

Inc. For fur/her information, access the 

Technical Support Package (TSP) free online at www.nasatech.com under the Materiots category.

MSC-22856 

S Hybrid Composite Structures Made From 

Polybenzoxazole Fibers 

Strength-to-thickness ratios would be increased. 

NASA 'sJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 

Hybrid composite-material (fiber/matrix) structures of a proposed type would 

incorporate recently developed polybenzoxazole (PBO) fibers that feature high 

strengths and high moduli of elasticity 

and which can be made in much thinner 

sections than are possible with graphite 

fibers. The PBO fibers could he used, for 

example, in skins, face sheets, or panels, 

any or all of which could be made as 

multiple-angle-ply Iayups.

In comparison with similar structures 

made from graphite fibers to satisfy a 

given set of strength and stiffness requirements, those made from PBO 

fibers to satisfy the same set of requirements could be thinner. In a typical application, PBO-fiber laminated face 

sheets or skins would be bonded to 

graphite stiffeners or honeycomb cores 

to make hybrid composite stiffened 

sandwich structures thinner and less

massive than the corresponding structures made with graphite (only) fibers, 

due to the thinner sections possible with 

PBO fibers. 

This work was done by Joseph Lewis of Caltech for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For further information, access the 

Technical Support Package (TSP) fi-ee on-line 

at www.nasatech.com under the Materials 

category. 

NPO-20774 

42 wwi.nasatech.cons NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001 
L 

L

4T 

the evolution in servo braking has begun 

Nexen's Eclipse servo motor brake started a revolution in motion control. With high braking strength 

and a flexible, universal design, Eclipse proved it was the strongest, safest, and most efficient brake 

available. To meet customer requests, Eclipse has evolved. New models expand the product line 

to eight size groups, fitting more than 250 servo motors from 15 manufacturers. Designed to fit all 

axes—vertical and horizontal, equipped to override virtually any motor, Eclipse is the natural selection 

for all servo motor applications. For complete information, stop at www.nexengroupcom/eclipse. 

neen.. 

Nexen Group, Inc. 

560 Oak Grove Parkway 

Vadnais Heights, MN 55127 

651 4845900 

Toll Free 800 843 7445 

For More Information Circle No. 569 or Visit www.nasatech.com/569
-0 Special Coverage: Composites and Plastics 

room-temperature-curing 

adhesives combine a mixture of acrylic emulsions 

with capsules of activators. 

The material remains inert 

until the shearing action ii iugagciuent to a mating part causes the 

capsules to break, allowing the adhesive to cure. They can be applied 

by most types of coaters. 

The AA0695 general-purpose adhesives are yellow and feature a 72-

hour cure time; the AA0895 are adjustable, green in color, and have 

72-hour cure; and the AA0795 high-temperature adhesives are yellow 

with a 72-hour cure. Application of the adhesive generates no heat to 

affect platings. Applied assembled nuts and bolts can be removed 

and re-used tip to three times. 

For More Information Circle No. 724 

%laster Bond, Hackensack, 

J .

 offers the Polymer Svsin Supreme 3AOHT electrically insulating epoxy. 

4 ,II one-component thermal1% conductive epoxy resin 

1,rinulation for high-speed 

duction operations. It 

- ., I heres to both metalli 

.111(1 nonmetallic substrates

such as ceramics, printed 

circuit boards, and most 

s I.ist U 'Fire its\ s shelf ItIr is six nioitlhs at 75°F. 

The I ,iu sNstcni is it liii nial conductor and maintains electrical 

insulation properties. lies.Its high strength is maintained after curing at 

5-I0 minutes at 300'F, or 20-30 minutes at 250°F. It is best suited for 

advanced electronic circuitry, where miniaturization increases the 

need for effective heat dissipation. The epoxy is available in pints, 

quarts, gallons, pails, and drums. 

For More Information Circle No. 722 

Tra-Con. Bedford, MA, oflets TRA-BOND 2153 thermally conductive epoxy 

Isir bonding transistors, dides, resistors, integrated 

circuits, and other heatsensitive components to 

circuit boards. The twopart electrically insulating 

compound develops highimpact bonds at room ternIII lis-ji 11,tii,lci N%hilc maintaining electrical insulation. 

The epoxy bonds to itself and to metals, silica, steatite, alumina, 

sapphire, and other ceramics, as well as glass, plastics, and other 

materials. It features a wide temperature range and compatible coefficient of thermal expansion. It also is resistant to many solvents. 

For More Information Circle No. 727

Parofluor U LTRAT5I periluorinated elastomer materials from Parker Hannifin 

-. Seal Group. Irvine, CA, are designed for 

/ extreme sealing applications and are forinitiated to reduce contamination in 

harsh environments. The materials are 

suited for chemical processing, semiconductor fabrication, and other applications where thermal stability, chemical 

-

- resistance, and high purity are required. 

The series consists of new perfluorinated compounds, each with physical properties that oflci it (hI so 1 of sealing levels. Available in black, white, 

and translucent, the materials can be used in temperatures up to 

608°F. They are resistant to chemicals, organic and inorganic acids, 

bases, amines, steam and hot water, ketones, and aldehydes. The 

materials can be formed into 0-rings, molded shapes, and metal/rubber composite seals. 

For More Information Circle No. 726 

It line of thermoset cast polyurethane 

thin films is available from Mearthane 

ducts Corp., Cranston, RI. The films 

- •1

i available in a variety of dimensions 

iiil may be custom formulated for 

litmical, physical, and electrical con-

- .

ii tivitv requirements, including abra-

-

. ..

- 

n-resistant coatings, self-adhesive 

pes, gaskets, and static control. 

I he films can be laminated to other 

I ui ials such as PTFE, or can be coatI 'sitli adhesives to create composite 

11111 structures with multiple performance and manufacturing capabilities. 

This iii as ,ulalik iii ii is. opaque, translucent, and near clear, 

with or without slain dissipation properties. Available hardness 

ranges from 90 Shore A to 75 Shore D. The films are temperaturestable to 250'F. 

For More Information Circle No. 723 

N\PI,AS1 ° and NYSEAL® 

sealing elements from Nylok 

Fastener Corp., Macomb, 

MI, are applied to threaded 

and unthreaded fasteners to 

-

create gasket-type seals. The 

t_-V ;;000, NYPLAS process applies a 

Plastisol material under the 

heads of fasteners, pop-style 

rivets, and double-ended 

flanged screws to seal out water, dust, and air. The black-colored 

sealant also provides noise-dampening anti-rattle. 

N'tSEAL is a pre-applied, permanently fused sealing element that 

prevents leakage of fluids under pressures up to 500 psi. The pliable, 

greets-colored coating also is used for preventing galvanic reactions 

between aluminum and stainless steel parts, and covers 360° of the 

bearing surface of the fastener's head, and 2 to 3 thread pitches down 

the shank. As the fastener is seated, the material compresses and fills 

the void between the hearing surface (lithe head and the countersink 

or counterbore. 

For More Information Circle No. 725 

ND Industries, Clawson, Ml. 

offers ND Microspheres 

water-based microencapsi Ilated acrylic thread adhesives that are applied 1 

threaded fasteners. The 

44 www.nasatech.com NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
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For More Information Circle No. 584
ft iest anu 

OA Mass-Spectrometer System for Detecting Gas Leaks 

This versatile, expandable system can be controlled from a safe remote location. 

John F Kennedy Space Center, florida 

The Hydrogen Umbilical Mass Spectrometer (HUMS) consists of an integrated sample delivery system, a commercial mass-spectrometer-based gas 

analyzer, and a set of calibration gas mixtures traceable to NIST (National Institine for Standards and Technology). 

The system, except for the calibration 

gas mixtures and the remote operator 

display, fits into a standard 24-in, wide, 6-

ft high, 36-in, deep (0.61 by 1.83 by 0.91 

m, respectively) equipment rack and is 

powered by 120-Vac, 30-A, 60-Hz source. 

It was designed to perform leak detection and measurement of cryogenic propellants (oxygen and hydrogen) from a 

remote location during shuttle-launch 

countdown. It is used specifically to sample the background gas surrounding the 

17-in. (0.43-rn) Orbiter-ET disconnect, 

looking for leakage of gaseous hydrogen. The capability to monitor shuttle 

purge gases and cryogenic hydrogen fill 

and drain line T-0 disconnect helium 

purge gas is incorporated into the shuttle installation on each Mobile Launch 

Platform (MLP). 

HUMS was designed to switch rapidly 

between background gases (helium, nitrogen, or air) during normal operation. The operator has the ability to remotely select one of eight sample lines 

and between any of six calibration gas 

mixtures. It can measure from 0 to 100 

percent hydrogen, helium, or nitrogen; 

0 to 25 percent oxygen; and 0 to 1 percent argon, in any combination in either a helium, nitrogen, or air background. It has an internal cycle mode, 

added after installation, to cycle between various pre-set sample and calibration gas lines on a continuous basis, 

if desired. 

Operational features include the ability to update the reading for background of each gas in the mixture, 

thereby avoiding performance of a complete recalibration during operation. 

This saves a considerable amount of 

time. The zero gas for the background 

of interest must be monitored for a couple of minutes to allow the system to stabilize and a reading taken. Only the zero 

coefficient in the calibration equation

for the background of interest is updated. Switching between backgrounds 

requires only changing to the new background and updating the zero reading 

for each species. This flexibility is critical 

when testing in an environment where 

samples are taken from helium, nitrogen, and air during the test. After testing 

is complete, a sequence of readings in 

each background, consisting of zero, 

test, and span gas mixtures, in that 

order, provides post-test verification that 

the system performance remained tinchanged since the initial calibration was 

performed, pre-test. 

Selection of calibration gas mixture 

concentrations was critical to remote 

verification of performance. Three concentrations of each gas are included, 

each in backgrounds of helium and nitrogen. This calibration /verification 

technique was developed after installation of the Hazardous Gas Detection System (HGDS) in 1979 and is based on experience gained during operation of 

that system. The performance of the 

COTS multigas, multicollector magnetic 

sector analyzer is slightly dependent on 

background gas, whether helium or nitrogen dominates the mixture. Independent calibration curves are used, depending whether the unknown sample is 

drawn from either a helium or nitrogen/air background. 

During the calibration process, linear 

calibration curves are generated for 

each gas in the mixture (hydrogen, hehum, nitrogen, oxygen, argon), based 

on pure background (helium or nitrogen) and a span gas (1 to 10 percent of 

each gas, in each background). An independent test gas, containing mixtures 

approximating red-line levels (where action is to be taken, based on readings of 

the sample) is used to both verify a good 

calibration (test gas reading lies on the 

line generated by zero and span, for 

each species) and to compare directly 

with the unknown sample, if necessary, 

to remove uncertainty in reading the unknown mixture. The choice of calibration gases allows differentiation of leak 

sources of cryogenic oxygen from oxygen contained in air. The operator has

the ability to measure the ratio of oxygen to argon (-20), indicative of air intruding into the purge gas. Cryogenic 

oxygen contains no argon. 

The design of HUMS achieved two 

goals. The first was to provide a permanently installed replacement for the Interim-HUMS (I-HUMS), a system designed and built over a weekend (in 

part to support nearly simultaneous 

STS-35, STS-38 launch attempts) to be 

portable between shuttle MLPs. IHUMS replaced the one-time installation of the Turbo Mass Spectrometer 

(TMS) developed for launch of STS-26R 

(first shuttle launch after 51-L). TMS 

was designed to verify the performance 

of the 17-in. (0.43-rn) Hydrogen Orbiter-ET Disconnect during hydrogen 

fill and drain operations, prior to shuttle launch. TMS demonstrated the ability of a high-vacuum turbo-molecular 

pump to operate and survive in a high 

vibration environment. 

Use of a turbo-molecular pump replaced the need for ion pumps to 

achieve high vacuum for the mass-spectrometer-based gas analyzer. Ion pumps 

are unable to pump high concentrations of helium, restricting earlier versions of mass spectrometers to sampling 

in backgrounds of either nitrogen or 

air. The HUMS data acquisition and 

control system was designed to match 

the standard CORE interface planned 

to replace the Shuttle Launch Processing System (LPS), but retrofitted to interface with a standard LPS "XCard" 

when the CORE concept was abandoned during HUMS. 

