Ldrd Impacts

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1/29LDRD Impacts on Sandia and the Nation


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SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES LDRD Impacts on Sandia and t

For further information, contact:

Wendy R. Cieslak

Senior Manager, Science, Technology,

and Engineering Strategic Initiatives

[email protected]

(505) 844-8633

or

Henry R. Westrich

LDRD Program Manager

[email protected]

505-844-9092

LDRD Impactson Sandia and the Nation

OUT THE COVER:

ages rom some o the case studies

this brochure: a near-UV light-

mitting diode (LED), a cell membrane,

NISAC model, synthetic aperture

dar (SAR) image o Washington, D.C.

LABORATORY DIRECTED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT


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andia National Laboratories Laboratory DirectedResearch and Development (LDRD) Program:Value to the Nation Introduction

nherent to Sandia National Laboratories

Laboratory Directed Research and

Development (LDRD) program are the two

rategic goals o nurtu ring our workorces core

ience and technology (S&) expertise and supporting

ndias national security missions. In these contexts,

DRD investments oten provide the stimulus,

metimes the blueprints, and occasionally even the

plicit methodologies or the innovative technical

lutions that shape our nations deense, security, andonomic well-being. As Sandias sole discretionary

search and development (R&D) program, LDR D is

undational to the uture o the Laboratories ability to

ovide exceptional service in the national interest.1

ustaining exceptional service i mplies ongoing,

ninterrupted discovery and innovation against the

ackdrop o a world whose only certainty is change.

Te impact o LDRD R&D on Sandias missions

nd its contribution to the nations security is

ultidimensional, taking orms as varied as the projects

emselves. For example, recent LDRD investments

biosciences have enabled Sandia to bring applicable

&D skills to biomedical research, investments that

ay lead to the development o capabilities or very

rly diagnosis o illness presymptomatic diagnosis,

notion that was barely conceivable 30 years ago. In

e area o high perormance computing (HPC), LDRD

as long supported the development o novel modeling

nd simulation tools that have won multiple R&D 100

wards or innovation and utilization by the broader

PC community. ranser o these technologies allowsnd users, engineers and manuacturers to predict

e perormance o their products with minimal

penditures in actual eld testing. LDRD activities

also promote workorce development by providing the

opportunity or technical sta, whether existing or

new hires, to engage in cutti ng-edge R&D in response

to the ever-challenging world o change that oers

context or their work. For example, groundbreaking

research eorts in the elds o optoelectronics,

materials science, and microelectronics have led to

new scientic discoveries and strategic partnerships

with DOE, DHS, DOD, EPA. Finally, LDRD is the

incubator or many innovative technical solutions orsome o our most pressing national security problems.

Research in sophisticated detection technologies,

such as advanced radars, chemical detectors and

microelectromechanical systems, have subsequent

to their genesis in LDRD projects been incorporated

into direct program activities and rened or specic

mission applications.

Driving all LDRD-directed research is, above all,

a vision or a more-secure, more-prosperous uture.

While national security in novations cannot be planned

nor legislated,2 the exibility and orward-looking

nature o the LDRD program enables the Labs to

accomplish long-range, innovative research that direct

program unding is simply unwilling or u nable to

pursue. LDRD anticipates solutions to uture mission

needs by validating the undamental hypotheses

and creating the core technologies rom which such

innovations can arise. LDRD activities produce major

scientic achievements and new S& capabilities, lead

to the creation o new programs, develop new strategic

partnerships, and accelerate technology transer. Tecase histories in this publication amply illustrate both

these contributions and the great service that LDRD-

unded research provides to the nation.H

tter from President Harry S. Truman (1949) to AT&T president offering the company an

pportunity to render an exceptional service in the national interest by managing Sandia National Laboratories.

None of the most important weapons transforming warfare in the 20th century - the airplane, tank, radar, jet engine, helicopter, computer, not even the

mic bomb - owed its initial development to a doctrinal requirement or request of the military. John Chambers, ed., The Oxford Companion to American

litary History

ichard H. Stulen

ice President o Science, Technology, and Engineering,

nd Chie Technology Ofcer

Te Laboratory Directed Research & Development

(LDRD) program was the vision o a long list o

ederal government agencies who elt that, at its

core, scientic innovation and creativity most

commonly emanated rom researchers themselves,

and that competitive unding o such activities lay

at the heart o cutting-edge science and technology.

o demonstrate the impact o that research upon

both Sandia National Laboratories and the Nation,

we have proered twelve case studies o LDRD

programs, showing their evolution rom concept to

initial technical results and to current theoretical and

practical capabilities.

From the days o da Vinci, Galileo, and Newton,

science has been an independent activity, reely

perormed by patrician scientists or unded by their

beneactors, both par ties driven by incredible curiosity

to study problems and reveal mechanisms operational

in the natural world. Scientists oten labored alone,

supported by the ew writings t hat Greek and Arab

sages had let them. Universities encouraged this

style o work, i ndependent, sometimes in small

groups, studying questions that humans had been

asking or ages. Te result was a pattern o work

leading rom scientic ideas birthed by the ew to

research perormed by the many, the oundation o the

scientic method.

In 1954 the newly ormed Atomic Energy

Commission (AEC) was tasked to provide a program

. . . ostering research and development in order

to encourage maximum scientic and industrial

progress. In 1974 the AEC was reorganized, and three

years later, the Energy Research Act was passed with

a little-noticed paragraph advocating a new approachto research. PL 95-39 stated that Any Government-

owned contractor-operated laboratory . . . may . . . use

a reasonable amount o its operating budget or the

unding o employee-suggested research projects up

to the pilot stage o development. Ater thirty years

o government-sponsored research, this legislation

rekindled the age-old approach that ideas springing

rom the researchers themselves needed to be a part o

the R&D mix in national laboratories.

Te ormal incarnation o the LDRD program

occurred in 1991 under the National Deense

Authorization Act. Section 3132 explicitly autho

laboratory-directed research and development a

DOE GOCO labs and devised unding to derive

up to 6% (equivalent 8%, loaded) o all lab-targe

national security dollars. While t hat percentage

varied and despite limitations, the program stan

quite the same as it was originally conceived.

Te value and impact o a government or ind

R&D program maniests in a multitude o ways

solutions bring the national laboratories dieren

and capabilities that both solve existing problem

address problems heretoore believed insoluble.

thus result in operational changes in our nationsecurity systems and in new programs and prog

unding. Te ace o warare changes rom intel

gained on the eld to images sent back rom Un

Aerial Vehicles. Communications move rom de

desktop electronics to radiation hardened CPUs

earth-orbiting satellites. Chemical sensors evolv

rom bulky bench-top devices to hand-held, 1-m

analysis chem labs on a chip, sni fng out toxic t

delivered vapors.

Impacts also take the orm o increased pate

activity, R&D100 Awards, and a growth in t he n

o publications and citations. Lastly, LDRD prov

early career employees the opportunity to prove

themselves in the arena o competitive proposa

unding, to remain intellectually invigorated, an

leave behind a legacy o innovation.

Not all LDRD projects were as successul as

herein, but that process o weeding-out success

ailures is integral to high-quality science, in wh

we learn as much rom the hypothesis disprovedrom the hypothesis conrmed. Tese projects a

programs are the paradigm or R&D investmen

Tey exhibit the means by which research takes

in extrapolating prior results and in intuiting ne

problem-solving directions. We at Sandia hope

demonstrate the nucleus o an idea generated by

person, communicated to others, and perormed

multidisciplinary teams, by which we may grow

community and thrive as a nation.H


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ContentsFine-sculpting the Details on a Classic

Synthetic Aperture Radars 8

Securing Our Inrastructures

NISAC 12

Miniaturizing Sensors and MechanismsMicro-accelerometer Development Supports MEMS 16

The Oil o the 21st Century

Global Water-security Initiatives 20

Shielding Delicate Electronics

Radiation-hardened Electronics 24

Slashing CO2

Emissions by Rocketing Efciency

Solid State Lighting 28

Enabling Ever More-sensitive Chemical Detectives

Chemical Preconcentrators 32

Neutralizing National Security Threats

Earth Penetrators 36

Ultraast Laboratory-in-miniature

MicroChemlab 40

Boldly Bridging Diverse National Security Arenas

Hyperspectral Signal Extraction 44

A New Biosciences Capability or Sandia

IBIG 48

Maintaining Razor-sharp Simulation Accuracy

DAKOTA 52


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navigation comprised one set o SAR drivers.

