The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $99,997 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  GLENN RESEARCH CENTER
  IGF::OT::IGF - SBIR PHASE III - INVESTIGATION OF LASER INDUCED CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION MONOCRYSTALLINE GROWTH OF 4H-SILICON CARBIDE ALONG THE<0001>AXIS - THE COMMERCIAL INTRODUCTION OF SILICON CARBIDE (SIC) POWER ELECTRONICS IS ALREADY STARTING TO ENABLE POWER SYSTEMS THAT ARE SIGNIFICANTLY MORE EFFICIENT, LIGHTER, AND SMALLER THAN MOST OF TODAY S POWER SYSTEMS BASED ON SILICON (SI) ELECTRONICS. HOWEVER, THE ENERGY-SAVING PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY OF SIC POWER DEVICES ARE SIGNIFICANTLY DEGRADED, AND DEVICE COST SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED, BECAUSE OF A HIGH DENSITY OF DISLOCATION DEFECTS IN MASS-PRODUCED SIC SEMICONDUCTOR CRYSTALS. NASA GLENN HAS PATENTED (US PAT. 7,449,065) A TOTALLY NEW, YET EXPERIMENTALLY UNPROVEN, LARGE TAPERED CRYSTAL (LTC) CONCEPT FOR ELIMINATING THESE LIMITING DEFECTS WITH THE GOAL OF ENABLING LARGER ENERGY SAVINGS IN POWER APPLICATIONS RANGING FROM POWER GRID, ELECTRIC MOTORS&VEHICLES DOWN TO COMPUTERS AND MOBILE DEVICE CHARGERS. THE ESTIMATED BENEFIT TO NASA IS APPROXIMATELY 2-FOLD SMALLER, LIGHTER, AND MORE-EFFICIENT POWER ELECTRONICS FOR SPACECRAFT AND AIRCRAFT. PRIOR TO UNDERTAKING FULL-SCALE DEVELOPMENT INVESTMENT, AN INITIAL STEP TO EXPERIMENTALLY PROVE THE FEASIBILITY OF THE LTC CONCEPT IS DEMONSTRATING THE WORLD S FIRST GROWTH OF SIGNIFICANTLY LONG (MM TO CM LENGTH DIMENSION) HIGH-QUALITY SIC SINGLE-CRYSTAL FIBERS. THE SBIR PHASE III WITH FREE FORM FIBERS, INC (SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY) WAS INITIATED TO EXPERIMENTALLY PROVE (AS CLAIMED IN THE NASA CONCEPT PATENT) THAT LONG SINGLE-CRYSTAL FIBERS OF SIC CAN BE GROWN USING LASER-ASSISTED CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION (LASER-CVD). THE LASER PATTERNING OF THE SIC GROWTH IS NEEDED FOR FIBER FORMATION BECAUSE SIC S NATURAL (I.E., UN-PATTERNED CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC-DRIVEN) GROWTH SHAPE IS ESSENTIALLY THE OPPOSITE THAT OF THE LONG CYLINDRICAL FIBER SHAPE THAT IS DESIRED FOR LTC IMPLEMENTATION. THIS PHASE III JOINT DEVELOPMENT ADVANTAGEOUSLY LEVERAGES FREE FORM S EXPERIENCE IN LASER-CVD GROWTH OF MATERIALS OTHER THAN SIC WITH NASA GLENN S PIONEERING WORLD-RENOWNED EXPERTISE IN SIC CRYSTAL GROWTH. NASA GLENN IS PROVIDING SPECIALLY PREPARED MICRO-PATTERNED SIC CRYSTALS, WHICH ARE USED AS THE SEEDING POINTS FOR LASER-CVD GROWTH INITIATION AT FREE FORM. EXPERIMENTS AIMED AT FIBER GROWTH INITIATION ON THESE SEEDS ARE IN PRESENTLY IN PROGRESS AT FREE FORM.

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