Solitronics

Brookhaven Technology Group, Inc. is a Setauket, NY based company that has received a grant(s) from the Department of Energy's SBIR/STTR program. The abstract(s) for these grant award(s) are provided as well since they provide insights into Brookhaven Technology Group, Inc.'s business and areas of expertise. Nanotubes made of carbon structures will be cross-linked and woven into self-supporting structures for use as charge-exchange foils. These foils are essential for operation of many accelerator applications. The research will lead to increased performance and reduced cost of operation of accelerators used in medicine, Homeland Security, and high energy physics research.

Nanorods is a company that received a SBIR Phase I grant for a project entitled: Multi-wavelength Infrared thermal Detectors and Imagers. Their project will develop a new infrared (IR) radiation sensor technology, which will allow the development of a new class of low-cost multi-wavelength thermal detectors which are also sensitive to light polarization. This technology will allow radiation detection from the near-IR to long-wave IR, a capability that is absent in competing detectors. Amorphous silicon and vanadium dioxide has been the dominant materials used for infrared light detection since the 1980s. The disadvantages of such detectors are: 1) insensitivity to the spectral content and polarization of the incident radiation, 2) difficulty in further miniaturization of the sensing pixels. This project will use a combination of nanomaterial and amorphous silicon layers as a new type of infrared sensing layer which can be integrated into silicon thermal detectors and is expected to overcome these limitations. This project will demonstrate: 1) Fabrication and integration of the new radiation sensing layers to create a series of thermal detectors; 2) Enhanced light absorption and spectral sensitivity at multiple IR wavelengths; 3) Size reduction of the sensing pixel to 10 microns; and 4) polarization sensitivity for incident light at 3 micron wavelengths. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is the development of uncooled multi-color thermal detectors which are inexpensive and feature spectral and polarization sensitivity. These devices have the potential to displace expensive photon-based semiconductor IR detectors in many applications. The proposed technology will allow production of multi-color detectors on a single silicon wafer as well as sensing pixel miniaturization that will tremendously impact the fabrication cost, imaging resolution and device size. Successful commercialization of this thermal detection technology will substantially impact the field of low cost IR detection and imaging in applications such as fire detection, public health, environmental monitoring, space missions, industrial process monitoring, and security and military areas.

Betabatt is a company that received a SBIR/STTR Phase II grant for a project entitled: A Semiconductor Device for Direct and Efficient Conversion of Radioisotope Energy. Their project will fabricate a prototype betavoltaic battery in a form factor the size of a quarter coin. The goal will be to generate approximately 100 microwatts of electrical power in a volume less than half a cubic centimeter from a tritiated energy source. Research conducted for the Phase I portion of this project established the feasibility of constructing a semiconductor device that directly and efficiently converts the energy released from radioactive decay directly into electric current. Three dimensional (3D) diodes were constructed in macroporous silicon by placing p-n junctions along the walls of all the pores. These junctions formed the betavoltaic conversion layer for beta particles (electrons) emitted by gaseous tritium (the radioisotope of hydrogen with a half life of 12.3 years) that was distributed throughout the pore space. Measurements of the current-voltage responses for this novel 3D geometry demonstrated an order of magnitude efficiency increase compared to conventional 2Dplanar diodes. In the 3D diode nearly every decay electron entered the p-n conversion layers. The focus of the Phase II research will be to enhance the performance of the 3D diodes to maximize conversion efficiency. Also, the source energy density will be increased markedly by developing a tritiated solid that can be easily and routinely dispersed in the pore space. This research will lead to the development of a practical nuclear battery. Commercially, betavoltaic batteries will be useful in a wide variety of sensors and devices used for remote and extended missions in many inaccessible locations. Successful commercialization of this nuclear battery with its order of magnitude increase in useful life is to increase significantly the utilization of self-powered devices and sensors. Stringent efforts will be made to ensure the radiological safety of these nuclear batteries at every step in the development, manufacturing and commercialization processes.