This work was done by Greg Breznik, Barry 

Davis, and Frederick Adams of Kennedy 

Space Center; Guy Naylor, Francisco 

Lorenzo-Luaces, Charles H. Curley, Richard 

j Hut; Terry D. Greenfield, David P J'loyd, 

Curtis M. Lampkin, Donald Young, Gary N. 

McKinney, and Don Greene of LockheedMartin; and David B. Wedekind, Larry 

Lingvay, and Andrew P Schwalb formerly of 

1-NET For further information, access the 

Technical Support Package (TSP), free online at wwmnasatech.com under the Test 

and Measurement category. 

KSC-12109106 

-

-

- 

46 www.nasatech.com NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
<; I! 

IA' \1ii 

ii 4 

4 

• Large color display for 

real-time data viewing 

1 Intuitive touch-screen interface 

simplifies setup and operation 

• Look-back while recording 

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• Up to 32 analog or digital 

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• Virtual Chart efficiently stores 

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• Ethernet interface for command 

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• High-resolution chart printing for 

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For More Information Circle No. 518

V
Electronic Components and Systems 

Oscillator-Stability Analyzer Based on a Time-Tag Counter 

This system would combine the best characteristics of prior single- and dual-mixer systems. 

NASAJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 

A proposed system for simultaneous 

characterization of the instability of several precise, low-noise oscillators of 

nominally equal frequency would be 

built around a commercially available 

time-tag counter. One of the oscillators 

would be deemed to be a reference oscillator, and each of the other oscillators 

would be compared with it by operation 

of a combination of hardware and software. In addition, without further modification of the hardware, any two nonreference oscillators could be compared 

with each other via software. 

The design of the proposed stability 

analyzer is of a type called "dual mixer" 

in the precise-time-and-frequency-measurement art because the comparison of 

any two nonreference oscillators would 

involve the outputs of two mixers. There 

are also single-mixer stability analyzers. 

Single-mixer analyzers exhibit low measurement noise, but an offset-frequency 

reference oscillator is needed for each 

pair of nonreference oscillators to be 

compared. A prior dual-mixer analyzer 

contains only one offset-frequency reference oscillator, but exhibits noise 

greater than that of a single-mixer analyzer. The proposed system would offer 

both the convenience and low cost of a 

dual-mixer analyzer and measurement 

noise about as low as that of the best single-mixer analyzer.

A typical prior dual-mixer stability analyzer utilizes interpolation or extrapolation to convert several incoherent channels of beat-note zero crossings into 

phase residuals at a predetermined grid 

of times, so that the residuals of any two 

channels i and j can be subtracted to 

give an i-vs.-j comparison. This measurement is contaminated by uncanceled 

noise from the offset-frequency reference oscillator. The proposed system 

would take advantage of a modern highrate time-tag counter to collect zerocrossing times of beat notes, the nominal frequency of which must be much 

greater than the desired data rate. Then 

the system would effect a combination of 

interpolation and averaging to process 

the time tags into low-rate phase residuals at the desired grid times. The advantage over prior art would be greater cancellation of the reference noise. 

The figure schematically depicts the 

system. The oscillators to be compared 

would be of nominal frequency v,. The 

frequency of the reference oscillator 

would be offset by an amount v. The offset reference signal would he mixed with 

the signal from each of the nonreference oscillators, and the mixer outputs 

would be low-pass filtered, thereby generating beat notes of nominal frequency 

Vb. By use of zero-crossing detectors, the 

beat notes would be converted to

square-wave signals. The time-tag 

counter would capture the zero-crossing 

time tags of all the beat notes on a common time axis. 

In software, the time tags would be 

converted to phase residuals that would 

be averaged over sequential intervals of 

duration t. These intervals would be the 

same for all channels. The averages thus 

computed would constitute one of the 

sets of output data of the system. An essential feature of the design is that t, 

must be much greater than the beat period t b = l/Vb. 

Each beat note would yield phase 

residuals for one pair-channel [e.g., the 

ith channel, defined with respect to the 

ith oscillator (a nonreference oscillator) 

vs. the zeroth oscillator (the reference 

oscillator)]. Because the averaging intervals would be the same for all pair-channels, the data for two pair channels 

could be differenced to give a synthesized dual-mixer (i-vs.-j) channel. The 

ability of this system to suppress the 

noise of the reference oscillator would 

depend on the relation t, >> t,,. 

This work was done by Charles Greenhall 

of Caltech for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For further information, access the 

ièchnical Support Package (TSP) free on-line 

at www.nasatech.com under the Electronic 

Components and Systems categvly. 

NPO-20 749 

Offset-Signal 1 - Vb

- 

Reference l r

Oscillator Pass Zero-crossing I Pair-Channel 1,0 Average Detector .0 

1I\

0 

0 Dual-Mixer Channel 1,2 

.JVr a .2 

Ii_L j_etectoj_ 

Zero Crossing a 

E Pair-Channel 2,0 Average

vs 42,0 Nonreferenc e 

Oscillators 2

_ 

vr

- 

HARDWARE I SOFTWARE

The Dual-Mixer Stability Analyzer would perform some of its functions in hardware and some in software. The back end of the hardware portion of the 

system would be a high-rate time-tag counter that would measure the times of zero crossings of beat notes.

- 

48 www.nasatech.com NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001 
H

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source and measure functions for big throughput advantages 

compared with multiple instrument systems. Designed for 

component production testing, these instruments combine 

a precision power supply and a highly repeatable 51/2-digit 

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I-Meter, and an ohmmeter. 

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50 For More Information circle No. 412 

A Loop Filter of this configuration can be made to behave as a perfect or imperfect 

integrator, depending on the choice of A1 and A2 and of a third parameter A3.

Electronics 

Flexible Carrier-Signal-Tracking Loop for a Transponder 

This loop could be programmed for perfect or imperfect integration. 

NASA 'S Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 

A proposed digital carrier-signal-tracking loop in 

a radio transponder could 

be programmed to operate 

in either a perfect-integration or an imperfect-integration mode. Although 

originally intended for use 

in a transponder aboard a 

spacecraft at a great distance from the Earth, the 

proposed loop might also 

be advantageously incorporated into terrestrial communication systems in 

which it is necessary to track 

the phases of received carrier signals. 

Either imperfect or perfect integration can be advantageous or disadvantageous, depending on state of signal reception. Among specialists in the design 

of carrier-signal-tracking loops, it is well 

known that as long as a carrier signal is 

present, the tracking performance of a 

loop that contains a perfect integrator is 

better than that of a loop that contains 

an imperfect in tegra I or. For l example.

the best-lock frequency of 

the loop drifts less if the 

integration is imperfect 

than it does if the integration is perfect. 

The proposed loop design would make it possible to choose whichever 

integration mode - perfect or imperfect - is 

currently more advantageous. The figure is a 

block diagram of a loop 

filter that can implement 

either mode. The transfer 

function of the loop can 

be given by A1 z + A2/(z— A3 ), where A1, 

A2 , and A2 are arbitrary parameters and 

zis the argument of the z transform (z = 

e', where T is the sample period of the 

digital circuitry and s is the complex-frequency variable of the Laplace transform). The transfer function is that of a 

perfect or imperfect integrator, depending on the choice of A1 , A3 , and A3. 

To obtain a perfect integrator, one 

must choose 

A=K, 

A9 = K2 Tr, and 

A 1 = 1, 

where K1 and K are parameters that 

determine the loop performance and 

TU is the sample period at the output of 

the loop error accumulator. 

To obtain an imperfect integrator, 

one must choose 

A1 = K(T1—t2)/(T—TO, 

A9 = 4 ( r2/ t 1)— [(Tv - 'r2 )T - 

and

= - (T/t1), 

where Kis the strong-signal loop gain 

and t 1 and 'r2 are the loop time-constant 

parameters. 

It is not necessary to select the parameters A1 and A3 with high precision: it 

suffices to set these parameters within 

about 1 percent of the values given in 

the equations above. However, the performance of the loop is quite sensitive to 

the value of A3 : For an imperfect integrator, A3 must be set at a value that is 

less than I by a small, precise amount. 

This work was done lit Jeff Berner James 

M. Layland, and Peter Kinman of Caltech 

fin- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

For further information, access the Technical 

Support Package (TSP) free on-line at 

www.nasatech.com under the Electronic 

Components and Systems category. 

NPO-20845

NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001 

when the frequency of the received carrier signal is offset from the best-lock frequency by an amount 8f, a loop that contains a perfect integrator exhibits zero 

phase error, whereas a loop that contains an imperfect integrator exhibits a 

phase error equal to 27t8f/a where aK 

is the loop gain. On the other hand, 

when a loop idles (that is, when the 

input to the loop consists solely of 

nl)ise then for a given loop bandwidth, 
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Electronics 

Simplified Construction of Conical Log-Spiral Antenna 

Mating parts align themselves during assembly. 

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas 

An improved design for a conical logspiral antenna (see Figure 1) simplifies 

construction and improves alignment. 

The radiating-element substructure of 

such an antenna must be properly 

aligned with the signalfeed substructure to obtain the correct impedance match for efficient 

coupling of the signal 

into or out of the antenna. This design prodes for mating parts, 

the faying surfaces of 

which enforce alignment initially during

A

construction and maintain alignment subsequently during use. 

Heretofore, the fabrication of a conical 

loe-soiral antenna tvniquired spiral strip, then wrapping the 

strip around a mold or (2) manually 

aligning a thin, injection-molded part 

with a feed wire. In either case, initial 

alignment depends on the subjective 

A 

0 

Key Slots

VIEW A-A 

Figure 2. A Machined Polytetrafluoroethylene Body defines 

the spatial relationships among 

the spiral arms and feed wires, 

thereby enforcing alignment.

judgement and skill of the technician, 

and the parts can become misaligned 

subsequently. 

In the present improved design, the 

outer conical surface is a machined surface on a single-piece polytetrafluoroethylene body (see Figure 2). The use 

of a machined solid piece guarantees 

consistency of the cone angle. The inside of the body is machined to provide 

space for a board that holds the feed 

circuit, plus key slots that accept opposite edges of the hoard, thus aligning 

the feed wires with the log-spiral pattern. Instead of wrapping an etched 

metal spiral onto the cone, the log-spiral metal pattern is etched onto the 

cone before final machining. 

This work was done by Roland 11 Shaw of 

Shason Microwave Corp. for Johnson Space 

Center. For further information, access the 

Technical Support Package (TSP) free on-line 

at wurwnasatech.com under the Electronic 

Components and Systems category. 

MSC-22334 

Two Feed Points 

Spiral Arms 

7(Metal Strips) 

- Dielectric Cone 

Feed Points 

VIEW A-A 

caily involved either Figure 1. A Typical Conical LogSpiral Antenna includes two spi- (1) etching a sheet of ral arms that must be kept in 

metal to form the re- alignment.

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52 For More Information Circle No. 413 NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
Faster clock speeds and higher chip I/O densities demand complex IC packages. 

Your package performance can significantly impact overall system performance. 

Effective characterization of high speed packages requires the power and 

accuracy of full 3D parasitic extraction. 

Rely on Ansofts high performance 

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^IW Software 

Program for Evaluating 

Spacecraft Designs and 

Missions 

Design for X (DFX) is a computer 

program that assists, at the preliminary 

stage of planning, in the evaluation of alternative spacecraft designs and mission 

scenarios. The input required by DFX 

includes a set of operations goals (scientific and engineering goals and constraints), a mathematical model of the 

spacecraft, and a set of scoring functions 

for quantifying the engineering utility 

and/or scientific value of various operations. DFX uses the operations-goals and 

model information, along with artificialintelligence-based planning and scheduling techniques, to generate a highlevel activity plan that is then scored by 

the provided functions. The benefits of 

using DFX to automate the evaluation of 

spacecraft designs include (1) improved 

scientific spacecraft design, leading to 

improved science return; (2) greater accuracy in analysis of margins and interactions, leading to improved operability 

of the spacecraft; and (3) decreased project risk (e.g., budget and schedule risk) 

from rapid prototyping and analysis of 

designs. 

