SBIR/STTR Research Award
MEMS-Enabled Smart Reconfigurable Antennas
Award amount
$599,950Program and phase
STTR · Phase IIAward year
2009Award details
- Awarding agency
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Branch
- Not reported
- Recipient company
- VIRTUAL EM INC.
- Proposal award date
- Not reported
- Contract end date
- Not reported
- UEI
- XVVMZSCBJJS6
- Solicitation number
- Not reported
- Topic code
- Not reported
Research abstract
A prototype wearable smart reconfigurable antenna for the Suit will be built to be used during NASA's EVA operations on lunar surface. The design is based on the Self-Structuring Antenna (SSA) technology utilizing MEMS switches for configuration of the aperture. Electrothermally and electrostatically actuated MEMS were studied via modeling and experiments and electrostatically actuated switches were recommended for use in Phase II due to their low actuation power requirements. The proposed smart antenna offers both adaptive beam steering and MIMO options for increasing the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and extending range. The antenna provides enhanced RF link for surface-to-surface voice, data, and video communication while also supporting contingency voice communication with the Lunar Relay Satellites (LRS). The technology is expected to reach TRL of 6 at the end of Phase II.
Technology keywords
Not reported
Other awards by this recipient
Verified by the same UEI. These are other public SBIR/STTR award pages, not a merged company record.
- Reconfigurable Conformal Antennas for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) utilizing Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs)
- RF Channel Sounder for Automatic Acquisition of the Wireless Environment.
- A Massively Parallel Scalable Processor for Order of Magnitude Increase in Acceleration of Photonic Simulations
- Remote Monitoring of Cardiopulmonary and Neurological Signals
- Low-Cost Radar Antenna with Electronic Elevation Scan
Research funding history
31 SBIR/STTR records share this UEI (2002–2025). Reported award amounts total $7,801,861. Reported amounts are not federal obligations.
Phases: Phase I, Phase II
Agencies: Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, Department of Commerce