Supercon is a company that received a SBIR Phase II grant for a project entitled: A New Production Method for Ta Fibers for Use in Electrolytic Capacitors with Improved Performance and Packaging Options. Their project is intended to develop a new process for manufacturing tantalum (Ta) metal fibers for use in producing tantalum capacitors, and advance this process to the stage of commercialization. This technology, which has been demonstrated in Phase I, could lead to capacitor products having higher performance and greater volumetric efficiency than any currently available. The use of fibers in place of metal powder allows the production of thin anode bodies leading to improved packing options and component performance. The innovation underlying the technology is bundle drawing of Ta filaments in a copper matrix. A composite consisting of Ta filaments in a copper matrix is drawn is a series of reduction steps until the filaments are less than about 10 microns in diameter. The drawn wire is rolled to produce ribbon-type filaments that are 1 micron or less in thickness. The copper composite matrix is chemically dissolved without attacking the Ta to produce metallic Ta high surface area, ribbon-fibers. The fibers are formed into thin mats, which are sintered to produce porous metal strips from which high surface area capacitor anodes are made. A significant aspect of this approach is that fiber morphology can be varied over a wide of fiber thicknesses unlike powder. This allows the morphology of the fibers to be optimized for the particular voltage rating and use requirements in order to maximize the performance of the capacitor. Commercially, nearly all medical, automotive, military and many consumer electronic devices utilize Ta electrolytic capacitors due to their outstanding performance, reliability and volumetric efficiency. Solid electrolytic capacitors are currently made from Ta metal powder. Several million pounds per year of Ta powder are consumed in manufacturing Ta capacitors for these applications. The trend in electronics is toward high powder components and increased miniaturization. Combined with the need to lower materials and manufacturing costs, these considerations have created an opportunity for new method of producing solid electrolytic capacitors. Fiber metal technology has the potential to both lower manufacturing costs, improve capacitor performance, and improve packaging options, which could enable the development of new product that are either currently very difficult or very expensive to make using current technology base on metal powder. Supercon is a company that received a SBIR Phase I grant for a project entitled: A New Production Method for Ta Fibers for Use in Electrolytic Capacitors with Improved Performance and Packaging Options. Their project is intended to demonstrate a new process for manufacturing valve metal fibers for use in producing capacitors. The technology is applicable to all valve metals used for making solid electrolytic capacitors. If successful, this technology could lead to capacitor products having higher performance and greater volumetric efficiency than are currently available. The use of fibers in place of the standard powder compacts allows the production of thin anode bodies leading to improved packaging options and component performance. The innovation underlying the technology is bundle drawing of valve metal filaments contained in copper matrix. A composite consisting of valve metal filaments in a copper matrix is drawn in series of reduction steps until the filaments are less than 10 microns. The drawn wire is rolled to produce submicron thick ribbon type filaments. The copper composite matrix is chemically dissolved to produce metallic thin fibers. The fibers are formed into thin mats, which are sintered to produce porous metal strips from which high surface area capacitor anodes can be made. A significant aspect of this approach is that fiber morphology can be varied within a wide range of thickness and widths unlike powders. This allows the morphology of the fibers to be optimized in order to maximize the properties of the capacitor. Commercially, nearly all medical, automotive and consumer electronic devices all utilize solid electrolytic capacitors due to their performance, volumetric efficiency, and high reliability. Several million pounds per year of powder are consumed in the manufacture of capacitors for these applications. The trend towards higher power components, and miniaturization, combined with the need to lower materials and manufacturing costs have created an opportunity for new methods of producing solid electrolytic capacitors. Fiber metal technology has the potential to both lower manufacturing costs, improve capacitor performance, and improve packaging options which could lead to new products that are either very difficult or very expensive to make using current methods.

