NASA SBIR 2011 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
QorTek Inc
1965 Lycoming Creek Road, Suite 205
Williamsport, PA 17701 - 1251
(570) 322-2700

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Gareth J Knowles
gknowles@qortek.com
1965 Lycoming Creek Road, Suite 205
Williamsport, PA 17701 - 1251
(570) 322-2700

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 6

Technology Available (TAV) Subtopics
Power Electronics and Management, and Energy Storage is a Technology Available (TAV) subtopic that includes NASA Intellectual Property (IP). Do you plan to use the NASA IP under the award? No

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
The objective is to produce high efficiency DC/DC power modules in a small low profile package that can tolerate extreme environment conditions. The primary effort of the Phase II program is to address the need for very high performance power electronics that meet a combination of high radiation tolerance, high thermal tolerance and extremely low EMI susceptibility/radiation. The power modules incorporate several radical new advances in power design including ceramic cores and quasi-linear circuitry. The program will exit with such modules having been verified for thermal vacuum and electromagnetic (susceptibility and radiation) performance of modules that can tolerate >0.3Mrad and >200C operation with negligible electromagnetic coupling and extremely high electrical isolation.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The technology enables a new generation of space qualifiable DC/DC power converters, inverters and sensors based on lightweight ceramic technology replacing magnetics. This technology will address NASA critical needs for small lightweight power electronics for missions that must operate in both typical space and also more extreme environments.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The technology is already in development for public and military sector power devices such as AC/DC adapters, DC/DC converters, LED lighting , fuze munitions, and distributed solar and photovoltaic products.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING (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.)

Acoustic/Vibration Actuators & Motors Algorithms/Control Software & Systems (see also Autonomous Systems) Autonomous Control (see also Control & Monitoring) Ceramics Characterization Circuits (including ICs; for specific applications, see e.g., Communications, Networking & Signal Transport; Control & Monitoring, Sensors) Coatings/Surface Treatments Contact/Mechanical Conversion Destructive Testing Distribution/Management Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing Machines/Mechanical Subsystems Manufacturing Methods Materials (Insulator, Semiconductor, Substrate) Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) and smaller Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation) Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE; NDT) Nonspecified Passive Systems Processing Methods Prototyping Quality/Reliability Simulation & Modeling Smart/Multifunctional Materials Software Tools (Analysis, Design) Spacecraft Design, Construction, Testing, & Performance (see also Engineering; Testing & Evaluation) Superconductance/Magnetics