SARs additional importance to large-area

image ormation and terrain proling ensured

its sponsorship. Tis combination o actors

drew Sandia scientists and engineers into the

SAR arena by the early 1980s.

Sandias 25-plus-year role in SAR includes

contributions in antennas, miniatureelectronics, precision navigation, guidance,

and digital signal processing. In turn, LDRDs

impact on SAR has ta ken many orms, but

in most cases has served as enabler o new

technologies, permitting drastic improvements

in resolution, size and weight, image quality,

and processing speed. As early as 1983, Sandia

was investing in an improved SAR-based

directional altimeter, with improvements

in terrain mapping, strip image mapping,

and real-time processing ollowing shortly

thereater. SAR systems take advantage o

the long-range propagation characteristics o

radar signals and the inormation processing

capability o modern digital electronics to

provide high-resolution imagery, in real time,

with minimal constraints on time-o-day

and atmospheric conditions SAR can see

through clouds and smoke and leveraging

the unique responses o terrain and cultural

targets to radar requencies.

Most commonly implemented by an

aircrat, SAR transmits a wide-bandwidth

radar signal and then receives a radar echo

(returned signal) rom an array o objects

scattered along the ground, below. Each ground

point returns a radar signal over a large angular

sector, and the airplane acts as an extended

antenna by continuously collecting data along

its ight line, albeit at slightly dierent times.

An MQ-1 predator, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), exempliying the type o carrier that might be utilized or

current iterations o Sandias miniSAR radar package.

Tis eectively produces a receiving radar

aperture that may be hundreds o meters

long or more the synthetic aperture. By

analogy, imagine holding the shutter open on

the lens o your digital camera, pointed out

the passenger-side window as your riends

car moves along a road. Image ater successive

image would register on the cameras chip,

each superimposed on the prior images. Your

lens has become super-wide-angle, taking-

in much more territory than it otherwisecould, but the photographic inormation on

the chip is a tangled mass o images which

could be untangled, i the camera knew

exactly at what instant o t ime each image

was captured. In the same sense, or the

successively collected radar echoes in SAR,

reconstruction algorithms must piece together

the reections rom the many points on the

ground, recovered over an airplanes ight line,

and produce ull 2D and 3D images in nearly-

real-time.

In addition to resolution and operational

speed, it was physical size that explicitly began

to drive SAR modications. During 1986-1991

the US Army sponsored development o

SARLOS, a real-time SAR with image-

ormation and automatic target recognition o

multiple and simultaneous targets. At 500 lb,

this system wa s a signicant improvement overthe prior 2000-lb SAR, which did not oer real-

time processing o SAR imagery. But power

requirements were high, and antenna gimbals

had relatively short lietimes. In 1996, General

Atomics Inc. (GA) initiated the Lynx program

to reduce system size and weight, even urther

in order to accommodate the small u nmanned

aerial vehicles (UAVs) entering common use.

Sandia delivered the rst prototype compact

Fine-sculpting the Detailson a Classic

ynthetic Aperture Radars

Imagine waves of Nazi bombers ying across

the English Channel, undetected, leaving the

British with no means to prepare themselves

or the deense o their homeland during

World War II. Grateully, however, during the

mid-1930s, Robert Watson-Watt o the British

Radio Research Station had rst demonstrated

the capabilities o radar or aircrat detection.

Tis led to the amed Chain Home pulsedradar established along Englands southern and

eastern coasts to search or incoming aircrat.

It is conceivable that the Battle o Britain might

have turned in avor o the Nazis, changed the

course o history, had it not been or the ability

o the British military to adapt the theoretical

basis or radar into unctional radar

detectors alerting them to implement deenses

against the Nazi bombings and assisting the

citizens o England to take timely measures to

withstand those attacks.

During the post-war 1950s timerame,

a key radar development occurred at the

Goodyear Aircrat Co. in the orm o Synthetic

Aperture Radar (SAR). SAR quickly became

an alternate imaging modality to airborne

photography, able to see through clouds and

operate during inclement weather. By the

1980s, SARs initial resolution in the 10s o

meters had been improved to a remarkable 30

cm (approximately capable o distinguishingtwo objects only about one oot apart). Te

development o maneuvering re-entry vehicles

with long ight times and targeting scenarios

requiring higher precision than possible

rom inertial navigation were being explored,

demanding ull radar imaging or guidance

and course correction. Tis issue and other

actors concerning a requirement or greater

targeting precision than possible with inertial


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SAR to GA i n 1999. he sensor oered one-to ten-oot resolution stripmap capability

and spotlight (higher-resolution, single-

area imaging) resolutions as high as our

inches, with a maximum range o 25 to

85 kilometers. Lynx was packaged in t wo

subassemblies, eventually weighing less than

85 lb. Sandias relationship with GA and the

Lynx radar continues to this day.

As regular sponsors worked to build more-

eective operational SAR systems, LDRD

began to u nd many improvements, which

urther reduced package weight, and also,

added multiple new imaging capabilities.

With the advent o UAV-mounted SAR came

both urther size reduction and the ability

to image moving targets, creating true radar

videography. In FY 2000, a three-year LDRD

project aimed at improving system efciency

and reducing size and weight was accompanied

by a supplementary LDRD to abricate a

new compact digital receiver, a miniaturi zedwaveorm synthesis prototype, and a n

advanced application-specic integrated

circuit. o complete size reduction and

enhance on-line processing, an FY2004-2006

LDRD developed a highly modular sotware

architecture and advanced image ormation

algorithms or lower-resolution images.

ogether, these eorts enabled the rst

demonstration o the Sandia MiniSAR, a ully

unctional radar with a total weight o less than

30 lb, which rst ew in 2005.

MiniSAR required several more steps

to truly demonstrate its value. During

FY20042006, an LDRD drove down

processing time and continued to reduce

size. It developed new image-ormation

algorithms and implemented miniaturized

eld programmable arrays to speed image

reconstruction. Smaller electronics along

with enhanced autoocus algorithms urther

reduced size. MiniSAR exhibited unequaled

image quality and resolution, achieving our-to

ve-old reductions in size, weight, and cost,

while providing the nation with a SAR oeringstunning new applications or tactical warare

systems.

LDRD has also pursued real-time scene

imaging the ability to provide continuous

imaging, a video, o moving targets on the

ground. An FY20012002 project ocused on

speeding data acquisition so that images could

be processed and reconstructed at video rates.

Te project team was able to demonstrate the

capability or collecting VideoSAR data in

several modes and automatically processing

these images to any azimuth resolution and

pixel spacing. However, VideoSAR images

contained so much inormation that radar

operators and ground stations were unable

to absorb them in real time. In response, new

graphical user interaces were developed to

visually queue users to moving targets by

way o tracking algorithms able to display

the direction, speed, and size o a moving

target. Developers expect to incorporate thecapabilities generated under this project in

most uture SAR systems.

Te most recent LDRD projects have

concentrated on developing better moving-

target imaging and improved image resolution.

For example, Enhanced Inverse SAR (ISAR)

seeks to coherently process a set o radar-

pulse echo data to image a target object whose

motion is unknown, data-driven algorithms

compensating or the relative motion between

radar and target. Another recent LDRD is

attempting to lower the spectral noise oor

and sustain the exceptionally high dynamic

range expected in SAR systems, perhaps

ultimately permitting the clear discrimination

o images o small targets in an urban

environment or other cluttered landscape.

he LDRD program has helped to d rive

the maturation o Synthetic Aperture

Radar at Sandia rom the physically

massive system o the past to the miniature

system o the present, while maintaininig

extraordinary image quality, enabling the

Laboratories to oer the nation capabilities

that were otherwise unexpected, by

combining small size with a UAV platorm.

LDRD projects have reduced size and

cost while concomitantly increasing

perormance, adding video capabilities

to extraordinary resolution. Against an

operational platorm provided by agency

sponsors, LDRDs complementary oering

became the ingenuity to both technically

innovate and to spotlight new applications.

From the early radars o the Battle oBritain to today s remarkable technology,

MiniSAR systems, oten lying on UAVs,

are now crucial to the war against global

terrorism, including the security o US

borders. Future applications, such as

search-and-rescue, ensure that Sandias

investment in SAR will both continue

operationally and will continue to pay

dividends to the nation.H

SAR Image o the riparian ecosystem (Bosque) and armlands bordering the Rio Grande River. Both ront and

rear covers o this publication show SAR images o Washington, DC.

