NASA SBIR 2008 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Tai-Yang Research Company
9112 Farrell Park Lane
Knoxville, TN 37922 - 8525
(865) 250-0237

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
David K Hilton
dkhilton@tai-yang.com
2031 E. Paul Dirac Drive
Tallahassee, FL 32310 - 3711
(865) 805-0220

Expected Technology Readiness Level (TRL) upon completion of contract: 4 to 5

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
The Tai-Yang Research Company (TYRC) proposes to address the need for high temperature superconducting (HTS) current leads used in an adiabatic
demagnetization refrigerator (ADR) for space applications, presently being developed at the NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The innovation is to use a hybrid of two different HTS conductors bonded together at a thermally and electrically determined optimum point along the length of the current lead.

The HTS conductor positioned at the warm end of the current lead will have a higher critical temperature (Tc) than the conductor at the cold end. This hybrid lead uses commercially available 2nd generation HTS conductors optimized for currents less than 10A. The warm end Tc is extended by using a bulk or thin film form not yet commercially available. TYRC will custom-fabricate the higher Tc materials and develop processes for joining them to the lower Tc material. TYRC will develop fabrication processes and generate options for mechanical design of the lead assembly.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
NASA commercial applications include current leads for compact, space-based cryogenics, including sensor-cooling adiabatic demagnetization refrigeration (ADR) systems. NASA systems requiring low-temperature electrical current feeds with a low heat leak will be enhanced by incorporating the hybrid high-temperature superconducting current leads proposed.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Commercial applications outside of NASA include compact cryogenic systems for magneto-optical imaging (MOI), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Mossbauer spectroscopy, and gyrotron amplifiers.

NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING

Instrumentation Power Management and Distribution Superconductors and Magnetic Ultra-High Density/Low Power