Self-Diagnosing Nanomembrane Based Sensors for Flight Testing Applications

This NASA Phase II SBIR program would develop low profile, self-diagnosing nanomembrane based pressure sensors with minimum power consumption and fast operation time for flight test applications, using silicon on insulator nanomembrane techniques in combination with nanocomposite materials.nbsp; Such low-modulus, conformal nanomembrane sensor skins with integrated self-diagnosis, interconnect elements and electronic devices can be applied to new or existing wind tunnel models for flow dynamics analysis, or to flight test vehicles for real-time monitoring. The team will transition self-diagnosing nanomembrane based pressure sensors from their current concept to prototype stage products of use to flight test facilities. The team will perform synthesis of sensor materials with optimized transduction, hysteresis and environmental properties. The team will integrate NIST-traceable standards and methodologies to the sensor skins. The team will then fabricate the self-diagnosing, conformal nanomembrane based pressure sensors using optimized materials with ldquo;flip-chiprdquo; through-thickness patterning. Support electronics will be developed to acquire, multiplex, store and process raw sensor array data.