Sandia sta member mounts a miniSAR package on an unmanned

rial vehicle.


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Securing Ournrastructures

NISAC

payment systems. One key revelation o late-

20th Century Dynamical Systems heory

mathematics is that such systems, natural

and man-made alike, can be similarly

modeled, yet are raught with uncertainty,

accessible only to probabilistic prediction.

Now occupying its own edice on theSandia, New Mexico, campus (the rst building

unded by DHS), NISACs roots in LDRD

were extensively ramied through a ertile

soil o ideation the realization by Snyder

and other Sandia sta o the critical nature

o cybersecurity, underpinning all other US

inrastructure security. President Clinton had

dened eight critical inrastructure areas,

but much o that inrastructure was under

private ownership and much o that ownership

was narrowly ocused on its own slice o the

market. By contrast, Sandia sta perceived that

the interconnectivity among these physical

and economic entities was already large and

growing exponentially, according to Snyder,and that a national laboratory was well-

positioned to see the overview.

Hence LDRD-unded projects in 1996

through 1999, ocusing on decision support

systems or physical inrastructures and

on modeling interdependencies in US

inrastructures, resulted in the identication

o key modeling approaches such as agent-

based modeling and risk-based characterization

o vulnerabilities. For example, a mid-

1990s initiative, ASPEN, an agent-based

simulation model o the U.S. economy, began

to interrogate the strategy o developing

quasi-independent sotware agents. Eachsuch agent possessed built-in reasoning and

evolutionary learning-algorithm capabilities

representative o decision-makers in a v ariety

o critical inrastructure networks such as the

electric grid, uel-supply, rail transportation,

banking and nance inrastructure. Tis

multiple-microeconomic-agent course began

to permit researchers to use massively parallel

computing resources to simulate the critical

A NISAC model o the interactions among

global markets.

Microeconomics, energy supply

availability, border security, and most

importantly, communication in rastructure

as it interconnects all other critical US

inrastructures: these are but a ew o thenational-security areas impacted by the

modeling eorts o National Inrastructure

Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC).

Established by Sandia and Los Alamos

National Laboratories in 200 0, and currently

unded by the Department o Homeland

Securitys (DHS) Oice o Inrastructure

Protection, the centers roots were nourished

by ingenuity and oresight dating back to a

spate o LDRD-unded projects in the mid-

to late-1990s.

Moreover, LDRD continues to und

leading-edge orays into modeling initiatives

that both support NISAC eorts, and

according to manager Lillian Snyder

support the advancement o sta and

program capabilities amid a seemingly

endless natural disa sterprovoked lurry

o demands or near-instantaneous event

analysis. As evidenced by the mathematical

complexity o NISACs models, eachinrastructure represents a complex adaptive

system much like a human body, or

an ecological community. As such, these

systems are susceptible to remarkable and

oten counterintuitive and unanticipated

evolutionary outcomes, as well as to

cascading ailures, be they organ ailure,

biological extinction, inluenza epidemics,

electrical blackouts, or liquidity loss in


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interdependencies that, in t he real world, can

have devastating domino eects in major

crisis situations. Te approach represented

a signicant departure rom prevailing

macroconomic modeling. An overarching

theme was that the communication

inrastructure and its v ulnerabilities were

a key to interconnecting the other critical

inrastructures. odays preponderance

o internet-based communication and the

astounding growth o internet-based business

transactions are testament to the prescience o

these premillennial LDRD-unded projects.

Beyond interdependency, anotherdeveloping theme became ast-analysis o

emergency-response situations. During t he

Caliornia energy crisis o 2000-2001, or

example, a ast-analysis inrastructure tool

one that linked up existing predictive

tools was developed and utilized. Tis

prototype o what would become NISACs Fast

Analysis Inrastr uctures ool (FAI) allowed

inrastructure owners to submit situational

inormation and obtain predictive answers,

in response.

At its inception, NISAC was unded in the

Federal budget by a relatively meager allocation,

split between Sandia and Los Alamos. But with

the events o 9-11-2001 came DHS and the

inclusion o NISAC into the executive order

that created the new ederal agency. An annual

allocation o $16 to 25M has been written into

the DHS budget to support the centers activities

since DHS was established. And although

ASPEN has continued to evolve and, in its ever-

rened versions, nds application to a diversity

o modeling initiatives, some LDRD unded,NISAC itsel has assembled an impressive

variety o modeling and simulation tools or

use by both its own sta and by geographically

separated decision-makers who must collaborate

in crisis management. Frequently, with 17

areas o inrastructure analysis, simulation

and response, the centers activities demand an

amazingly rapid response based upon predictive

tools such as FAI and the Secure Synchronous

Collaboration ramework, part o the agencys

mandate to provide real-time assistance to crisis

response organizations.

In some sense, this increases the demand

or assistance by LRDR-unded projects to

help scientists extend the range o possibilities

inherent in their modeling toolboxes through

developmental research, i nitiatives that

provide resources or policymakers over

the longer term. For example, N-ABLE

models the economy at the microeconomic

level o individual businesses, answering

economic policy questions about the eects

o inrastructure disruption, while N-SMAR

ocuses specically on the eects o disruptionsin the communications inrastructure.

NISACs current Port Operations Simulator

tool evaluates the short-term eects o

shipping container and port security policies

on port operations, and together with its

Economic Simulator, attempts to uncover

potential problems in port-related national

security and international trade policies and

to unearth viable solutions beore problems

occur. Developmentally underpinning such

current sotware toolboxes are projects such

as the Borders Grand Challenge (2002 through

2004). Tat LDRD-unded project assembled

comprehensive simulation capabilities that took

into account an enormous range o positive

and negative impacts in allowing modelers to

predict the outcomes o possible scenarios

including a diversity o sensor interrogations

or controlling the ow o individuals and

goods across US borders by land, sea, and ai r.

Delays, operational costs, altered incentives tosuppliers and shippers to utilize such portals

all actor into potential impacts, and o course,

potential national security outcomes. One

can barely imagine the number o possible

permutations, making it clear why such

models demand such huge investments in

computing power. Te Grand Challenge was

able to develop high-quality targeted studies

according to project manager Dan Horschel.

What remains is an as yet unrealized need

or extension o the research to a nationwide

level, where all US ports could be included

in predictive simulations o economic and

security impacts.

Tat such massively parallel modeling and

simulation eorts are actually eective was

evidenced during Hurricane Katrina, when the

nal 2006 White House report praised NISAC

models or their prediction o supply-chain

reconguration during recovery eorts and

called or expanded NISAC presence in suchemergencies. Since then, the center has been

involved in subsequent hurricanes, and the

recent wildres in Caliornia. From scientic

inspiration to perception o need through

LDRD-unded research to ully realized tools

serving the nation, NISAC clearly exemplies

the role o LDRD unding in the process by

which Sandia serves the interests o its ultimate

stakeholder, the US taxpayer.H

NISAC model o banking transactions

GovernmentOperations

Transportationr Supplyms

Banking &Finance

ElectricalEnergy

EmergencyServices

Gas & OilStorage &Delivery

Communications

The diversity o inrastructural elements modeled by

NISAC in the context o global interconnectivity.

Predictive simulation o Gul-Coast hurricane impacts


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From its beginning, Sandias LDRD

program has supported development o

microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)

technologies. Each MEMS is a very small,

sel-contained device integrating electrical andmechanical components in order to detect a

change and respond with a micromechanical or

micro-electrical control that has consequences

in the macroscopic world. For example,

imagine that you drop your laptop computer

while attempting to place it in its carrying case.

Beore it hits the ground, it has automatically

shut down its hard drive: a MEMS inertial

sensor inside your laptop, that detects its

acceleration toward the oor has responded

with a shut-down control signal so that the

read-write heads dont crash down on the hard

drives spinning platters. In addition to this

MEMS accelerometer, (acceleration sensor)

other MEMS devices include microscale

versions o gyroscopes, robots, engines, locks,

transmissions, mirrors, actuators, optical

scanners, uid pumps, transducers, and

chemical, pressure, and ow sensors.