This program was written by Robert Sherwood, Gregg Rabideau, Steve Chien, and Tobias Mann of Caltech for NASA's Jet 

Propulsion Laboratory. For further information, access the Technical Support Package 

(TSP) free on-line at www.nasatech.com

under the Software category. 

This software is available for commercial 

licensing. Please contact Don Hart of the California Institute of Technology at (818) 393-

3425. Refer to NPO-20492. 

O Programming Language 

for Automated Scheduling 

and Planning 

The ASPEN Modeling Language 

(AML) has been developed for use in 

the Automated Scheduling and Planfling Environment (ASPEN) software 

system. As described in prior NASA Tech 

Briefs articles, ASPEN is an object-oriented system that contains a modular, 

reconfigurable, reusable set of components that implement the elements commonly found in complex automatedscheduling application programs. AML 

has a simple syntax that makes it easy for

a user who lacks expertise in computer 

science and artificial intelligence to 

rapidly create a model of a spacecraftoperations domain for an ASPEN automated-scheduling application program. 

AML enables a user to construct a 

model, expressed as a plain-text file, that 

defines activities, resources, and states. A 

user can also modify a model without 

need to recompile ASPEN. AML encodes spacecraft operability constraints, 

flight rules, spacecraft hardware models, 

goals of scientific experiments, and operational procedures to enable the generation, by the automated-scheduling 

program, of low-level sequences of 

spacecraft operations. 

This program was written by Robert L. 

Sherwood, Alex Fukunaga, David Yan, Quoc 

Vu, Gregg Rabideau, Steve Chien, and Anita 

Govindjee of Caltech for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For further information, 

access the Technical Support Package (TSP. 

free on-line at u,wwna.catech.com under the 

Software category. 

This software is available for commercial 

licensing. Please contact Don Hart of the California Institute of Technology at (818) 393-

3425. Refer to NPO-20281. 

O Communication Software 

for Distributed Application 

Programs 

The Task Remote Asynchronous 

Message Exchange Layer (Tramel) software reduces the costs of distributing 

application programs across computer 

networks, including the Internet. 

Tramel implements robust, reliable, 

simple, highly portable interprocess 

communication, such that distributed 

application programs can tolerate extreme deterioration of communication 

links and elements of such a program 

can be stopped, moved to other computers (including computers with different operating systems), and 

restarted, all while the program is running and without alteration of any 

source code or configuration file. Because Tramel is based on asynchronous 

message passing, it can tolerate extremely low link performance without 

sacrificing transaction concurrency or 

relying on a multithreading system. 

Trarnel manages network connections 

for an application program, shielding 

the program from such details as

processor architectures, operating systems, and communication protocols. 

At the same time, Tramel affords monitoring capabilities that can keep application-program elements informed of 

the current configuration of the program. Tramel can be executed on any 

of a variety of computers running the 

UNIX, VxWorks, or Windows NT operating system. 

This program was written b' Scott Burleigh 

of Ca/tech for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For further information, access the 

Technical Support Package (TSP) free on-line 

at wwi.v.nasatech.com under the Software 

category. 

This software is available for commercial 

licensing. Please contact Don Hart of the California Institute of Technology at (818) 393-

3425. Refer to NPO-1 9889. 

Software for Coordinating 

Multiple Exploratory Robots 

A computer program coordinates the 

activities of multiple instrumented robotic vehicles of the "rover" type intended for use in scientific exploration. 

The program is a master/slave, distributed version of the ASPEN planning 

software, other versions of which have 

been reported in several prior NASA 

Tech Briefs articles. On the basis of an 

input set of goals and the initial conditions of each rover, the program generates a sequence of activities that satisfy 

the goals while obeying the resource 

constraints and rules of operation of 

each rover. The program includes a central planning subprogram that assigns 

goals to individual rovers in such a way 

as to minimize the total traversal time of 

all the rovers while maximizing the scientific return. The remainder of planning is distributed among the individual 

rovers: each rover runs a subprogram 

that plans its activities to attain the 

goal(s) assigned to it. 

This program was written by Tara Estlin, 

Darren Mutz, Steve Chien, Anthony Barrett, 

and Gregg Rabideau of Ca/tech for NASA's 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For furt her information, access the Technical Support Package (TSP) free on-line at www.nasatech.com

under the Software category. 

This software is available for commercial 

licensing Please contact Don Hart of the California Institute of Technology at (818) 393-

3425. Refer to NPO-21031. 

-

- 

54 %ww.nasatech.com NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
14, Oki A 

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For More Information Circle No. 597 or Visit www.nasatech.com/597
Software 

O Program Creates Code to 

Parse Text 

Saxj is a computer program that facilitates the development of programs 

that parse textual input in the Java programming language. Saxj is a parser 

generator that creates static Java 

parsers in the same sense in which 

YACC, Bison, and YACC++ are static 

parser generators that create static Clanguage parsers. Saxj creates Java object-oriented parsers on the basis of 

grammar specifications. Saxj uses an algorithm of the "look-ahead I token, 

look right" [LALR(1)] type to convert 

a grammar specification into a parser. 

Saxj is built upon implementation of 

this algorithm by use of a library ofJava 

classes. Grammar specifications in Saxj 

are intentionally similar to those in 

YACC, Bison, and YACC++, so that the 

documentation of Saxj can be nearly 

the same as that of YACC++. The various instantiations of the class of parsers 

contain a single definition of the parse 

table; it is in this sense that the parsers 

are characterized as static. All of the

parsers generated by the YACC family 

are similarly static. A dynamic parser is 

feasible in the case of machine learning. Saxj can be used, for example, for 

writing compiler software, for interpreting sequences of computer-generated commands, and for general language parsing. 

This program was written by Richard Weidner of Caltech for NASA's Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory. For further information, access 

the Technical Support Package (TSP) free online at wwuLnasateth.com under the Software category. 

This software is available for commercial 

licensing. Please contact Don Hart of the California Institute of Technology at (818) 393-

3425. Refer to NPO-21055. 

0 Program Creates Java 

Lexical Analyzers 

Luthorj is a computer program that 

creates static lexical analyzers in the 

Java programming language, in the 

same sense in which Flex and Lex create lexical analyzers in the C programming language. The majority of users 

of Luthorj are expected to be familiar 

with Lex, and Luthorj parses input 

files that are largely the same as Lex 

files. However, Luthorj is not merely a 

look-alike, Java version of Lex. The 

functionality of Luthorj is partly compatible with that of Flex, but Luthorj 

and Flex use different methods to provide similar functionality. The lexical 

analyzers created by Luthorj convert 

textual strings into tokens that, in 

turn, can be fed to parsers created by 

the Saxj program described in the preceding article. Luthorj converts input 

string specifications to lexical-analysis 

data structures by use of an algorithm 

that converts regular expressions to 

nondeterministic finite automata 

(NFA). The NFA are then mapped to 

deterministic finite automata (DFA). 

The combination of all DFA are represented as a transition table, which is 

stored in a file. The outputs of Luthorj 

are the transition table and the code 

to use it. 

This program was written by Richard Weidner of Caltech for NASA's Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory. For further information, access 

the Technical Support Package (TSP) free online at urwutnasateth.com under the Software 

category. 

This software is available for commercial 

licensing. Please contact Don Hart of the California Institute of Technology at (818) 393-

3425. Refer to NPO-21054. 

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56 For More Information Circle No. 414 NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
Still Imu2c2eltaml bauit haw ta ciit a, mark yauur IradL1ct? 

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Integrating our lasers into your existing application is easy. We design our CO2 lasers to be components - 

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For More information Circle No. 561
FASTCAM-ultima 1024

0 Mechanics 

Micromachmed Double Resonator 

The design affords both vibration isolation and low-loss suspension. 

NASA sJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 

A double-resonator design has been 

devised for a cloverleaf-shaped silicon 

microelectromechanical resonator. The 

double-resonator design provides for an 

inner, higher-frequency resonator suspended on an outer, lower-frequency 

resonator. This design concept affords 

several advantages, as described below. 

A typical prior design of a microelectromechanical resonator calls for a 

solidly mounted substrate. Solid mounting entails (1) poor vibration isolation

and (2) high energy losses in the substrate, with consequent decrease of the 

resonance quality factor (Q). The double-resonator design was inspired by the 

realization that solid mounting is not 

necessarily desirable and that if the substrate of a resonator is suspended on 

thin springs, what is formed is a doublemass resonator that can have a Q greater 

than that of the original resonator. In 

addition, the outer resonator helps to 

isolate the inner resonator from packaging stresses and from vibrations of external origin. 

The figure schematically depicts mathematical models of the previous single-resonator design and the present double-resonator design. The schematic diagrams 

reflect the observation that it is more accurate to model the substrate as a finite 

mass with damping than to assume that 

the substrate is so rigidly mounted that it 

represents an infinite mass. In the singleresonator design, resonator massA is 

coupled, via a spi tug of sujiriess 

k1 , to a damped substrate mass 

M2 . This model yields close 

agreement between predicted 

and measured Q factors. 

Simple Mass/Spring/Damper Models are used to compute the resonance frequencies and Q values of the single- In the double-resonator 

and double-resonator designs. design, inner resonator mass 

Damping Damping 

SINGLE RESONATOR DOUBLE RESONATOR 

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58 For More Information Circle No. 415 NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
V*jWN1jA %-Ibpl IF 14 '104- 3 0 i P

7 7A_-, 

FFT 

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LA 

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Cofl,WWI- Ding,,,, Time Do,,.,i,, Wnn.fon,, 10v. TI,,.. Dipi.y M.g.,Itud. -,Ti

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Mechanics 

M1 is suspended on a spring of stiffness 

k1 that is attached to an intermediate 

mass M2 , which, in turn, is coupled to 

damped substrate mass M3 via a spring 

of stiffness k5 . M2 is chosen to be much 

greater than M1 ; consequently, the frequency and mode shape of the higherfrequency (M1 ,k1 ,M5 ) resonance does 

not differ greatly from that of the single-resonator design. M3 is also chosen 

to be much greater than M1 ; this 

choice, in combination with the choice 

of M2 , and with the choice of k and k2 

to be approximately equal, ensures that 

the damping on M3 exerts little effect

on the Q of the higher-frequency resonance. 

Because of the isolation provided by k, 

very little of any mounting stress that might 

be imposed on M is coupled into k1 . In 

addition, because of the largeness of M2 

relative to M1 , very little of any vibration imposed on M5 propagates to M1 . Another advantage of the double-resonator design is 

that M2 can be tailored to exert a slight effect on the resonances (in other words, to 

tune the vibrating system); it is easier to 

tune in this way that to tailor k. 

In the prototype double resonator, the 

substrate of a cloverleaf resonator substructure is suspended by four springs 

that connect it to an outer frame. The 

lowest resonance frequency of the cloverleaf is designed to be 6 kHz, while the 

lowest resonance frequency for vibration 

isolation is designed to be 200 Hz. It has 

been predicted that the cloverleaf resonance will have a Q> 10, and that because of damping in the outer frame, the 

substrate resonance will have Q< 100. 

This work was done by Roman Gutierrez, 

Tony K. Tang, and Kirill Shcheglov of Caltech for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For further information, access the 

Technical Support Package (TSP)free on-line 

at wwunasatech.com under the Mechanics 

categor). 

In accordance with Public Law 96-517, 

the contractor has elected to retain title to this 

invention. Inquiries concerning rights for its 

coin rnerczal use should be addressed to 

Technology Reporting Office 

PL 

Mail Stop 122-116 

4800 Oak Grove Drive 

Pasadena, GA 91109 

(818) 354-2240 

Refer to APO-20658, volume and number 

this NASA Tech Briefs issue, and the 

page number 

Mechanical 

Breakaway Clutch 

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center 

Houston, Texas 

A proposed mechanical breakaway 

clutch would not rely on friction. The 

clutch would be useful in environments 

in which the inherent inaccuracies of friction would make friction clutches erratic. 

