STRUCTURE VIBRATION CONTROLLER BASED ON SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPE TECHNOLOGY

THE AIR FORCE SEEKS ADVANCED DEVICES, ALGORITHMS, AND SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING STRUCTURES IN SPACE. THE EMERGING TECHNOLOGY OF SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPY (STM) IS CAPABLE OF IMAGING SURFACES TO ATOMIC RESOLUTION IN AMBIENT ATMOSPHERE. QUAN-SCAN PROPOSES TO STUDY THE FEASIBILITY OF DEVELOPING A HIGHLY SENSITIVE VIBRATION CONTROLLER BASED ON STM TECHNOLOGY AND PIEZOCERAMICS FOR SPACE STRUCTURES. STM-BASED VIBRATION SENSORS AND CONTROLLERS ARE EXPECTED TO EXHIBIT HIGH SENSITIVITY, LARGE DYNAMIC RANGE, A FREQUENCY RESPONSE FROM DC TO SEVERAL HUNDRED KHZ, AND THEY PROMISE TO BE SMALLER, MORE COMPACT, MORE RUGGED, LESS POWER CONSUMING, AND LESS COSTLY THAN EXISTING SYSTEMS.