Applications continue to emerge as existing

and newly developed MEMS are applied tothe miniaturization and integration o devices

that traditionally have been built on more

conventional scales. o accomplish such eats,

MEMS extend t he abrication techniques

originally developed or the i ntegrated circuit

(microchip) industry to add mechanical

elements such as beams, gears, diaphragms,

and springs. Such devices sense, control,

and activate mechanical processes on the

Miniaturizing Sensorsand MechanismsMicro-accelerometer Development

upports MEMS

microscale, unctioning individually or in

arrays to generate their observed eects in our

everyday world.

Using the outputs o accelerometers,inertial navigation systems are sel-contained

units that can automatically determine the

position, velocity, and attitude (angular

orientation in space) o a moving vehicle or

other object; or example, an accelerometer

system determines whether the negative

acceleration o your auto during impact is

sufcient to warrant deployment o the a irbags,

and the newest computer gaming systems

that eature virtual reality sports require

multiple MEMS accelerometers. But beyond

personal transportation and computer gaming,

development o MEMS-based inertial-sensor

systems supporting space missions, robotics,

and weapons deployment have been the

subject o many LDRD projects, and these have

been a core contributor to the Laboratories

development o MEMS products, processes,

capabilities, and expertise. Tis has oten been

true even when projects have not achieved

every one o their individual technical goals.

Ernie Garcia has been developing MEMS

at Sandia since the 1980s. Over that timespan,

Garcias team has participated in several

LDRD projects, including a three-year eort

that began in FY1997. Leveraging Sandias

experience in inertial sensor and subsystem

development and strong capability i n surace-

micromachine structures and circuitry, the

teams ultimate vision was to develop a low-

cost inertial guidance system on a chip that

could provide attitude, velocity, and position

or short-term tactical missile or robotic

guidance applications. Te project plan

included the design, development, and testing

o an accelerometer and a gyroscope (spatial

orientation sensor), that would be abricated

using surace-micromachined, monolilthic

silicon microchip manuacturing technology.

Te ultimate goal was abrication o an

integrated sensor, in which accelerometer,gyroscope, and electronics would be

incorporated into a single chip. Te

team identied and evaluated concepts,

abricating prototypes or the mechanical

parts o accelerometer and gyroscope

while maintaining separation between

micromechanical components a nd electronics

chips. Impediments to microscale abrication

o these devices can be daunting both

accelerometers and gyroscopes require proo

(or reerence) masses, that is, objects that

inertially resist motion in a known ashion. In

the case o a micro-gyroscope, the mass must

rotate, such that changes in its orientation

become a measure o the angular orces acting

on it, and thereore o any change in its spatial

orientation.

Te gyroscope work progressed with relative

ease. Te team accomplished development,

abrication, and testing o a prototype devicethat used MEMS micro-engines as drivers

or the rotating mass (rotor), and developed a

concept or a gas bearing (to reduce riction

during rotation). Fabricating an accelerometer

with great enough proo mass presented a

major materials challenge, and the team chose

an engineering technique known as silicon

micromolding. Binding o the accelerometer

mass to the underlying substrate via stiction

Sandia developed mini-robot, occupying 1/4 in3 and weighing less than an ounce possibly the smallest untethered

robot ever created; MEMS inertial guidance oers the potential o ully autonomous operation.


10/29


(a type o riction) continued to be

a problem, however.

Te project made excellent technical

progress, and the team improved key

MEMS abrication processes as a result,

but the accelerometer problems proved

insurmountable within the timerame o the

project. Even so, among the projects technical

achievements were the rst-o-its-kind

demonstration o a micromachined rigid body

gyroscope using a Sandian micro-engine

to spin a microsuspended rotor. Palpable

contributions thus ensued to development o

the Sandia U ltra-planar, Multi-level MEMS

echnology (SUMMi) abrication process.

SUMMi V, the latest level o deployment,

is a ve-layer polycrystalline silicon surace

micromachining process that is among the

most advanced approaches to abrication o

MEMS devices.

In another FY 20012003 project,

Frank Peter and his team envisioned the

possibility o using MEMS as the basis

or a major improvement in the state-o-

the-art o accelerometers or tactical, andpossibly navigation grade, inertial guidance

applications. Peters innovation employed a

spinning mass (rotor) suspended in either

a vacuum or a uid-lled cavity. Te rotor

position was sensed capacitatively changes

in position registered as changes in voltage

within an electrical circuit and actuated

electrostatically in six degrees o reedom. Te

electronic measurement and control circuitry

used custom electronics chips su race-bonded

on the outside o the sensor body.

Te project team decided to utilize a

hybrid MEMS abrication approach that would

ree them rom the limitations o any given

silicon chip abrication process, and thereby,

expanded the range o design options (e.g.,

material choice, eature size, and thickness)

available to them. Because o this, their

nal design realized many avorable device

attributes, ultimately resulting in increased

device sensitivity and reduced mechanical andelectrical noise, key attributes or any device o

this type.

Successul demonstrations led to the design,

abrication and testing o several prototype

accelerometers. However, process integration

challenges during abrication o the prototypes

led to several modes o catastrophic ailure.

And although Peters team was able to resolve

a number o these problems, short circuits

that damaged critical electrode assemblies

remained unresolved.

Peter remains convinced that the overall

design concept is sound, but urther work is

needed to address the unsolved abrication

and process integration issues on the rotor

electrodes. As was the case or Garcias earlier

LDRD eort, the design and abrication o

prototype accelerometer hardware drove

successul development and renement

o several entirely new MEMS abrication

processes, many o which have commercial

value and represent important enablers or

the realization o a wide range o potentiallyimportant microdevices.

Based, in large measure, on LDRD-

supported advances in specic MEMS devices,

such as inertial sensors and accelerometers,

and driven by the enabling technologies that

these LDRD projects have spawned, Sandias

commitment to and investment in MEMS has

continued to grow. Indeed, the Labs most recent

expression o these values has taken the orm

o the Microsystems and Engineering Sciences

Applications (MESA) project, which was

ormally dedicated on August 23, 2007. As the

largest inrastructure project in Sandias history,

costing $518 million, the 400,000 square-

oot complex is made up o three individual

buildings: the Microelectronics Development

Laboratory and MicroFab; the Microsystems

Laboratory; and the Weapons Integration

Facility. R&D activities in MESA support both

classied and unclassied work. In addition

to abricating electronic circuits, the MESA

acility also makes MEMS or advanced security

systems, sensors, guidance systems, and other

applications.

Among his comments at the dedication

ceremony, Sandia Director om Hunter noted,

. . . [MESA] will allow this Laboratory to develop

little things that you cannot see that do things

you cannot imagine. Sandias LDRD program

continues to contribute to the development o

unique cutting-edge MEMS technologies that

make those little things possible.H

The setting sun reects o the glass o the cylindrical training center attached to Sandias new MicroLab

building, the second o three to come online o $500 M MESA project. (Photo by Bill Doty)

M image o a prototype grooved proo mass designed and abricated

r testing in a levitated 3-D micro-accelerometer.

M image o micromachined ree-rotor microgyro or application in an

ertial sensor unit.


11/29


to the extent that they provided a test bed or

other locales potentially harboring sources o

international terrorism.

Prompted by 9-11, the EPA requested that

Sandia assess the water security o major US

cities. Initially possible only on a limited basis,

Sandias longer-term response was to prototype

training methodologies and risk-assessment

tools that sel-prolierated, such that in addition

to assessment o seven major municipal

systems, ultimately, approximately 90% o US

cities with greater than 100,000 connections

in their water systems were analyzed. Te

EPAs National Homeland Security Center inCincinnati has been a major partner and source

o unding in t his national eort.

FY 20012003 LDRD-unded initiatives

ranged rom dynamic si mulation modeling

o watersheds to providing regional water

managers with policy and management

options, to sensor initiatives or monitoring

EPA-regulated compounds such as arsenic.

A riparian (river) ecosystem the Rio Grande in the midst o surrounding desert carries precious water or

irrigation, ranching, and domestic use.

Te 2001 change in EPAs arsenic regulation

rom 50 ppb to 10 ppb allowable was

rightly perceived as having huge nancial and

technological impact, particularly on small

to medium-sized water-management regions.

With ollow-on unding rom DOE and

AwwaRF (American Water Works Association

Research Foundation), a partnership o Sandia,

AwwaRF, and New Mexico State University/

WERC evaluated designs or arsenic removal.

Sandias long history with understanding ateand transport o materials owing through

porous media provided a solid oundation

or perorming calculations and engineering

materials.