The proposed clutch would comprise two 

primary assemblies: a driver assembly and 

a slip flange. The slip flange would be an 

internally splined cup driven by the driver assembly. The driver assembly would 

feature a sliding spring that would provide full adjustability. Roller bearings 

could be used to deflect the spring simultaneously as they were forced inward by 

the splines of the slip flange. In an alternate configuration, rotating cams would 

be used in place of the ball bearings. By 

varying the linear position of the spring 

assembly, one could adjust the level of 

torque at which the clutch would slip. 

This work was done by Jeffrey K Hostetler 

of Johnson Space Center. For further information, access the Technical Support Package (TSP) free on-line at wwmnasatech.com

under the Mechanics category. 

MSG-22506 

- 

60 NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
000 

process research Leak 

monitoring detection 

9.3€-O2 1.2E+01 3.3E-01 1.35+02 

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For More Information Circle No. 534
Machinery/Automation 

* Molten-Carbonate Oxidation of Solid Waste 

This process is relatively safe and efficient. 

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Houston, Texas 

The molten-carbonate oxidation 

(MCO) process shows promise as a 

means of safe disposal and/or recycling 

of solid waste. The MCO process is being 

developed for use in regenerative lifesupport systems in outer space, but may 

also prove useful in managing institutional, industrial, and/or municipal 

solid waste. The MCO process completely oxidizes wastes as diverse as polytetrafluoroethylene, polyvinyl chloride, 

polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene, feces, wheat straw, and cellulose. An 

MCO system can operate at atmospheric 

pressure without flames and without direct feed of fuel into the oxidation 

chamber - all important safety features. 

In the MCO process, a mixture of approximately equimolar proportions of 

sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate is melted and heated to a temperature between 800 and 900 °C. The 

waste to be oxidized is fed into the melt. 

Oxygen or air is also fed into the melt. 

The chemical environment in the carbonate melt favors the formation of superoxide ions (02—), which catalyze oxidation of the waste. The result is a kinetically rapid three-dimensional homogeneous reaction in which the solid waste 

is converted to carbon dioxide and water 

vapor, which bubble away from the melt 

and can be reclaimed. Any inorganic 

materials in the waste are converted to 

minimal amounts of ashes and/or to inorganic salts, which can be removed by a 

commercial salt-splitting unit and 

reused. 

Typically, the melt is contained in a 

stainless-steel or alumina tank. Both the 

oxidizing gas and the waste feed are introduced into the melt from the bottom: 

This practice forces the waste and gas to 

rise through the full depth of the melt, 

maximizing contact between the waste 

and the molten-salt mixture and thereby 

the degree and the overall rate of oxidation of the waste. 

The melt is heated initially and thereafter maintained at the required high 

temperature by use of an electric furnace. Inasmuch as most wastes are lowgrade fuels, the oxidation of the waste 

supplies some heat, thereby reducing 

the electric power needed to maintain 

the high temperature. The consumption 

of energy can be reduced further by efficient insulation of the tank and/or furnace and by regenerative recovery of 

heat from the reaction products. 

The MCO equipment is relatively simple, with few moving parts. Pretreatment 

of waste is not strictly necessary, although some milling of the waste feedstock can be beneficial. The flow of oxidizing gas and the proportion of 

nonexothermic material in the waste 

feed can be adjusted to help keep the 

temperature of the melt in the desired 

range. 

This work was done by G. Duncan 

Hitchens and Oliverj Murplrv of Lynntech, 

Inc., for Johnson Space Center. For further information, access the Technical Support Package (TSP) free on-line at 

www.nasatech.com under the Machinery/ 

Automation category. 

MSC-22467 

* Water-Jet/Ultrasonic Removal and Real-Time Gauging of Paint 

Ultrasound would loosen paint, and sensory feedback would guide the paint-removal apparatus. 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calfornia 

An improved robotic water-jet system 

for stripping paint from a ship or other 

large metallic structure is undergoing 

development. In addition to utilizing a 

high-pressure water jet to remove paint 

and a robotic crawler to scan the jet 

along the painted structure, the system 

utilizes high-intensity ultrasound to 

loosen the paint just ahead of the water 

jet in order to ensure more nearly complete removal. The improved system also 

includes a quantitative gauging subsystem that measures the thickness of the 

paint and a qualitative gauging subsystem that generates an approximate map 

of paint residues; these subsystems provide real-time feedback for control of 

the crawler, water-jet, and ultrasonic subsystems.

Low-Pressure High-Pressure--

Water Jet Water Jet

4 

Ultrasonic 

Transducer --

1 

\\

High Intensity 

,Ultrasonic Wave 

Ultrasonically 

Loosened Paint Water

Figure 1. Concentrated Ultrasound blisters and otherwise loosens paint, facilitating the removal of the 

paint by a high-pressure water jet. 

62 vwnasatechcom NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001 
c I

: 

- 

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w let =

iv es L 

•d I F 

4A00

Ask 

. 

svri^, . 

Am 

•1 I 

Solid Edge is a complete tool kit for machinery design - powerful solid modeling, industrialstrength assembly design, engineering aids, and drafting - all in a remarkably affordable and 

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Alcoa Packaging Machinery is using Solid Edge to design innovative machinery for 

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To get down to the business of machinery design with Solid Edge, call 1 800-807-2200 or 

visit www.solid-edge.com . 

U G S tifli in FnC commerce

formerly Unigraphics Solutions

F For More Information Circle No. 533 If ]LIUIDII - 

UGS, linigraphics Solutions, and Solid Edge are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of UGS. All other trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks belong

to their respective holders. The information within is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of UGS.
Figure 2. A Comb of Springy Contact Wires is scanned along the workpiece to test 

for removal of paint, as indicated by electrical continuity between the wires and 

the metal substrate. 

Machinery/Automation

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The ultrasonic subsystem 

exploits a combination of 

heating and mechanical 

stresses to loosen paint. In 

the focal zone, the intense ultrasound can raise the temperature several hundred degrees, causing the paint to 

blister. In the presence of the 

mismatch of acoustic impedances between the paint and 

the metallic substrate, the ultrasound gives rise to tensile 

and shear stresses that contribute to blistering. The 

paint is further damaged if ultrasonic cavitation is present. 

The ultrasonic paint-loosening subsystem includes a 

piezoelectric transducer that 

generates focused ultrasonic 

waves; the transducer is mounted on the 

crawler and positioned to concentrate 

the ultrasound into the surface layer of 

water on the workpiece near the advancing water jet (see Figure 1). The transducer is excited with a combination of 

two ultrasonic signals - one at a frequency of several hundred kilohertz 

(chosen for its shorter wavelength and 

thus greater amenability to focusing) 

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tromagnet coil in contact 

with the paint, excite the 

coil with alternating current at a suitable frequency, measure the impedance of the coil, and 

deduce the thickness of 

paint from the known 

variation of impedance 

of the coil with distance 

from the metal substrate. 

The second transducer 

concept is that of an ultrasonic thickness gauge 

that would give a direct 

reading of the thickness 

of the paint: This gauge 

would include ultrasonic 

transducers operating in 

the frequency range of 1 

to 10 MHz. The highpressure water jet would be used as the 

coupling medium. It would be necessary to compensate the gauge reading 

for the effects of stripped paint and 

bubbles. Rapid spectral analysis could 

be used to reduce the effects of noise 

and interference. 

The qualitative thickness-gauging subsystem would include a comb array of 

springy wire electrodes that would be 

scanned along the workpiece behind the 

water jet. The number of wire electrodes 

would be chosen to obtain the desired 

resolution. By simple electrical contact 

(or lack thereof) with the metal substrate, 

the electrodes would give indications of 

the removal or nonremoval of paint from 

their respective locations. In real time, 

contact/ noncontact signals from the 

wires could be multiplexed and sent as 

feedback to a control subsystem. For nonreal-time inspection, contact/ noncontact 

signal data acquired by scanning along 

the workpiece could be used to generate 

a map of paint residues. 

This work was done by Yoseph BarCohen, Xzaoqi Bao, and Neville Marzwell 

of Caltech for NASA's Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory. For further information, access the Technical Support Package (TSP) 

free on-line at www.nasatech.com under 

the Machinery/Automation category. 

In accordance with Public Law 96-517, 

the contractor has elected to retain title to this 

invention. Inquiries concerning rights for its 

commercial use should be addressed to 

Technology Reporting Office 

JPL 

Mail Stop 249-103 

4800 Oak Grove Drive 

Pasadena, CA 91109 

(818) 354-2240 

Refer to NPO-21063, volume and number 

of this NASA Tech Briefs issue and the 

page number. 

tive in producing cavitation in water). 

The more highly focused higher-frequency ultrasound propagates into the 

lower-frequency ultrasonic field, raising 

the intensity of the total ultrasonic field 

in the focal region above the threshold 

for cavitation (U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,204). 

Two candidate transducer concepts 

for the quantitative thickness-gauging 

subsystem have been identified. The first 

concept is that of an eddy-current thickness gauge: one would place a small elec1'•— . 

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Manufacturing/Fabrication 

Chemical Machining of Microscopic Holes and Grooves in Glass 

This technique overcomes disadvantages of conventional macro- and micromachining. 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 

A technique for making precise, mi- Both channels open 

croscopic holes and grooves in glass out to the tip of the Etchant Fluid and 

Dissolved Glass Out Etchant Fluid In 

workpieces has been invented. The tech- nozzle. By use of a 

nique differs from both (1) traditional pressure pump at the + 

macroscopic mechanical drilling and far end of the delivery 

milling and (2) conventional microma- channel and/or a succhining that involves etching through tion pump at the far 

photolithographically patterned masks. end of the return Nozzle 

The technique can be used, for exam- channel, the etchant 

pie, to make holes between 20 pm and 1 fluid is made to flow 

mm in diameter. across the tip of the 

The technique involves wet chemical nozzle. The flowing 

etching, but unlike in conventional mi- etchant dissolves and 

cromachining, the etch is localized. As carries away the glass 

shown in the figure, a hole in a glass along the flow path in Glass Workpiece 

workpiece is formed by use of a nozzle the tip region. Unlike 

that contains at least one delivery in conventional machannel and at least one return chan- chining, the surface of

nel for the flow of an etchant fluid, the workpiece does not Etching Is Localized along the flow path at the tip of the nozzle.

Finally! A Fast & Easy Way to Outsource 

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RIFOCS Corporation's Harsh Environment Division has fiber optic connectors and cable 

assemblies built to survive almost any combination of extreme operating conditions: 

• Temperatures from -60C to +150C • Shock, vibration and impact 

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Manufacturing

become roughened by abrasion, and 

there is no contamination by particles 

of workpiece material. 

The shape and width of the resulting 

hole or groove is determined by the 

size and shape of the nozzle. As etching proceeds, the nozzle is either 

moved deeper into the workpiece to 

deepen the hole or else moved laterally (along the surface of the workpiece) to lengthen the groove. The 

nozzle can be fabricated, to the required precision, by use of photolithography and deep trench etching. The 

movement of the nozzle can be automated easily with computerized control. The precision of the movement, 

and thus of the final product, can be as 

high as 1 pm; such a level of precision 

has been demonstrated in robotic 

equipment commonly used in micromachining in a clean room. 

This work was done by Kirill Shcheglov 

and William Tang of Caltech for NASA's Jet 

Propulsion Laboratory. For further information, access the Technical Support Package 

(TSP) free on-line at wwunasatech.com

under the Manufacturing/Fabrication 

category. 

NPO-20 732 

Hermetic Wafer 

Bonding by Use of 

Microwave Heating 

Clamping is unnecessary, and 

the only appreciable heating 

occurs in the metal bond. 

NASA 'S Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 

Pasadena, California 

Microwave heating is the basis of a 

simple technique for quickly and gently 

bonding two metallized dielectric or 

semiconductor wafers to each other. 

The technique can be used, for example, to bond a flat, gold-coated silicon 

wafer to another gold-coated silicon 

wafer that is flat except for a cavity, in 

order to hermetically seal the cavity (see 

figure). The technique has the potential 

to become a standard one for bonding 

in the fabrication of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). 

