NASA SBIR 2012 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Chronos Technology (Div. of FMI, Inc.)
15302 Bolsa Chica Street
Huntington Beach, CA 92649 - 1245
(714) 373-8100

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Kouros Sariri
ksariri@yahoo.com
15302 Bolsa Chica Street
Huntington Beach, CA 92649 - 1245
(818) 907-9655

CORPORATE/BUSINESS OFFICIAL (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Kouros Sariri
ksariri@yahoo.com
15302 Bolsa Chica Street
Huntington Beach, CA 92649 - 1245
(818) 907-9655

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 2
End: 3

Technology Available (TAV) Subtopics
Extreme Environments Technology 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)
Chronos Technology (the R&D division of Frequency Management International, FMI) proposes to deliver a comprehensive, and fully investigated & validated feasibility study (in Phase 1) for a novel approach leading to design & fabrication of extreme Environment Silicon Carbide (SiC) circuit blocks used in a variety of spacecraft power & propulsion system. The circuits shall be used for a wide range of both manned and unmanned space missions. The resulting solutions uniquely enable new extreme environment and high temperature performance levels offered commercially in compact, miniature size & rugged construction. There are no present alternatives for the proposed devices applicable to the extreme environment operating conditions. Based on the technology selection investigation and the road map defined, our proposed technology investigation and the resulting design effort in phase 1 shall conclude with identifying the best fit semiconductor fabrication process as well as component level design & implementation/fabrication methodology plan. With the already stated interest from SiC processing companies such as Cree, we would be focused on targeting device designs for circuits like counter, basic gate, buffer/driver & amplifier, all operating at industry std low voltages
In phase 2, we will complete the design/fabrication of successful extreme environment integrated circuit blocks as described that will be used in high efficiency spacecraft power & propulsion systems. We envision to deliver devices that will enable high efficiency power management as well as much improvement in energy density and specific power as required for the state of the art modular power unit architecture. Coupled with the extreme environment, high temperature operation and radiation hardened capabilities the resulting innovative devices will play its significant role as part of the emerging power and propulsion system for future missions.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Primary NASA applications:By significantly helping the power conversion efficiency by at least a factor of 2x and reducing the hardware weight by a factor of 3x, our solution would best fit all NASA manned and unmanned missions with diverse mission objectives. Among such programs are specific NASA space missions intended for Titan, Europa, Moon, Mars (manned and unmanned and/or return sample), comets and any other space missions power management, efficiency and electric propulsion would offer a distinct advantage and much improved mission risk. Overall, our proposed solution delivers its value towards the NASA objectives of scalable and modular power system, power distribution and management where space and weight dominate the overall cost of launch and flight durability. With range of power system applications covering solar array as well as electric propulsion, it offers much lighter and more efficient solutions compared to the conventional alternatives
Secondary NASA applications: Given the up and coming missions to Venus and the extreme high ambient temperatures, many new alternatives in telemetry systems and sensors would be enabled by the proposed devices. Many subsystems could be realized with much less concern over operation at temperatures above +430 degree C. It enables NASA to develop generation of new extreme high temperature tools that would no longer be considered as bottlenecks in such missions

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Superior power systems, power distribution and management on grid and off would also offer much desired benefits to wide range of other national needs. At the national defense our solution would enable development of much more rugged unmanned aerial vehicles (fuel cells, batteries, wireless power, engine sensors, alternative propulsion). The other variations of such vehicles including unmanned subterranean and underwater vehicle applications are other examples.
Strategic non-defense applications start from power converter/inverter systems based on fuel cells, solar wind, geothermal, etc. would all benefit from the availability of the devices proposed. Other significant application would be a wide range of higher efficiency power distribution and management systems that will be developed to bring new paradigm in omni-source intelligent power distribution and management paradigm that is of great interest for our domestic industrial infrastructure assurance including the nuclear reactor power management and control systems.
Other non-space related benefits would include the following as related the specific industry sectors: All electric vehicles and hybrids including fuel cell power management, power grid control and management, energy storage systems and solar power (photo voltaic and solar concentrator) systems.

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.)

Attitude Determination & Control Ceramics Characterization Circuits (including ICs; for specific applications, see e.g., Communications, Networking & Signal Transport; Control & Monitoring, Sensors) Condition Monitoring (see also Sensors) Conversion Distribution/Management Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Propulsion Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing Joining (Adhesion, Welding) Launch Engine/Booster Lifetime Testing Manufacturing Methods Materials (Insulator, Semiconductor, Substrate) Metallics Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) and smaller Models & Simulations (see also Testing & Evaluation) Photon Sails (Solar; Laser) Pressure/Vacuum Processing Methods Prototyping Quality/Reliability Sources (Renewable, Nonrenewable) Storage Telemetry/Tracking (Cooperative/Noncooperative; see also Planetary Navigation, Tracking, & Telemetry) Thermal Vehicles (see also Autonomous Systems)