Te roots o the modeling and water

management initiatives are clearly in LDRD,

asserts Davies. As part o t he initiative, several

community-based projects were initiated, using

a Sandia-developed resource-planning toolbox

to assist mangers, water proessionals, and

the public to exami ne alternative solutions to

regional issues (collaboration with the Utton

Center o UNM School o Law). A Middle Rio

Grande Project engaged several north-central

NM counties, then, later, extended into Mexico,

and indeed, these tools were later used as ar

away as the Middle East. Modeling initiatives

have since spread to other partnerships in

Europe and Asia.

In FY 2002, desali nation initiatives became

part o the LDRD investment in oundational

capabilities, and they vividly highlight the

oresight o LDRD in spurring crucially vital

science and technology. With 97% o the

worlds water either saline or brackish, a key

realization was that tapping those resources

would require new technological approaches.

The Oil o the 21st CenturyGlobal Water-security Initiatives

Safety, security, and sustainability:

the thematic triad that serves as an

organizing ocus or Sandias current array

o activities in water resource management

denes an enormous range o R&D, much o

which has its roots in LDRD-unded projects.

From simulating watershed dynamics to

modeling and assessing inrastructures, to

developing water-purication methodologies,Sandia scientists have springboarded LDRD

projects into a diverse array o programs and

partnerships answering the challenge o a

global crisis that promises to be to the 21st

century what oil was to the 20th.

Although the late 1990s provided the

discussion hotbed ignited by Sandias

realization o the magnitude o orthcoming

domestic and global water issues, it was F Y

2001 beore the embers o that hotbed ueled

the initial group o LDRD projects. Since

then, those rst endeavors have reduplicated

and grown to engage the resources o 17

Laboratory centers at one time or another,

according to Senior Manager, John Merson.

A comprehensive strategic planning eort led

to a portolio o themes a well-integrated

strategy was our intent rom the very

beginning, recalls ormer Geosciences and

Environment Center Director, Peter Davies.

Tat portolio began with inrastructurephysical security risk assessment, whose

obvious necessity was revalidated by 9-11-2001.

Geopolitical destabilization with concomitant

permissive growth o terrorism made water-

scarcity issues an u rgent matter or a national

security laboratory. With mid-latitude river

basins stressed throughout the world, water-

management projects, a lthough initially

carried-out in the US, were globally relevant


12/29


Currently employed reverse osmosis (RO)

desalination technologies had originated in

a burst o ederal unding during the 1960s

and 1970s, and that unding stream had

subsequently dwindled to barely a trickle.

Tereore, while the scientic initiative

moved orward, a paral lel collaborative

interaction with the Bureau o Reclamation

produced the 2003 Desalination Roadmap,

a critically important document. National

Academy o Sciences review o this early

roadmap reinorced the importance o uture

desalination technical challenges and suggested

that additional work remained in ully raming

the depth o associated scientic challenges.

Tis 2003 roadmap and t he national

dialogue it created served as a catalyst,

putting desalination back on the map in the

US. Congressional support or desalination

research through both the Bureau o

Reclamation and Department o Energy led

to the ormation o the National Desalination

ask orce, a p artnersh ip among Sandia,

the Federal Bureau o Reclamation (BOR),

AwwaRF, and the WateReuse Foundation. In

addition to the approximately $10M o ederal

unding over the period 200 4 2007, the

Water Resources Department o the State o

Caliornia also granted ta sk orce partners

$1M or a study in that state, with the task

orce itsel matching that grant.

Te signicance o the partnership

between Sandia and the Bureau o

Reclamation cannot be overemphasized.

Te National Desalination Research acility in

Alamogordo, NM is now poised to investigate

both cutting-edge desalination methodologiesand measures or the disposition (and

hopeully even the reclamation) o the

concentrated brine byproduct o desalination.

With the assistance o Senators Domenici

and Bingaman, the acilitys recent grand

opening signals the ongoing orward motion

o Sandias water initiative. And the external

unding rom the BOR, and DOE (through

NEL, the National Energy echnology

Laboratory) is one example o the return on

investment rom LDRD unding.

And while the nation anticipates the

impending publication o the ollow-on Water

Purication Roadmap, LDRD resources have

been laying oundation in other arenas. Lie

science now occupies a good deal o LDRD

attention. For cells utilize protein water-

channels (aquaporins) that can likely teach

membrane developers a thing or two about

desalination. On the ip-side, contaminating

drinking water with disease vectors like V.

cholera is a lingering threat, and the ouli ng o

desalination membranes by microorganismal

growth is one o several technological

challenges acing developers.

In light o t hese daunting challenges,

Sandia has engaged in several i nternational

partnerships, even to the inclusion o the

Middle East, where, or example, urkish

dam-construction projects near the headwaters

o the igris River have requently produced

tension with its downstream neighbors, Syriaand Iraq. Te necessity or such research

and the need to continue to secure ollow-on

unding is clearly illustrated by two acts that

transcend water issues high-prole status:

First, 40% o the cost o desalination is energy

one can no more readily separate energy

and water than one can d isjoin photosynthesis

and sunlight. Second, desalination produces a

concentrated brine as a byproduct. So although

a recently opened El Paso, X desalination

acility yields 30 million gallons o drinki ng

water per day, it also produces 3- to 6-milliongallons o brine per day that must be reutilized

or disposed o.

Looking to the uture, a key remaining

question is where Sandia should invest its

resources to build the capabilities that enable

it to remain on the cutting edge? Sandia has

built a very strong working relationships with

EPA, and is a key R&D player in this arena.

Partnerships with the Bureau o Reclamation

and the National Desalination ask orce oer

other examples. As Sandia develops these

partnerships, the Laboratories must also

continue their work to anticipate the uture

the technical challenges that will emerge

as pressure continues to mount on water as a

strategic resource. Clearly, bringing the cost

o desalination into the range o current

water-treatment is one area or ongoing

investment. Current Sandia research

initiatives such as its participation in

NSF Science and echnology Center or theSustainability o semi-Arid Hydrology and

Riparian Areas (SAHRA) suggest that the

ongoing renement o modeling toolboxes

or local decision-makers is another activity

imperative to the preservation o domestic

and global water security. Undoubtedly, as it

has beore, LDRD will support whatever is the

next great science or technology in this ever

more crucial arena.H

mputer model o a cell membrane showing an aquaporin protein (gold) with water molecules (blue

omerang shapes) in single-le transit through its transmembrane channel. Salts are excluded, only water

owed to transit exactly the desired properties o desalination membranes. (Image courtesy o Emad

jkhorshid, University o Illinois, Urbana-Champaign).

The elements o a generic urban water system.

River

River

Ground-water Wells

Water

Treatment

Plant

Sewage

TreatmentPost-treatment

StorageBooster

Pumps

Reservoir

Water Pipes

Sewer Pipes


13/29


Shielding Delicate Electronicsadiation-hardened Electronics and LDRD Adaptation

Since the advent of both atomic weapons

and orbiting satellites, electronics designers

have had to ace the issue o how to sustain

operation in the presence o damaging

radiation to delicate, miniature electricalcomponents. As an example, on September 6,

1976, Viktor Belenko, a Russian pilot, deected

to Japan in his Soviet MiG-25 jet, permitting

Western governments their rst look at this

ast, maneuverable technology. o the surprise

o Belenkos interrogators, they ound that most

on-board avionics in this advanced aircrat

utilized vacuum tube technology, not solid-

state electronics. Beyond ruggedness and

easy replaceability, such vacuum components

were highly radiation hard. Tat is, they could

continue to operate properly even in a high-

intensity radiation environment.

Whether passive resistors, capacitors, and

coils, or todays ully i ntegrated circuits, the

issue o radiation-hardness is key to both US

national security and our space program. A

nuclear blast could send a pulse o radiation

(in the orm o gamma rays and neutrons) large

distances rom the explosion. Additionally,

satellites in orbit inevitably accumulate alarge dose o gammas, neutrons, and charged

particles rom the sun over the years o

their operating lietime. Since the mid-60s

Sandia researchers have worked to reduce the

sensitivity o control systems, communications

systems, ring sets, and sensors, to such

damaging radiation impacts, thus preserving

the integrity o such control systems under

these extreme conditions.