The predecessor of this technique is 

thermocompression bonding, in which 

two substrates to be bonded are clamped 

together with considerable pressure and 

the entire resulting assembly is heated to 

melt eutectic metal alloy coats on the 

faving substrate surfaces. (Even though 

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66 NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
Linear Static Stress - Atgors linear static stress product enables you to capture 

complex assemblies, such as this valve 

assembly, from a CAD solid modeler and 

run a finite element analysis using fast 

solver technology. Typical loadings are 

pressure, acceleration, temperature, 

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Steady Fluid Flow - Prescribed velocities 

and pressures provide the loading for this 

3-D steady fluid flow analysis of a pipe 

with a gate valve. Algor's multiple load 

curves allow for easy data entry for 

adding loading such as gravity.

Unsteady Fluid Flow - Unsteady fluid 

flow of this ball valve system was analyzed using a 3-D CAD solid model. 

Algor's unique processor solves for velocities and pressures throughout the 

dynamic event, using a specialized meshing algorithm for high velocity gradients.

ODAM . Aigor s Dynamic Design 

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doors, masts, propulsion shafts, rudders, 

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temperature loading of this heat sink 

assembly. Algors multiple load curves 

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Nonlinear Static Stress - Algor's nonlinear product helps to accurately predict 

large deformation and large Strains 

caused by Static loading. As seen by this 

water tank, buckling of a structure is one 

type of failure that can be exposed.

Linear Dynamic Stress- A modal analysis is one of the linear dynamic stress 

analyses performed on this suspension 

bridge. Failure can occur when the loading frequency is at the structure's resonant frequency. Algor's linear dynamic 

analyses accurately predict these frequencies and dynamic effects.

Mechanical Event Simulation (MES) 

with Nonlinear Material Models - Algor's 

MES extends full dynamic analysis capabilities to large strain/deformation analyses of 

nonlinear materials, as shown by this landing gear assembly. Kinematic elements can 

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i0o 

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ivluI11pruysIc5 - niyur 0 riiuiiipiiysius piuuucts enable you to combine multiple 

analysis types into one event. Resultant 

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Steady-State Heat Transfer - Algor's 

steady-state thermal processor helps predict temperature distribution due to thermal loading. Loading such as convection, 

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piping design and analysis product 

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loads, time history of forces/displacements. response spectrum, natural IreAlgor has been developing FEA software since 1978.

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For More Information Circle No. 599 or Visit www.nasatech.com/599
Tent Pieces B,to,e Boedeq 

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Test Pieces containing square recesses were bonded to form hermetically sealed rectangular parallelepiped cavities. The closeup 

micrograph clearly shows the fusion of metallic layers. 

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elemental metals could be more desirable under some circumstances, eutectics are used because they have lower 

melting temperatures.) The bonding 

process can take as long as 24 hours. The 

heat and pressure can degrade the product; the degradation can include deleterious effects of clamping stresses, diffusion of the metal into the substrate 

material, and diffusion of substrate material into the metal bond. 

In the present technique, bonding 

could be effected in a few seconds, with 

minimal or no clamping, and without 

heating the entire assembly. Two pieces 

to be bonded are simply placed (e.g., one 

atop the other), in a microwave cavity. 

The position and orientation of the 

pieces in the microwave cavity is chosen 

to optimize coupling of the metal in the 

bond with the electromagnetic mode that 

is to be excited in the microwave cavity. 

The microwave cavity is evacuated to prevent the formation of a plasma. A pulse of 

microwave power (typically a few hundred watts for a few seconds) is applied. 

Because the substrates are nearly 

transparent to microwaves in the presence of metal layers, heating by the microwave field is concentrated in the 

metal layers in the bond region. More 

precisely, by virtue of the electromagnetic skin effect, most of the deposition 

of electromagnetic energy occurs within 

a skin depth (=1 pm at microwave frequencies) at the surface of the metal. 

Thus, heating is concentrated exactly 

where it is needed - at the interface between the two metal layers that one seeks 

to melt together. By the time the pulse is 

turned off, the metal layers have been 

melted together, yet the substrates remain cool. Of course, heat is conducted 

from the interface to adjacent depths, 

but the resulting heating of the substrate 

is transient and minimal - not enough 

to cause appreciable diffusion of metal 

or substrate material. 

The figure depicts some aspects of silicon workpieces that were fabricated 

and tested to demonstrate the present 

technique. Each piece started as 5-mm 

square silicon wafer. A strip 2 mm wide 

around the edge of one face of each 

piece was coated with Cr to a thickness 

of 150 A, then Au to a thickness of 1,200 

A. The gold coat was to serve later as the 

bonding metal. Each piece was etched to 

form 3-by-3-mm, 100-pmdeep recess in the middle 

of one face; the recess was 

to become half of a hermetically sealed cavity. 

Then pairs of these pieces 

were bonded to form the 

hermetically sealed cavities. In a test of their herineticity, the bonded pairs 

were found to leak at low 

rates comparable to the 

background level of a 

leak-measuring mass spectrometer. 

This work was done by 

Nasser Budraa, Martin 

Barmatz, John Mai, Tom 

Pike, and Henry Jackson of 

Caltech for NASA's Jet 

Propulsion Laboratory. 

For further information, access the Technical Support 

Package (TSP) free on-line 

at www.nasateth.com under 

the Manufacturing/Fabrication category. 

This invention is owned by 

NASA, and a patent application has been filed. Inquiries 

concerning nonexclusive or 

exclusive license for its commercial development should 

be addressed to the Patent 

Counsel, NASA Resident 0J 

fice—JPL, 818-354-4770. Refer 

to NPO-20608. 

L I

For More Information Circle No. 425 NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
Bio-Medical 

"Breathprint" Analysis of Microbial Communities 

John F Kennedy Space Center, Florida 

A technique for assessing changes in 

the densities and compositions of communities of microorganisms in environmental samples is based partly on redox 

chemistry. Suspensions of microbes 

from environmental samples are inoculated into 95-well microtiter plates. Each 

well contains an initially colorless redoxsensitive dye and a source of carbon different from the sources of carbon in the 

other wells. If the microorganisms in a 

well can utilize or degrade the source of 

carbon, then the colorless dye is reduced to a colored crystal. The overall

pattern of color in the various wells can 

be regarded as a "breathprint" of the microbial community. Because inoculation 

of the wells takes less than a minute and 

the reading of colors and analysis of the 

resulting data are largely automated, an 

assay by this technique can be performed relatively quickly. The technique 

has been used for such diverse purposes 

as monitoring the stability of microbial 

populations in artificial plant-growth 

and life-support systems, testing for toxicity, monitoring bioremediation, monitoring industrial bioreactors, studying

subsurface microbiology, and studying 

fertility of agricultural soils. 

This work was done by John Sager of 

Kennedy Space Center and Jay L. Garland of the D'tnamac Corp. Far further information, access the Technical Support Package 

(TSP) free on-line at wwwjiasatech.com

under the Bio-Medical category. 

Inquiries concerning rights for the commercial use of this invention should be addressed 

to the Technology Programs and Commercialization Office, Kennedy Space Center, (407) 

867-6373. Refer to KSC-12065. 

Macroextraction for Purification of Nucleic Acids 

Nucleic acids can quickly be extracted from relatively large volumes of starting materials. 

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Houston, Texas 

A technique for extracting samples of 

ribonucleic acid (RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) for use in diagnosing and studying infectious and genetic 

diseases has been developed. The technique enables the concentration and purification of nucleic acids from large (in 

comparison with older techniques) volumes of bodily fluids or digested tissues, 

with minimal nuclease activity and minimal loss of the nucleic acids. 

The technique involves the use of a 

centrifuge equipped to handle 15-milliliter polypropylene conical tubes that are 

standard equipment items in biomedical 

research. Fresh or frozen samples with 

volumes up to 4 milliliters can be used 

without prior concentration steps and 

without numerous microfuge tubes; 

these features minimize the loss of nucleic acids and the cross-contamination 

of samples, both of which are observed 

when numerous concentration steps and 

numerous tubes are used. Isolation of 

DNA and/or RNA can be accomplished 

in as little time as 40 minutes. 

The technique involves the use of an 

extraction solution of the following composition 

• 1 part by volume of a solution that has a 

pH of 7.0 and that contains (a) guanidinium thiocyanate at a concentration 4

M, (b) sodium citrate at a concentration 

of 25 mM, (c) sarcosyl at a concentration 

of 0.5 percent by volume, and (d) 2-mercaptoethanol at a concentration of 0.1 M; 

• 0.1 part by volume of a 0.2-M solution 

of sodium acetate; 

• 1 part by volume of an aqueous solution of phenol at a pH of 7.9; and 

• 0.2 part by volume of chloroform. 

The following are the steps of the extraction procedure according to this 

technique: 

1. Add the extraction solution to each 

sample. 

2. Transfer the entire volume sample 

(usually 2 to 3 mL) of each sample to 

one of the 1 5-mL polypropylene conical tubes. 

3. To each such tube, add 2.5 mL of 

RNAz01TM and 0.25 mL of R-chloroform, then vortex for 20 seconds. 

4. Put each such tube on ice for ten 

minutes. 

5. Spin the tubes in the centrifuge at a 

speed that yields a centripetal acceleration of 10,000 times normal Earth 

gravitation for 10 minutes. 

6. Take the top layer of each sample 

that has been centrifuged, add an 

equal volume of isopropyl alcohol, 

and vortex briefly. 

7. Let each such sample stand for at least

2 hours at a temperature of-20 °C to 

allow precipitation to take place. Alternatively, faster precipitation of nucleic acids can be achieved through 

addition of ammonium acetate. 

8. Perform centrifugation (again at 

10,000 times normal Earth gravitation) for 10 minutes on the samples 

that have undergone the precipitation treatment. 

9. Remove and discard the liquid from 

each sample, which now takes on the 

form of a pellet. 

10. Wash each pellet by gently overlaying 

it with an aqueous solution of 75 

percent ethanol. 

11. Decant the liquid. 

12. Use a disposable laboratory towel 

wrapped around forceps to wipe, 

from inside each sample tube, the 

solid sample material left behind by 

decanting of the liquid. 

13. Resuspend the solid material in 30 jiL 

of a buffer solution of lx tris-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). 

This work was done fr Duane L. Pierson of 

Johnson Space Center and Raymond P 

Stowe. For further information, access the 

Technical Support Package (TSP) free on-line 

at wurw.nasatech.com under the Bio-Medical 

category. 

MSC-22841 

NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001 www.nasatech.com 69
6 ,

wl -

1W ir1iYb1(.di J%.Itnli^.Cj 

Simple Fiber-Optic Coupling for Microsphere Resonators 

The "pigtailed" ultra-high-Q micro cavities make a novel building block for fiber-optic systems. 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 

Simple fiber-optic couplers have been 

devised for use in coupling light into 

and out of the "whispering-gallery" electromagnetic modes of transparent microspheres. The need for this type of 

coupling arises in conjunction with the 

use of transparent microspheres as compact, high-Q (where Q is the resonance 

quality factor) resonators, delay lines for 

optoelectronic oscillators (including microlasers), and narrow-band-pass filters. 

In the whispering-gallery modes of a 

transparent microsphere, light orbits inside the sphere, where it is 

confined by total internal 

reflection. The high degree 

of confinement results in 

high Q (up to about 10 10 in 

the absence of loading). To 

couple light into or out of 

the microsphere, it is necessary to utilize overlapping 

of (1) the evanescent field 

of the whispering-gallery 

modes with (2) the evanescent field of a phasematched optical waveguide 

or of an optimized total-in- 

...-..+ Cc llarlcllctII CJLI l a}J,JC inn a 

prism or similar component. Heretofore, such coupling has been implemented, variously, by use of tapered 

optical fibers, side-polished optical 

fibers, or prisms, all of which entail disadvantages: 

• Tapered optical fibers are fragile, 

bulky, and difficult to fabricate. 

• Side-polished optical fibers offer low 

efficiency. 

• Prisms are bulky and require collimation and focusing optics to work with 

optical fibers. 