Thixomat is a company that received a STTR Phase II grant for a project entitled: New Process for High Strength/Weight Net-Shape Auto and Aero components from Mg Sheet. Their project aims to scale-up and commercialize a low cost and simple process to produce high strength/density Magnesium (Mg) alloy sheet; using Thixomolding Thermomechanical Processing (TTMP). TTMP avoids the decades-long barriers of twinning and shear band deformation that limits the formability of commercial coarse-grained Mg alloys, rather, in TTMP fine isotropic grains are molded in the first Thixomolding step and then these are thermomechanically processed to impose continuous dynamic recrystalization to finer grains of 0.8 to 2 microns. In this fine grained mode of processing, twinning and shear banding are minimized while slip and grain boundary sliding are promoted. The common intermetallic phases of Mg alloys are also refined to nanometer size so that they can serve as dispersion hardeners. The end result of the refined microstructures is an increase of both strength and ductility. The mechanism may apply also to Titanium (Ti) and Beryllium (Be) alloys. The broader/commercial impacts of this project are fuel and pollution savings in automobiles and trucks; fuel and payload benefits in aerospace; energy savings in batteries and fuel cells; and medical benefits in bio-replaceable body implants. Commercially, this project will result in a new U.S. business in manufacture of superior low cost Mg sheet. Thixomat,inc is a company that received a STTR Phase I grant for a project entitled: New Process for High Strength/Weight Net-Shape Auto and Aero components from Mg Sheet. Their Project is aimed at developing a new low-cost process to manufacture nanostructured net-shape Mg parts. These lightweight and high strength parts are expected to be cost-effective applications of nanotechnology in automotive, aerospace and many other industries. The process (herein termed TS) combines injection molding (Thixomolding) and Sinewave deformation. The resulting material is readily formed into complex shapes by warm drawing, or superplastic forming (SPF). TS generates novel microstructures and micromechanisms to be explored by our University partner. The process introduces two synergistic mechanisms for strengthening, generated in-situ in bulk parts - grain size refinement and intermetallic particle refinement. The nano-sized dispersoids that fortify the nano-sized grains provide opportunity for learning new science. The ability to eliminate mechanisms that hinder the ductility and formability of current commercial Mg sheet constitutes a novel contribution to processing science. The TS process opens the way to minimize energy/fuel consumption in autos and aerospace vehicles; to lessen the burden of military personnel. This process will be designed around an automated manufacturing cell that will feature agility for same day delivery of custom selected alloy and part geometry. The TS process is environmentally friendly, free of slag, dross, global warming gases and fire and safety hazards.

Heavystone Laboratory is a company that received a SBIR Phase I grant for a project entitled: Functionally Graded Cemented Tungsten Carbide -- Process and Properties. Their project aims to develop an innovative process to significantly enhance the manufacturability of functionally graded cemented tungsten carbide (FGM WC-Co) by utilizing a high temperature carburization process. This technology is based on the understanding of the thermodynamics and kinetics of liquid phase equilibrium and migration during sintering. The approach is to exploit the thermodynamic equilibriums among liquid Co phase and other phases and the dependence of the equilibrium on temperature and carbon content. Co gradient is formed in this process by forcing liquid Co to flow from the surface region towards the interior region during carburizing heat treatment of conventional liquid-phase-sintered WC-Co. The broader/commercial impact of this project will be the potential to develop a high-manufacturability process for FGM WC-Co. Cemented tungsten carbide, WC-Co, is one of the most widely used tool materials in metal machining, mining, oil, gas, geothermal energy explorations, and other industrial applications where extreme wear resistance is required. FGM WC-Co materials are made of WC-Co composites with varying cobalt compositions from surface to the interior of the material. Compared to conventional homogeneous WC-Co, FGM WC-Co offers a combination of superior wear resistance, fracture toughness, and strength, thus provides much more desired engineering performance. However, manufacturing FGM WC-Co presents a difficult challenge because liquid phase sintering, by which most WC-Co products are made today, produces homogeneous materials. This project targets on the development of a new process that can be used to manufacture FGM WC-Co in an economically viable manner.