While LDRDs have only impacted this

program since 1991, radiation hardening o

electronics was actively pursued at Sandia,

largely under wraps, during the 1960s and

1970s and continues today. he US militarywas the Laboratories primary customer,

working closely with Sandia and several

commercial vendors to ind new materials

and to understand radiation damage

physics. he problems were intimidating.

Passive components could change their

electronic values or simply short out.

Active components, like transistors, could

switch rom o to on or reverse, ceasing

proper circuit operation. Integrated circuits

consisting o millions o transistors could

cease communicating internally and

externally.

Gamma rays, neutrons, and charged

particles have the nasty habit o kicking out

ree electrons and creating sinks or other

charges, wherever they are halted by the

atoms o an absorbing material. I they stop

in an electronic material, they leave behind

a path or collection o electrons that can

switch on a transistor, open an electronicgate, change a resistors value, add an

unexpected bit to a computer calculation,

destroy the solid-state memory, or short out

a capacitor. o thwart this, researchers at

Sandia have used LDRDs to study dierent

materials such as silicon-on-oxides, gallium

arsenide, germanium, chalcogenide, and

others, which restrict the low o such

induced ree charges and limit the damage

when compared to silicon. Some materials,

like the chalcogenides (sulur, selenium, and

tellurium exempliy chalcogen elements) use

physical phase changes rather than charge

storage or memory retention. Others use

optical interconnects to maintain intra-

circuit communications.

In the 1960s, the market or electronics

in the US was in the $100-200 M range.

he DoD was the largest customer and the

simplest approach to hardening was to pre-

irradiate electronics to attempt to saturate

the damage level, that is to pre-damage

the material while retaining unctionality.

Such treatment reduced circuit gains, but it

also precluded or severely limited u rther

damage. Since most commercial electronics

manuacturers were selling to the military,

they closely worked with Sandia to radiation

harden (rad-harden) their products.

However, by the mid-1970s, as very large

scale integration circuitry was taking o,

the consumer electronics market exploded

to a $150B industry. By the early 1980s,

commercial vendors had almost completely

A drawing o the Mars Rover is backdropped by a colorized Gali

generated photo o Callisto, one o Jupiters our largest moons

orbitally most remote. NASA technologies like Galileo and the r

require radiation-hardened components, enabling them to un

persevere in the high-radiation environment o space.


14/29


turned away rom the military market, which

was now only a bit player.

oday, only Sandia and Honeywell

remain contributors to the radiation

hardened electronics manuacturing market,

developing new solutions to reducing

component size and increasing capability

in the high-dose and pulsed-radiation

environments. Sandia supplies rad-hardened

components to customers, such as NNSA,

NASA, the Navy, and the Air Force or

aerospace and weapons applications. he

Laboratories will purchase commercial

parts or buy electronics to drawings, and

build electrical simulations o these circuits.

Beyond these commercial, o-the-shelcomponents, Sandia designs and abricates

radiation-hardened, application-specic

integrated circuits or the customers end use.

A signiicant contribution to the NASA

space program is exempliied by the

spacecrat, Galileo, which carried out an

investigation o the planet Jupiter and its

moons during the 1990s. Sandia designed,

abricated, and tested the radiation-hardened

integrated circuits on the spacecrat, which

returned enormous quantities o data

rom highly challenging radiation-illed

environments such as that o the Jovian

moon, Io, to which Galileo passed in rather

close proximity.

LDRD has contributed to the development

o new concepts or rad-hardened computer

memories, sensors, interconnects, and

capacitors, primarily, although not

exclusively applied to nuclear weapons

and avionics. A 1996 project addressed

processing techniques or silicon-on-

insulator memories that were based on the

presence o deects to reduce the transporto radiation-induced charges. oday, such

memories are commercial o-the-shel

products. During 2003-2004, a new concept

was examined to produce highly radiation

hardened memories using materials called

chalcogenides, or example, mixtures o

germanium, antimony, and tellurium. hese

devices based memory upon phase changes,

which immensely increased local electrical

resistance, to create a computational bit

o stored memory. he polycrystalline

state (low resistance) provided the zero

and the amorphous state (~1000-times

greater resistance) provided the one.

hese devices were coprocessed with

BAE Systems or Sandia and the Air Force

Research Laboratory, and today the C-RAM

(chalcogenide random access memory) is

another o-the-shel product, http://www.

baesystems.com/ProductsServices/bae_prod_

eis_cram.html.

One o the simplest, yet highly radiation

sensitive electrical components o todays

integrated circuits is the capacitor used

or storing charge. Conceptually no more

than two conducting plates separated byan insulator, the capacitor can be readily

discharged by a gamma ray, a ast charged

particle, or a high lux o energetic neutrons.

o increase radiation hardness, a recent

LDRD worked to develop a new insulator,

which would permit high stand-o voltages

while having extremely limited electrical

current low when exposed to radiation

sources. Mylar is a common insulator, but

radiation induced currents prevent its use

at high voltages. However, by doping the

mylar with certain large molecules, the

resistance to radiation dramatically rises,

and the capacitor can handle extremely high

currents, discharge rates, and support high

energy density.

he Mylar was loaded with trinitro-

luorenone (NF), which had been

previously used to produce coatings on auto

windows or sunroos. However, during the

project, NF received classiication as anexplosive and was no longer readily available.

In order to produce NF-like capacitors

in-house, the LDRD team turned to a couple

o young polymer chemical engineers to

devise novel synthesis techniques. Within

the three years o this project they were able

to not only snatch this project rom the jaws

o deeat, but were able to demonstrate the

signiicant improvement attainable by using

such a doped Mylar ilm rom which to

build capacitors.

he Rad Hard LDRD program provided

both an opportunity or researchers to

directly contribute to the nuclear weapons

area, deense systems and assessments area,

and science, technology and engineering

areas, but also to re-vitalize the laboratory by

inding and employing young scientists with

creative new ideas. Few examples o LDRD

impact are so convincing or so complete. H

A colorized image and corresponding hotspot map o Jupite

Io, together with a closeup o a portion o its topography. Ios ex

radiation environment provided an ample test o the durabilit

Sandia-developed radiation-hardened components on the Gal

spacecrat.

e Simpson Desert, Australia, a colorized image produced by the

acecrat Galileo beore it departed earth en route to Jupiter.


15/29


Recent issues surrounding CO2

emissionsand energy-consumption efciency are

closely tied to the arena o home and business

lighting, which account or about 20% o global

electricity use, or about 7% o global energyuse. With standard incandescent lighting,

we have, or over a century, been generating

much more heat than light or every watt

o electricity consumed, incandescents use

only 5% o that energy to produce light. While,

in contrast, uorescent lighting reaches 25%

efciency, Sandia scientists ully subscribe

to the possibility o at least doubling that

efciency, to 50%, with solid state lighting (SSL).

Our common experience o such LEDs

(light-emitting diodes) occurs in the red lights

on cell phones, and mp3 players, where they

sip energy rom the devices battery. Tere are

also several types o diode lasers, as well

these can be thought o as super-LEDs, where

the semiconductors light energy is optically

or electrically amplied. In the public sector,

SSL is best exemplied by red-LED trafc

lights, the savings in electricity and dollars to

municipalities signicant.

Unortunately, while red and inrared

LEDs have been relatively easy to optimize,

some other spectral colors have proven

more difcult. A phenomenon known

as nonradiative recombination severely

constrains green-wavelength emission,

diminishing the number o lumens per Watt

(and hence, the efciency) obtained. And since

combining green, red and blue LEDs is one

Slashing CO2

Emissionsby Rocketing Efciency

olid State Lighting

efcient route to white LED lighting (and thus,

everyday home and business illumination),

this issue is crucial.

Hence, based on 1990s Sandia research

much o it LDRD-unded into opto-

electronics, the science o producing and

extracting light rom electronically excited

materials, the LDRD program unded a

Solid State Lighting Grand Challenge

rom FY 2001 through FY 2003 to the

approximately $7 million (total) level. Fromits inception, the scope was quite broad,

ranging rom undamental materials physics

problems to assembly o these materials into

the layered p-doped/n-doped structures

comprising LEDs, to methodologies or

enhancing light extraction, and even into

related issues such as practical applications

or LEDs in areas other than lighting (or

example in biothreat detection).

And rom the beginning, there were

interested corporate partners, such as the

Silicon Valley lighting company, Lumileds.