In contrast, the present fiber-optic 

couplers are simple, compact, and relatively inexpensive. A coupler of this type 

is essentially a hybrid of a waveguide and 

a prism coupler, and provides direct coupling with high-Q whispering-gallery 

modes. The coupler is fabricated by 

cleaving and polishing the tip of a singlemode optical fiber at an angle to form a 

microscopic coupling prism integral 

with the fiber. The cleaved and polished

surface lies at a small angle (it/2-4) 

with the longitudinal axis of the fiber 

(see Figure 1). The angle is chosen to secure matching of phases of the waveguide and whispering-gallery modes; by 

Snell's law, the angle is given by D = 

arcsin(n,pher/no,er), where flphr is the 

effective index of refraction for the whispering-gallery modes propagating around 

fs 

the sphere in closed circumferential orbits and i,er is the effective index of refraction for the guided wave in the truncated region of the fiber-optic core. 

Microsphere

N 

Fiber-Optic 

Couplers 

Figure 2. Input and Output Fiber-Optic Couplers 

were placed in proximity to a silica microsphere 

of 203-pm radius. The total fiber-to-fiber transmission loss at resonance was 6.3 dB (-25 percent 

of the input light passing through the cavity), 

with the quality-factor -1 x 108 at 1.55 pm.

In the absence of a nearby microsphere, light propagating along the fiber 

is totally internally reflected at the angled surface and then escapes through 

the end face of the fiber. If a microsphere is placed near the angled surface 

and within the evanescent field of the 

fiber-optic core, then there is an efficient 

exchange of energy in resonance between the waveguide mode of the fiber 

and a whispering-gallery mode of the 

sphere. Inasmuch as the angle-cut area 

of the fiber coincides, to a close approxi: 

mauon, with the area of 

overlap of the evanescent 

fields, the present coupler 

is functionally equivalent to 

a prism coupler, without 

need for collimation and 

focusing optics. 

Figure 2 depicts an experimental setup that was 

used for testing this coupling method. Efficiency of 

input and output coupling 

was measured by simultaneous monitoring of the 

intensity of the light escaping from the end of the 

input optical fiber and the 

power transmitted to the 

output optical fiber. In the 

experiments, the gaps between the microsphere and the angled coupling faces 

of the optical fibers were adjusted to optimize contrast of resonances in input 

coupling and maximize the power transmitted to the output optical fiber. 

The experiments showed that this 

method of coupling works well, allowing 

to couple, at resonance, up to 60 percent of the light from the input fiber 

into the microsphere. The total fiber-tofiber insertion loss at resonance was 

about 6 dB, with the quality-factor —108 

at the wavelength 1.55 pm. 

This work was done by Lute Maleki, 

Vladimir Jltchenko, and Steve Yao of Caltech 

for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

For furt her information, access the Technical 

Support Package (TSP) free on-line at 

www.nasatech.com under the Physical Sciences category. 

NPO-2061 9 

/ 

Polished Surface

Microsphere 

Optical Fiber — -

Perpendicular to 

Polished Surface

- 

Figure 1. Evanescent-Wave Coupling takes place in the gap between the microsphere and the angle-polished surface on optical fiber. The angle () is chosen to 

match phases of waves propagating in the optical fiber and the microsphere. 

70 www.nasatech.com NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
8 I I

] 3.16 

or E 

merging 

6 I

From Prism 012

or 

co E

- 2 

- 0.08 C —a02 -

Z5 

E 

fu 

0

±

w 

CL E 

2-

'A Beam Eme Eerging 

a 004 a) 

It 

9

From Grating 

-

2

CL a 

0

I 0.00

0 

°- 

0 5 10 15 20 25 

Frequency Offset of Laser Beam, GHz

Figure 2. Whispering-Gallery-Mode Resonances are readily apparent in the spectra measured in the 

setup of Figure 1.

Optical Fiber Input Bear

r (flp 

Optical 

[j] 

Isolator 

A Light Orbiting in Whispering-Gallery

Modes of Microsphere 

Photodetector

- 

Figure 1. Laser Light Was Coupled into the microsphere via the prism, then coupled out via the grating. The output beam was oriented at an angle of about 40' 

with the surface, with 80 percent of its power concentrated in a single lobe with 

a divergence of 11°.

Photodetector 

on Surface 

Surface Gratings for Optical Coupling With Microspheres 

Far-field coupling offers advantages over near-field coupling. 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 

A diffraction grating consisting of a periodic gradient in the index of refraction 

of a thin surface layer has been shown to 

be effective as a means of far-field coupling of monochromatic light into or out 

of the "whispering-gallery" electromagnetic modes of a transparent microsphere. 

This far-field coupling can be an alternative to the near-field (evanescent-wave) 

coupling afforded by prism- and fiberoptic couplers described 

in the immediately preceding article. Far-field 

coupling is preferable to 

near-field coupling in applications in which there 

are requirements for 

undisturbed access to the 

entire surfaces of microspheres. Examples of such 

applications include (1) a 

proposed atomic cavity in 

which cold atoms would 

orbit in a toroidal trap 

around a microsphere 

and (2) a photonic quantum logic trate based on 

coupling between a highQ (where Q is the resonance quality factor) microsphere and trapped 

individual resonant ions. 

In preparation for experiments to 

demonstrate this concept, fused silica microspheres with a diameter of about 180 

pm were fabricated, then coated with 

layers of molten germanium-doped glass 

powder 3 to 5 pm thick. The purpose 

served by the germanium doping was to

increase the photosensitivity of the surface layers for the grating-fabrication 

step described next. An index-of-refraction grating was formed in the surface 

layer of each microsphere by exposing 

the layer to ultraviolet light (wavelength 

= 244 nm) from a frequency-doubled 

argon laser. The laser beam power was 40 

mW, the exposure time was 5 to 10 minutes, and the expected index modulation 

was (1 to 3) x 10. The spatial period 

and length of the grating were =2 pm 

and =15 pm, respectively. The spatial period was chosen to provide first-order 

phase matching between a whisperinggallery mode of the microsphere and a 

free-space beam oriented at =45° to the 

surface of the microsphere.

Figure 1 schematically depicts the experimental setup used to demonstrate 

the grating-based coupling scheme. Laser 

light at a wavelength of =1,550 nm was 

coupled into the whispering-gallery 

modes of a microsphere by a standard 

prism coupler, then coupled out of the 

microsphere by the grating. The laser was 

gradually tuned over a frequency range 

that included some whispering-gallery1'h n,nn.Au resonances. Inc I C3UII. 

ing measurements (see Figure 2) showed that at the 

resonances, some light was 

depleted from the input 

beam and there were corresponding increases in the 

amount of light emitted from 

the microsphere through the 

surface grating. 

From the measurement 

data, the maximum grating 

coupling efficiency was calculated to be 14 percent. The 

grating loaded the resonance 

sufficiently to decrease the Q 

of the microsphere to a value 

in the range of (0.2 to 2) x 

106. [The initial Q (without 

the grating) was 1.2 x 108.1 

Higher Q could be obtained 

by reducing the strength of the grating. 

Efficiency of coupling could be increased by optimizing the exposure to ultraviolet light, improving the grating profile, and minimizing scattering losses. 

Parasitic coupling to low-Q higher-order 

modes in the microsphere could be prevented by decreasing the diameter of the 

microsphere. 

This work was done by Vladimir Jitchenko 

and Lute Maleki of Caltech for NASA's Jet 

Propulsion Laboratory. For further information, access the Technical Support Package 

(TSP) free on-line at wwrnnasatechcom 

under the Physical Sciences category. 

In accordance with Public Law 96-517, 

the contractor has elected to retain title to this 

invention. Inquiries concerning rights for its 

commercial use should be addressed to 

Technology Reporting Office 

JPL 

Mail Stop 249-103 

4800 Oak Grove Drive 

Pasadena, CA 91109 

(818) 354-2240 

Refer to NPO-20618, volume and number 

of this NASA Tech Briefs issue, and the 

page number. 

NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001 www.nasatech.com 71 
_W ^ R_^ "19 -9 W___ "D "0 

INEZASA Uses Software to Estimate 

Mars Rover Costs 

SEER-H and SEER-SEM cost estimation software 

Galorath 

El Segundo, CA 

310414-3222 

www.galorath.com

Two 300-pound 

Mars Exploration

_J Rovers (MERs) are 

scheduled to roam 

the Red Planet in .. . - 

2003 to determine - 

the aqueous, climatic, and geologic his- : -- - - 

tory of a site on 

Mars. A review team -. - 

evaluated the performance,schedule, risk, .tii jc( t using a knowledge base that estimated the price of rover hardware and software modules by comparing them to a database of thousands 

of real-world projects. The original cost estimate for the rover 

was prepared using the traditional bottoms-up method of 

breaking down all components of the rover and searching 

through previous programs to find similar components used

in the past. "The result was that we were able to create a cost 

estimate with the same level of accuracy and detail as the original in only about one-fourth as much time," said Rev Carpio, 

program analyst at NASA's Langley Research Center in 

Hampton, VA. 

Carpio gathered the information required for input into the 

SEER-H and SEER-SEM estimation programs such as the systems architecture and characteristics of the individual components, including their quantity, functionality, material composition, and manufacturing processes. SEER-H began predicting development and manufacturing costs by identifying similar components from its knowledge base. 

The next step was to estimate the cost of the software used 

to run the rovers. Carpio determined the parameters that are 

used by SEER-SEM to estimate the cost for each module of the 

program, including size, personnel, complexity, environment 

and constraints, platform and application, development and 

acquisition methods, and standards. The software allowed 

Carpio to choose the probability level of estimates and determine the impact of adjusting project schedules. 

"We have only a one-month window of opportunity in 2003 

to launch the rovers," explained Carpio. "If we miss the window, we won't be able to launch again for two years. The beauty of the SEER tools is that they allow you to define a schedule 

and then build requirements around it. I have recommended 

to the cost analysis improvement group at NASA that we make 

this a permanent part of our review process," Carpio said. 

For More Information Circle No. 730 

limulation Software Helps Get 

Telescope Off the Ground 

Gridgen grid generation software 

Pointwise 

Bedford, TX 

817-377-2807 

www.pointwise.com

Raytheon Systems and NASA used computer simulation to 

help certify and ensure the safety of a specially modified 

Boeing 747 that will carry the Stratospheric Observatory for 

Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) telescope, the world's largest 

airborne telescope. The modifications to the plane include a 

10 10' opening in the side of the aft portion of the fuselage. 

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the complete aircraft was created to evaluate the aerodynamics, performance, stability, control, and structural loads of the modified plane. 

The aerodynamics of SOFIA were simulated by creating the 

CFD model of the complete aircraft to the level of detail 

required to accurately model the aircraft in the allocated time. 

A high level of detail was required around the rear control surfaces, including the horizontal stabilizer, the elevator, and the 

rudder, in order to determine the impact of the aft cavity. 

Raytheon developed a surface model of the 747 geometry 

using Aero Grid Paneling System, designed by Boeing. The

060 

I0.20 

-0.20 

model was modified to add the aft cavity, and was exported in 

IGES format into Gridgen, which defined the grid topology. 

Once the topology was laid out, engineers generated the grid. 

Solutions were computed using Overflow +MPI, a special version of the CFD code developed by NASA that is used for parallel processing on a network of workstations - in this case, SGI 

Octane workstations. Overflow solved for fluid motion in the 

regions of interest by determining flow through a series of connected 3D grids, or zones, that cover the region in a patchwork 

fashion. The software solved the fluid motion problems for the 

entire aircraft, requiring tens of millions of points. 

For More Information Circle No. 750 

72 www.nasatech.com NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
ALUMINUM 

FRAMING SYSTEMS

Ir Jrt 

r4 P) 

xciting new commercial 

products in medicine, 

Ecomputing. manufacturing, transportation, and 

other major fields that have

applied NASA technology r 

and expertise. 

Read all about them in

the latest edition of 

NASA Spinoff, available 

free online at: 

(choice of PDF or HTML formats) 

.-\MCO offers a one-of-a-kind 

- -. a! liminum structural svstens t,, 

* 'sinplify the design of specialtied and nonstandard enclosures. This system allows customers to build enclosures, 

- racks, or stands from 8" to 20' 

lane. Features include highstrength extrtulciI tithing with 11 different integral 

flange configurations; 3 types of accessory-mounting channels; 7 joining and corner castings, and 

more. Request catalog 203. AMCO Engineering 

Co.. Schiller Park, IL; Tel: 1-800-833-3156, 847-671-

6670; Fax: 847-671-9469; www.amcuengineering.com

AMCO Engineering Co.

For More Information Circle No. 632

*TECH BRIEFS LITERATURE & WEB SITE 

sPO rL-L i G _H_ / r 

Free catalogs and literature for NASA Tech Briefs' readers. To order, circle the 

corresponding number on the Readers Information Request Form on page 78. 

QUALITY 

COMPONENTS, 

MATERIALS 

& TOOLS 

Packed with products for 

engineering design. 

R&D, prototypes and 

modeling, and production. Large or small 

quantities - always in 

stock. Miniature fasteners, specialty componetits, fluid and motion 

"5. IC11-0 niatci isIs, and precision tools. 

I cr atalog at www.smallparts.com , or call 

800-2204242.

Small Parts, Inc. 

For More Information Circle No. 626 or

Visit www.nasatech.com/626

DATA ACQUISITION CATALOG 

V

lOtech's Data Acquisiitt & Instrumentation

atalog. This free 329-

page catalog features ow 

omplete line of prod 

icts pictured for the first 

line in full color. Ne" 

products include all 

- - Ethernet-based recorder, 

I I temperature and voltage 

insti ut Il its \ ii It range of data acquisition systems and signal conditioning options, as well as 

IEEE 488 instruments and controllers are also featured. lOtech, Inc.; Tel: 4404394091; Fax: 440-439-

4093; e-mail: sales@iotech.com; wwss',iotech,com 

lOtech, Inc.

For More Information Circle No. 629

FLOW CHARTING 

PDQ 

Professional people that 

- draw flow charts may hear 

the noise and see the glitter, 

but they know Flow Chart-

• 

ing PDQ was designed for 

flowcharting. It is the sim-

______________ I pie flowcharting program 

used in quality and manu-

_._J facturing environments - 

aiid U111i lo ,imiiiors, attorneys, and engineers. It 

is actively being used to chart ideas, workflows, 

and data flow diagrams. Try Us! Download a 15. 

day trial version at www.patton-patton.com or call 

1-800-525-0082. 

Patton & Patton Software Corp.

For More Information Circle No.627 

INSTRUMENTATION 

- SOURCEBOOK 

' -

The all ni'ss' Dasis Instruments 

- 

- ' sUit i'hok is "Hot Off The 

Press". It contains over 750 

- '-- pages of pressure, flow, electrical, temperature, air velocity 

instruments. Additional prod-

- ucts include process calibrators, 

- ' ''.illers and recorders. Over 450 prenit-i manufacturers like Fluke, Tektronix, Agilent, 

Riddle, AEMC, Extech, Dresser and Honeywell are 

featured. Request your FREE copy today by calling 

troll free 800-829-9602 or visiting us on the web at 

www.davis.com. Davis Instruments Manufacturing 

Company, Inc., 4701 Mt. Hope Drive, Baltimore, MD 

21215; Tel: 410-358-3900; Fax: 410-358-0252 

Davis Instruments

For More Information Circle No. 630

WINSTRUPEDIATM 

Insu-upediaTM , the it-

- teractive encyclopedia 

of instrumentation. 

-

.i source of abundatit 

information useful lot 

building iPt -Hasctl measurement t and automati ) it 

applications. This FREE-CD includes the entiri' 

National Instruments product catalog, evaluatititi 

software, application notes, customer solution,, 

the searchable Knowledge Base, and molt 

Compatible with Windows 2000/NT/9x/3,1, and 

Mac OS systems, Instrupedia also provides link, 

directly to the National Instruments Web sit 

National Instruments; Tel: 800-443-3488, 512-79!-

0100; Fax: 512-683-9300; email: info@ni.cntt:

is'svsv.ni.com/info/instrupedia 

National Instruments 

For More Information Circle No. 628 

'

NEW ICCD CAMERA 

DELIVERS 

Roper Scientific, Inc. has ju,i 

released the Princeton Instt'tt 

ments PI 5MAXMG line of intensifled CCD cameras for time-resolved imaging and spectroscopy applications. These cameras utilize novel gating techniques to achieve gate speeds of <9 ns while 

still delivering >25% quantum efficiency, making them 

ideal for photon-starved applications. PI 5MAX_ cameras support a full range of 16-bit scientific-grade CCDs 

that are offered with Roper Scientifics' proprietary 

photocathodes. Each system incorporates a state-ofthe-art Programmable Timing Generator (PTG) for easy 

execution of complex gate sequences. Roper Scientific, 

Inc.; Tel: 609-587-9797; Fax: 609-587-1970; email: 

info©roperscientific.com ; www.roperscientific.com

Roper Scientific, Inc.

For More Information Circle No. 631 

NASA Tech BrieLs, May 2001 www.nasatech.com 73 
Improve Many 

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For More Information Circle No. 426 

74 For More Information Circle No. 427

Newthe on 

WEB . . .00000 

Fiber Optic Cable

Seiko Instruments USA s • 

Torrance, CA, has launchrd = 

a redesigned Fiber Opin 

Group Web site that provid 

on-line purchasing of

NetConnect fiber-optic cahh -' wv$nQp.ttcow 

assemblies. Users of th 

Custom Cable Selection 

Guide portion of the site han 

create custom cable assemblies according to specific applications. The 

site also includes documentation for connectors, adapters, cable 

assemblies, and ferrules. A glossary of fiber-optic terms and an introduction to fiber optics also are included. www.seikofiber.com

Static Control 

StaticPlanet, a new Web 

itc offered by the 3M' 

f.lectronic Handling and 

j - Protection Division, Austin, 

IX, provides industry news, 

standards, trends, links to 

electrostatic discharge (ESD) 

professional organizations, 

-- and a forum for visitors to 

share ideas. A new feature 

will be "Protect Your Product," a tool that will allow 

ESI) managers to develop control programs for their specific facilities. www.static-planet.com

Measurement and 

Control 

Lake Shore Cryotronn 

Westerville, OH, has intoduced a revamped Web sit 

that includes produ 

information, specific.t 

tions, selection guides. and 

application notes on temperature sensors, momtors, transmitters, and 

accessories, as well as niagilet w( wi , . I lii Ii I . 

trial encoders. Users now have the abilit to ordei products on-line. 

and may request a quote or more information. www.lakeshore.com

Electronic 

Components 

- Tyco Electronics Corp., 

FE ..

 c.• -W A Harrisburg, PA, offers an

C — updated site that provides

nor- ,•—, •,• information on major 

brands of Tyco electronics,

.

as well as links to informal- n.

tion on the brand's Web 

site A new eCatalog search 

function lets users access 

information from AMP, 

Potter & Brumfield, HTS, and selected Raychem products. Also highlighted are industries served, and information on the company's wireless and fiber-optic active components. www.tycoelectronics.com

NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001 
Nevv on the 

MARKET,. P. 0. P. 11- 11- 10. 

Measuring System k 11l 

Kaman Instrumentation Operations, Colorado 

Springs, CO, offers the DIT-5200 true differential measuring system that uses inductive technllogy. The system makes angular measurements I 

pointing and tracking, image stabilization, vihi 

don and jitter compensation, and infrared ap 

cations. It features balanced bridge technol -.

for nano-radian resolution, high gain analog l>( 

output, and low noise. The system is available iii 

single- and dual-channel configurations, with iiiaII-pa k g:-l/e electronics. It is immune to environmental conditions and is linear down 

to 0.1% full range, with sensitivity to 10V/mil. Circle No. 700 

Digital Multimeter 

Keithley Instruments, Cleveland, OH, has announced the Model 

2015-P audio analyzing digital multitneter (l)MM) for audio quality 

testing in telecommunication applications. The instrument is 

designed for production applications that require fast, automated

testing, especially in the 30040xI0

Hz spectrum where human i 

frequencies are found. The inti iment is housed in a single half-i ii Ce 

package and can characterize 

an acquired signal spectrum without use ofacomputer, data transfer,

or separate analysis soft-ware. It can u a,i I 

the Itti j uiii .iiii ,t ffll)litude of the highest value in a spectrum, or within a specified frequency band. Built-in IEEE488 and RS-232 interfaces enable the instrument to connect to a PC in order to acquire, store, process, and display results automatically. Circle No. 702 

Digital Multimeter/Thermometer 

The Supermeter Model HHM290 from OMEGA Engineering, 

Stamford. CT, operates as a RMS multimeter, a non-contact infrared 

pyrometer with laser sighting, and a dual-

- - input Type-K thermocouple meter with a differential measurement feature. The multimej

J fi9,l ter measures DC/AC voltage, current, resistance, frequency, and capacitance, and features a built-in logic and diode tester. The 

infrared pyrometer offers adjustable emissiviis, a wide temperature range, and a laser-

' 'ighting selector. A backlit LCD display shows 

simultaneous readings in digital and analog 

bar graph format. Each unit features fused 

multiun-tet inputs, battery or optional AC adapter operation, safety 

test leads, and dual type-K temperature probes. Circle No. 703 

Piezoelectric Accelerometers 

Endevco Corp., San Juan Capistrano, GA, offers 

the Models 525 and 528 piezoelectric accelerometers with internal electronics. The 525 and 528 are 

configured in TO-5 and TO-8 packages, respectively, and are designed for high-volume OEM applications. The accelerometers provide integrated vibration measurement of machines, structures, or vehicles, and can be 

mounted by either adhesive or soldering nietliods. Dynamic range of 

the Model 525 is ±50, ±100, or ±500 g's, while the Model 528 offers 

dynamic range of ±5, ±25, and ±50 g's. Circle No. 704 

NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001

For More Information Circle No. 421 

For More Information Circle No. 422 75
NEW! 

2001 Catalog 

0

MAGNHELIC 

New0 DISK. 

Motion Analysis 

Instrumentation Marketing Corp., Burbank, CA, offers TrackEye 

motion analysis software that handles and analyzes large quantities of 

data from both high-speed and standard film and video images, as well 

--------==---=---.--. t other types of sensors in a test 

-- - -- . - t .Up. It provides sub-pixel 

.tcking accuracy, filters data 

;d results, presents results in 

- . ilterent graphs, and calibrates 

-- .iincras for lens distortion and 

. ,)cal length. The program 

reads FDRS, HDRS, and serial 

timing codes automatically, 

and includes analysis calcula-

,.i-tation, and angles. The package provides 2D and 

3D capability, reads coding on image files, handles obscured points, 

and enables accurate position readings of target points and synchronization of film and data sequences. Circle No. 707 

Test Software 

TestStand 2.0 from National Instruments, Austin, TX, allows users 

to automatically test multiple units in parallel. Users can choose to run 

batch test or asynchronous tests, depending on their needs. The software includes built-in synchronization tools to schedule and manage 

parallel tests and balance test throughput and equipment use. Single 

users can track test sequences with a project window that organizes

test code modules and test sequli( \lu] nph o-r -rn rk 

NEW! NEW! 

Over 260 pages featuring

Dwyers popular Magnehelic Gage 

and over 70 NEW Products. 

Over 3,500 low cost instruments for Pressure, Flow,

Level and Temperature control. 

VISIT OUR WEB CATALOG @ www.dwyer-inst.com

OR Call: 1-800-872-9141 • Fax: 219-872-9057

e-mail: Iit@dwyer-inst.com

Dwyer Instruments, Inc. 

P.O. Box 373, Michigan City, IN 46361, USA 

For More Information Circle No. 431

Just in time for 

sum IT) (? 