Signicantly, it was also during the grand

challenge period when DOE recognized the

great need or a roadmap. Combined private/

public arousal marked a recognition o the

enormous market and global impact potential

or LED technology. Given that, in addition

to markedly increasing efciency, LEDs canbring lighting to regions where candles and

oil lamps still orm the primary lighting

mechanisms, these developments presaged a

transition o inherently inexorable momentum.

From the standpoints o peak oil and global

climate change, there may possibly be no more

important single transition than LED lighting

(symbolized by LED lighting o the entire

swimming venue at the 2008 Chinese Olympic

games). In response, DOE initiated a series o

echnology Roadmap Workshops and Reports,

with Sandia chosen as a major contributor

and Roadmap Reports editor. Sandia has since

organized numerous workshops evidencing

unparalleled pre and postgrand challenge

leadership in the underpinning science and

engineering. With technical support rom

Sandia, DOE then worked to establish an

SSL R&D program and concomitant product

development program, collectively known asthe Next Generation Lighting Intitiative. In

2007, Sandia was chosen as the lead lab o the

National Center or Solid State Lighting R&D.

We worked hard . . . the center didnt just

all into our laps, emphasizes senior manager

Jerry Simmons. With the center came

FY 2007-2008 unding o $5M, $3.2M or

several Sandia projects; but despite a strong

Composite satellite image illustrating worldwide use o electric lighting (courtesy, NASA).


16/29


uorescent tube or compact uorescent bulb,

the light can easily escape to the surroundings.

But owing to their solid, layered, microchip-

like structure, LEDs tend to trap their emitted

light, and part o the issue is to design micro

and nanostructures that strategically improve

light emission (extraction). With gallium

nitridebased materials at the center o LED

nanonegineering, indium gallium nitride

has become a central research material or

green LEDs and aluminum gallium nitride or

UV-emitting LEDS. Tese research areas are

synergistic in terms o the basic physics, and

the DARPA SUVOS program, (20022005) and

DARPAs current SAIL program have unded

the UV work, particularly in its applicability tobioagent and other threat detection. In addition

to DARPA and the National Center or SSL

unding, the LDRD program has continued

to und basic physics, materials research, and

light-extraction technologies.

Key among the current LDRD-supported

projects are nanoabrication and characterization

o various types o photonic crystals. Tese

crystals are essentially periodic arrangements

designed to improve the emission o photons

and their escape to the surroundings as useul

illumination. Tis latter research area is

every bit as critical as that o light generation.

Understanding how to improve light extraction

and better appreciating the sources and

mechanisms o energy loss are both critical to

improving efciency, the name o the game or

making SSL competitive. A related piece to the

materials puzzle is cost-competitive abrication

using the most-avorable materials and chip-

manuacturing technologies, and LDRD-undedinitiatives are also addressing this challenge.

Along the way, ingenious LDRD-unded

developments such as the tungsten photonic

lattice have shown promise. Yet, their

ultimate contribution remains to be realized,

although commercial ventures based on Sandia

nanoenginnering have arisen and are now

reputedly poised to contribute product solutions.

It is also important to note

that although renements

involving inrared-emitting

solid-state devices do not

always contribute to solutions

or visible lighting, IR remains

the light-encoded medium

o choice or a huge number

o applications, used in

electronics o all types

remote-controls or Vs and

other electronics exempliying

a small slice o that market.

Although Sandia project

managers express hope thatunding or ongoing initiatives

may be orthcoming rom DOEs Ofce o

Basic Energy Sciences (BES) and also rom the

State o New Mexicos economic development

initiatives in nanotechnology, another key

development rom the Sandia standpoint is

the 2006 ormation o the Sandia-led National

Institute or Nano-Engineering (NINE). NIN E

members include many corporations, such as

Intel, IBM, and Lockheed Martin, as well as

numerous prominent universities. Perhaps,

SSL may ultimately receive some attention

as the ip-side o photovoltaic technology:

in the ormer, electrons drop to lower-energy

states accompanied by light emission; in the

latter, sunlight absorption raises electrons

to higher-energy states, thereby generating

electrical currents (the undamental energy

transormation in green-plant photosynthesis).

A current LDRD in partnership with Rensselaer

Polytechnic Institute (RPI) exemplies the

basic materials science eort to understandthe path toward high-efciency green LEDs in

the context o the more-undamental physics

and nanoengineering issues whose solution

should eventually turn the planet toward an

economically easible display o solid-state

lighting; a globally extended version o the

18-million LEDs currently populating the

NASDAQ display perennially blazing above

New Yorks imes Square.H

TOP: LEDS light the exterior o the Lumileds building (courtesy, Lumileds).

BOTTOM: NASDAQ display, a composite o 18-million LEDs,

overlooking NYCs Times Square.

backing rom Senator

Bingamans ofce, it has been

unclear whether additional

center unding will be

orthcoming; Bingaman had

earlier played a key role in SSL

unding authorization that

appeared in the 2005 Energy

Bill. Regrettably, the Lumileds

partnership has since ailed

to develop in a completely

meaningul ashion, although

the connection with Sandia is

sustained on an intellectual

level, according to project

sta. Lumileds became awholly owned Philips Inc.

subsidiary in 2006, and in a

$40B annual market, part o

the block to collaboration is

legal, tracing back to a change

in Federal law (specic to

theNext Generation Lighting

initiative) dening the means

whereby small companies,

DOE Labs, and u niversities

may retain control o

intellectual property

developed through ederally

unded research.

Incandescent, uorescent, or LED, t he basic

physics is straightorward, but the nuances can be

excruciatingly challenging. Add electrical energy

to matter, and that extra energy can serve to raise

electrons to higher energy levels. As certain o

these electrons drop back to lower energy states,some o the energy dierence is liberated as

emitted light (some as heat). Depending on the

exact nature o the energetic transitions (governed

by quantum mechanics), that light can be in rared,

visible o va rious energies (colors), ultraviolet (UV)

or beyond.

From the tungsten lament o an incan-

descent lightbulb or the phosphor coating o a

LEDs illuminate the text encircling the statue o Thomas Jeer

Jeerson Memorial, Washington, DC.

A near-ultraviolet (390 nm) LED in the laboratory.


17/29


LDRDDAY2007

Enabling Ever More-sensitiveChemical DetectivesChemical Preconcentrators

Imagine an apparently pristine lake where

residents and vacationers sh, boat, and

swim. Suddenly, based on reports o repeated

human illness ater sh consumption, regional

environmental managers suspect that a

pocket o organic toxins (the legacy o a now-

deunct pesticide manuacturing acility) maybe leaching residue into the lake shore. Te

lake, o course, also contains petrochemicals

rom boating and other byproducts o human

activity, as well as substances o ecological

origin. But the problem or investigators is to

collect enough o the suspected toxins, without

analyzing massive volumes o lake water in

which the toxins rom the ormer pesticide

plant are likely highly diluted. And while this

might appear to be the stu o a Hollywood

lm script, it is actually an example o the

type o real-lie quandary encountered by

regulators, saety experts, rst responders, law

enorcement, and health service providers that

could benet rom the application o Sandia-

developed preconcentrator technologies.

Chemical preconcentrators (PCs) are

devices that efciently collect substances

o specic interest, such as industrial toxins,

rom large volumes o uids or air in order

to ensure that analytical instruments canefciently and accurately characterize the

chemistry o these substances. Sandia has

a long history o developing and applying

innovative and advanced preconcentrators or

many types o analytes (analyzed substances),

including toxic industrial chemicals, narcotics,

biological toxins, explosives and other

substances. Te many dierent applications

include screening materials or industrial

contamination, drug detection at portals, and

efcient detection o explosives in various

contexts. For example, preconcentration

technologies, relying substantially on LDRD

support or their development, have been

incorporated into portable devices such as

the Hound and M icroHound; a remotelyoperated explosives detection system such asthe RoboHound; SnierStar or deploymenton unmanned aerial vehicles; and commercially

available explosives detection personnel

portals deployed at airports and in buildings.

In addition, as detailed in another study in this

publication, the MicroChemLab provides

sel-contained gas and liquid analysis in a

hand-held, rapid-result analysis system or a

broad range o applications. M icroChemLab

employs a preconcentrator as the rst o its

three separation-and-analysis stages.