NASA 1-shirts 

Official red and 

blue NASA vector 

logo on quality 

white cotton shirt.

codes as a team using commi - 

cial source code programs. T. 

data can be published to the WH 

through an XML reporting I 

ture. Users can mix and mat h 

TestStand instrument steps wjili 

code written in programmitI 

languages such as LabVIE's\ 

and Measurement Studio - 

Cirdp Nn. 70R 

Finite Element Analysis 

Aegis Software, Murrysville, PA, has released its Windows-based 

FEVA (Finite Element Visual Analysis) software system that is comprised of five separate modules: VisiSage, SageView, SAGE FEA, 

SageCFD, and SageEM. VisiSage is a mesh generator and SageView is 

a pre- and post-processing finite-element system. SAGE FEA consists of 

two components: SageLinear, a thermal/stress linear code for design 

and analysis; and SageNonlinear, a multiphysics thermal /elastro-plastic/ incompressible/ contact/ impact solver. SageCFD is a fluid dynamic solver and SageEM is an electromagnetic solver. Circle No. 710 

DSP Developers' Kit 

The MathWorks, Natick, MA, has introduced the Developer's Kit for 

Texas Instruments' Digital Signal Processing (DSP), which integrates 

MATLAB 6 and Simulink 4 with TI's eXpressDSP real-time software 

technology to eliminate the software gap between DSP algorithm 

research and implementation. The kit provides engineers working 

throughout the product design cycle to gain earlier access to DSP 

hardware and development tools for real-time evaluation and optimization. System designers and embedded engineers working in communications, electronics, and aerospace can simulate, generate, and 

validate solutions for TI DSP platforms of fixed- and floating-point 

DSPs. Circle No. 711 

Rush me NASA T-shirts @ $13.95 each. (Add $5.00 to order for 

shipping. NY residents add sales tax.) Size(s): 

Adult: M L _XL 

Youth: S M L 

Total enclosed: $_________________ 

- Check (payable to ABP International) 

- Credit Card: _VISA - Mastercard - AmEx 

Card No. 

Exp. Date 

Signature 

Name 

Company 

CityIST/Zip 

Phone No. 

E-mail 

Fax to (212) 986-7864 or mail to: ABP Intl., 317 Madison Ave., 

#1900, New York, NY 10017.

76 NASA Tech Briefs, May 2001
New 

LITERATURE.... b. 0. PIN 

Specialty Materials 

Pall Specialty Materials, Port Washington, N 

offers The Media Book, which highlights 

h ydrophobic and hydrophilic membrane prodIcts for healthcare, molecular biology, diagnos-

•''. Tics, and industrial applications such as automocatalog features four sections based on the 

- "\( vents and gas and chemical sensors. The 

pt uduct application industries, and is cross-ref-

- ii rnced by application, membrane character-

- - sti(-s, and product name. Circle No. 715 

Strain Gauge Sensors 

A four-page brochure from Strain Measurement 

Devices, Meriden, CT, describes applications for 

cantilever beam load cells, miniature platform I T 

load cells, center-mounting load cells, button load I STRAIN 

I GAUGE 

cells, and thin-film pressure diaphragms used in I SENSORS 

aerospace, medical, and other applications. The

company designs and manufactures thin hint 'I 

strain gauge sensors for the OEM transducer. 

instrumentation, medical, and measurement

markets. Circle No. 716

Record Sensu, jignuis 

at 50MB/s with our 

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INTERACTIVE 

CIRCUITS AND 

SYSTEMS LTD. 

Nothing E15e Comes Close 

- oaxial Connectors 

A catalog from Dynawave, Haverhill, MA, 

lescribes microwave coaxial connectors, including Dynamate Blind-Mate connectors, Dynacon 

interconnects, and Dynaseal" cable assemblies. 

The catalog provides specification data for deeitical, mechanical, and environmental parameters, along with material and finish information 

for the connector body, spring, center contact, 

insulator, and o-ring. It also offers schematics 

J for connectors, jacks, adapters, interconnects, 

and other accessories. Circle No. 717

For More Information Circle No. 428 

ADHESIVE BONDS 

POLYETHYLENE & 

POLYPROPYLENE 

I MASTER BOND POLYMER SYSTEM Xl 7 I 

Panel PCs 

Advantech Technologies. Irvine. ( .-V has lilt! 

duced a 30-page brochure describing its rugged 

panel PCs. Included are units with various processl II 

sizes and speeds, a selection of display sizes, and 

capacitive touchscreens. Installation options such 

swing-arm, desktop, wall-mount, and panel-mount 

are described, as well as applications in the medical, 

machinery automation, instrumentation and 0)11-

trol, and transportation industries. Circle No. 719

• No surface preparation needed • Room 

temperature or heat cure U One component 

system U Easy to apply-brushable 

• High bond strength 

and peel U Excellent77 moisture resistance 

• Convenient 

packaging 

CCD Imaging 

Roper Scientific, Tucson, AZ, offers a CD-ROM that combines animItinti and införniation to illustrate the basic technology associated 

__ with digital imaging. The interactive 

-

-

presentation includes informational 

nodules on CCD history, theory, 

.Iitplication,architecture, readout, 

j orformance, optimization, and 

iage intensification. A library of m 

iT-Ifluical notes and a glossary also are 

- iii luded. The CD is available in PC 

ITT mats only. Circle No. 729 

NASA Itch Briefs, MaN 2001

V For information, 

call or write: 

Master Bond Inc.

154 Hobart Street

Hackensack, NJ 07601

201-343-8983 

w.masterbond.com

Master Bond Inc. 

Adhesives, Sea/ants & Coatings 

For More Information Circle No. 430 77 
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Abaris Training Resources, Inc..... www.abaris.com .............................. 425 .................... 68 

Aerotech. Inc.................................www.aerotech.com .......................... 500 COy Ha-Ia 

Algor, Inc . ....................................www.etechlearning.com, wwsstfeaincad.com, 

www.algor.com, wwsscpipepak.com

596, 597, 599 ........7, 55, 67 

AMCO Engineering Co................. www.amcoengineenng.com .......... 632 .................... 73 

Ansoft .............................................. wwvcansoft.com .............................. 520 .................... 53 

Aspire3d.com, lmage.com, Inc.....www.aspire3d.com .......................... 565 .................... 27 

Astro-Med, Inc............................... www.astro-med.com/evl5.............. 518 .................... 47 

BP Amoco Polymers ...................... wwurbpamocoengpolymers.com ....412,453 50, 14a 

Cambridge Technology..................www.camtech.com ..........................493 .................. iSa 

Carpenter 

Technology Corporation ............www.cartech.com ............................527 .................... 13 

Celerity Digital Broadband Test, an 

L3 Communications Company....www.csidaq.com ..............................538 ....................59 

Comsol, Inc..................................... www.femlab.com/ient, www.comsol.com ..........24A-B 

Davis Instruments ..........................www.davis.com ................................ 630 .................... 73 

Digi-Key Corporation .................... www.digi-key.com ............................516 ...................... 3 

DuPont Kryiox................................www.krytox.com ..............................551 ........ 36A-B, 37 

DuPont Vespel ................................www.dupont.com/sespel ..............515 ...................... 5 

Dwyer Instruments. Inc.................www.dwver-inst.com........................431 .................... 76 

Dymax.......................................... www.dyivax.com ..........................454 ................ iSa 

Emhart, a 

Black & Decker Company .......... www.emhart.com ............................ 404. 567 ......30. 31 

Endevco ..........................................www.endevco.com/rd5t .................553 ...................... 2 

FJW Optical Systems. Inc...............www.topwebsite.com/ljw .............. 452 .................. 20a 

Gage Applied, Inc........................... www.gage-applied.com/ad/nasa5ol .htm 

523 ......................9 

GlobalSpec, Inc...............................www.globalspec.com ......................542,497 23, 5a 

IBM Corp......................................... www.ibm.com/smallbusiness/M048

535 ..........COV IV 

Indigo Systems ..........................www.indigosystems.com/Sgys.ptb

485 .................. 9a 

Innovative Integration ..................www.innovative.dsp.com ................419 .................... 64 

Interactive Circuits and 

SystemsLtd...................................www.ics-ltd.com .............................. 428 .................... 77 

lOtech, Inc.....................................www.iotech.com .............................. 629........64A-B, 73 

JML Optical Industries, Inc........... www.jmloptical.com........................451 .................. 16a 

Kaman Instrumentation 

Operations ..................................svww.kamansensors.com ................405 .................... 24 

Keithley Instruments, Inc . ............wssswkeithley.com ........................572 ..................49 

Lake Shore Crvotronics, Inc......... www.lakeshore.com ........................421 .................... 75 

Laser Max Inc................................. www.lasermax4nc.com .................. 489,449 19a, 21a 

Litton Airtron Synoptics ................www.synoptix.com .......................... 460 ....................8a 

MasterBond Inc...........................www.masterbond.com ..................430 ..................77 

\lmthSoit, Inc . ........ ........................ wscts.mnathcad.cont...... ............ ..... 566 ...................... 4 

The MathWorks, Inc.....................www.mathworks.com/ntbr ..........512 ..................33 

MetIer Optics, Inc ...........................sssvss.mctleroptmcs.cons ..................-168 .................. I 4a 

Melles Griot, Photonics 

Components..............................www.mellesgriot.com ....................483 ..................7a

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Company Web Site Number Page 

Mercron Inc................................... www.mercron.com .......................... 486 .................. I7a 

Microwav..........................................www.microway.com ........................ 584 .................... 45 

Minco Products, Inc....................... www.minco.com .............................. 427 .................... 74 

MSC Software ..............................www.simulationcenter.com , 

www.cxchange.engineering-e.com

529 ....... .COVIH 

National Instruments 

Corporation .............................. www.ni.com/info/labview, wwiwnicom/info, 

www.ni.com/info/instrupedia........ 531,403,459,628 

COV11, 14,6a, 73 

Newark Electronics ........................www.newark.com ............................590 .....................SI 

Nexen Group, Inc......................... www.nexengroup.com/eclipse ....569 .................... 43 

NKK Switches..................................wwwdcdswitch,com.................................................... 60 

NuSil Silicone Technology ............www.nusil.com/ntb........................ 414 .................... 56 

Ocean Optics Inc........................... www.OceanOptics.com ..................401 ...................... 8 

Omega Engineering, Inc . ..............www.omega. com ............................501-504 .............. 

Patton & Patton Software Corp....... www.patton-patton.com ................ 627 .................... 73 

Photron USA .................................. www.photron.com ..........................415 ....................58 

Quatech, Inc................................... www.quatech.com .......................... 413 ....................52 

RadioShack.com ............................www.radioshack.com/b2b ............592 ....................41 

Research Systems, Inc................... www.researchsystems.com/ntb ....411 ....................38 

RGBSpectrum ............................wwswrgb.com ................................ 402 .................. 10 

Rifocs Corporation ........................www.rifocs.com ..............................418 ....................66 

Roper Scientific, Inc.......................www.roperscientific.com ................631 .................... 73 

Seal Master Corporation................ www.sealmaster.com ...................... 426 .................... 74 

SmallParts, Inc . ..........................wssswsznallparts.com ....................626 .................. 73 

Solid Edge. UGS ............................www.solid.edge.com ...................... 533 .................... 63 

Sony Electronics Inc....................... www.sony.com ................................ 455 ....................2a 

Specialty Polymer Products ..........www.polymersealing.com ..............423 .................... 66 

Spectra-Physics ................................wwss'.spectra-phvsics.com ..............473 ....................3a 

Stanford Research Systems............www.srsys.com ................................534 .................... 61 

StereoGraphics Corporation ........ www.stereographics.com/democd

410 .................... 34 

StorCase Technology, A Kingston 

Technology Company ................ www.storcase.com ..........................546 .................... 11 

Svnrad, Inc..................................... www.syisrad.com ............................561 ....................57 

TEAC America, Inc . ......................www.teac-recorders,com ................ 544 .................... 35 

Tescom Corporation ...................... www.tescoin.com ............................406 ....................28 

TestMart ..........................................www.mestmart.com .......................... 565 .................... 17 

Thermo RGI., Richardson 

Grating Laboratory......................www.gratinglab.com ......................4.66 .................. l8a 

thinkS ..............................................www.think3.com ............................550 .................... 19 

TrueTime ........................................www.tn.ietime.com ..........................422 .................... 75 

Velmex Inc.....................................www.velmex.com/b........................424 .................... 68 

Visual Numerics, Inc.....................www.vni.com/solve ........................ 409 .................... 18 

ZC & R ............................................www.zcrcoatings.com ...................... 475 .................. I Ia 

yet2.com ......................................www.yet2.com, www.nasatech.com/techsearch

581 ............ 15,32

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