Motivated by a growing need among Sandia

customers or trace chemical agent detection

in the nano- (one-billionth, 10 9), pico-(one-

trillionth, 1012), and emto (one-quadrillionth,

1015)-gram ranges, Sandia sponsored a

20012004 LDRD on the use o coatings or

chemical preconcentrators to improve chemical

agent collection. Potential customers i nclude

DOE, DoD, the National Guard, emergencysupport teams, law enorcement, and rst

responders. Te engineering solution was a

spino o a patented screen that successully

preconcentrates explosives, improving the

sensitivity o some detectors by a actor

o 10,000. Coating the screen mitigated

problems connected with poor efciency o

chemical binding (adsorption) and breakdown

(decomposition) o the molecular structure

during unbinding (desorption). For example,

the project demonstrated reliable detection

in small quantities o 20 nanograms or less o

the ame retardant and chemical precursor to

sarin nerve gas, di methyl methylphosphonate.

Nitroglycerine (an explosive and medication

or cardiac patients) was detected reliably

on nanoporous carbon-coated screens, with

extremely low detection limits.

An ongoing i ssue in preconcentrator

development has been their use in portable

detection devices employed in the eld by

soldiers, law-enorcement ofcers, or rstresponders. For example, such situations

demand rapid identication o chemicals

without the delay inherent in conveying

samples to an analytical laboratory. Oten,

the survival o soldiers/responders and

minimizing the danger to the surrounding

populace is contingent upon immediate

knowledge o an unidentied substances

toxicity with no time or a lengthy analysis,

ndia developed sample collection and preconcentration systems

nd integrated them with a commercial detector to build the rst

ngineering prototype o this explosives detection personnel portal.

Preconcentrator resting on a dime. The size o the PC is 4.5 mm

with a heated central area o 2.5 mm.


18/29


and with no immediate access to a laboratory.

Even in the case o drug investigations, the

health risks o prolonged exposure, such

as those to law-enorcement ofcers with

repeated methamphetamine contact are well

documented. Such examples emphasize the

importance o rapid identication.

Since the original 1997 microabricated

preconcentrator was developed or

MicroChemLab, the challenges in this

portable, rapid-analysis context have been to

improve upon the ability o preconcentrators to

adsorb greater quantities o target substances,

while retaining the rapid desorption

capabilities present in MicroChemLab,

where complete concentration, separation,

and analytical identication o samples were

accomplished in 1 to 2 minutes. In addition,

preconcentrators should bind as broad a range

o potential analytes (whether chemical agents,

explosives, or drugs) as possible, demonstrating

eectiveness with both stable liquid and

volatile (tendency to vaporize) substances.

Te goal was to maximize the surace area o

preconcentrators to allow them to bind more

molecules o a given analyte substance as a

sample owed through them, then to rapidlyrelease the analyte upon heating, to permit

its identication by a variety o downstream

methods, depending upon the type o chemical

being analyzed. Addressing such considerations

would ensure that sufcient analyte would be

trapped or analysis by the preconcentrator in a

particular instrument such as MicroChemLab.

Te original preconcentrator was planar, or

two-dimensional, and thereore limited in its

surace area available or binding analytes. In

a 2003 LDRD-unded project, Ron Manginell

and his team tested several designs to address

these issues.

Te team retained the thermally isolating

silicon nitride membrane used in the planar

preconcentrator, but added a three-dimensional

adsorbent coating zone, developing and testing

two 3D engineering designs. In the rst

design, the ow o analyte was maintained

perpendicular to the preconcentrator,

through microstructures that essentiallycomprised a set o coated nested cylinders

(concentric smaller-diameter silicon tubes

within progressively larger-diameter tubes).

In the second design, the preconcentrator was

designed with microscopic ns that projected

rom the two-dimensional surace. Directing

the ow parallel to the surace and past the

protruding coated ns allowed enhanced

adsorption o the analytes.

Depending on the ta rgeted

analytes, the project team

employed a variety o dierent

adsorbents to coat the suraces

o the t wo enhanced-surace-

area designs. For example, thin

lm sol-gels (colloidal solids

with some properties o liquids)

were used or t rihalomethane

compounds; nanoporous

carbon was employed or toxic

industrial chemicals; in otherinstances surace-unctionalized

commercially available

adsorbents were optimal.

Computational modeling

accompanied the engineering

design studies, so that the team

would be better able to predict

aster desorbing designs.

Although a modest increase

in power consumption and slower heating was

observed or the 3D preconcentrators, there

was a 30- to 100-old increase in adsorbent

surace area and collection capacity compared

with the planar (2D) design. Tis increased

collection capacity provides benets or

virtually all preconcentrator applications,

allowing detection o target chemicals at lower

concentrations in the detection systems in

which these preconcentrators are used.

his device can work with dierenttypes o microanalytical systems, is small,

uses minute amounts o power, is extremely

portable, and is inexpensive to produce

all making it very i nteresting to both

industry and the military, says Manginell.

In addition, the collection capacity o the

3D preconcentrator extends the range o

applications to include volatile compounds,

such as liquid explosives and many liquid

explosive components. his bodes well or

several uture application areas.

In 2006, a oiled terrorist plot to smuggle

liquid explosive components aboard airliners

provided ample evidence o the need or such

enhanced detection capabilities. Flexible

and accurate new detection technologiesprovide important additional tools to our

security oicers, said ransportation Saety

Administration Chie echnology Oicer

Mike Golden, addressing the agencys

response to the terrorist threats. Advances

in deployable preconcentrator technology

epitomize the ever-improving suite o new

tools to which Sandia engineering, driven by

LDRD support, is contributing.H

Sandias patented two-stage preconcentrator collects heavy

organic molecules typically ound in high explosives rom very

dilute air streams.e Houndportable explosives detector will benet rom LDRD-

veloped preconcentrator technology.


19/29


Neutralizing NationalSecurity Threats

arth Penetrators and Sensors for

Hard and Deeply Buried Targets

Noting that adversarial targets ofstrategic and tactical importance were

moving to underground facilities, the

1995 Counterprolieration Program Review

Committee recommended that their deeat

should be a top priority. Potential US

adversaries have constructed hidden acilities

deep below the surace and hardened them

with additional concrete to resist penetrator

weapons currently in the US conventional

arsenal. In order to maintain our national

security, designers at Sandia began studying

advanced warheads to hold these acilities

at risk. Since the mid-nineties, the LDRD

program has served as a oundation rom

which to evaluate approaches to earth

penetrators or the deeat o such hard and

deeply buried targets (HDB), disseminating

project results into areas o nonprolieration

(seismic imaging and compact air-delivered

sensors or the Deense Advanced Research

Projects Agency [DARPA]) and space

exploration (lunar and Mars studiesor NASA).

Several salient challenges loomed ahead

or this program, each simultaneously

representing both scientic challenge

and national-security imperative. Te

most difcult entailed the development

o a methodology or identiying and

characterizing the conditions o the ground

cover and/or protective wall design o an

HDB beore an attack. A second involved

solving the problem o monitoring the high-G

acceleration environment encountered as

a penetrator broke through the ground, a

successul solution poised to provide real-time

indications o the condition o the penetratorduring its underground ight. And as a nal

challenge, designers wished to establish

pinpoint control o the penetrators ring set

such that it would trigger at the optimal ti me

in its inward penetrating trajectory, thereby

maximizing lethal eects o its explosive load.

In 1995, the rst HDB LDRD began

developing algorithms to accurately simulate

the interaction o a high-mass earth penetrator

with various types o cover and concrete. Tis

study began to address the issues o increasing

the velocity o impact, keeping the penetrator

on target, and characterizing its motion.

Sandia sta directly addressed the last o those

challenges in a ollowing LDRD that sought todevelop small, light, data recorders to measure

and report multiaxis accelerations that were

expected to exceed 10,000 Gs. Te goal o the

LDRD projects was to shit the methodology

o the penetrator-development program rom

build and test to the ar more-efcient

design, build, and test. Over the succeeding

decade, high-G data-recorder developments

accomplished the task o characterizing a

penetrators motion to and through an HDB.

In turn, t his knowledge enabled design

renements, acilitating optimal motion ater

penetration. Building on investments by the

Deense Treat Reduction Agency (DRA)

and other external agencies, subsequent LDRD

projects birthed rened accelerometer designand improved communication techniques,

drawing engineers closer to to characterizing

the loading environment that the payload must

survive during the piercing o a target.

In 1997, scientists and engineers began

addressing the issue o site characterization,

testing the easibility o monitoring seismic

Ldrd Impacts

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