USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Other

Lee Lemay

Marcio Calixto De Andrade

Justin Gorgen

Stephen Douglas Russell

Ayax D Ramirez

Teresa Emery-Adleman

Kari Moran

Anirudha Siripuram

Eric Bozeman

Demoz Gebre-Egzhiabher

Aspects of the present disclosure generally pertain to a magnetic field sensor with flex coupling structures. Aspects of the present disclosure are more specifically directed toward Nanoscale Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (nanoSQUIDs) with very low white flux noise characteristics can be fashioned into very sensitive magnetic field sensors by using external structures to increase the amount of flux that passes through the nanoSQUID aperture. One such structure is a superconducting coupling loop that shares part of a circuit with the nanoSQUID, and couples flux into the nanoSQUID primarily through kinetic inductance rather than geometric inductance.

Electronic device for sensing magnetic fields

Aspects of the present disclosure generally pertain to a magnetic field sensor with flex coupling structures. Aspects of the present disclosure are more specifically directed toward Nanoscale Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (nanoSQUIDs) with very low white flux noise characteristics can be fashioned into very sensitive magnetic field sensors by using external structures to increase the amount of flux that passes through the nanoSQUID aperture. Aspects of the present disclosure are also directed toward a magnetic flux pickup that can be coupled to a SQUID or nanoSQUID and incorporates an input coil made of a superconducting tape, which may be embodied in an electronic device for sensing magnetic fields, or more specifically an application specific electronic device for sensing a sensed property such as for geophysical sensing or biomedical imaging.

Magnetic flux pickup and electronic device for sensing magnetic fields

Pulsating radio star (PULSAR) navigation systems and methods can include a plurality of PULSARs that can emit PULSAR radiation pulses in the millisecond range, and a plurality of Josephson Junctions (JJs) that can be arranged as an array of microantennas. The systems and methods can include a cryogenic cooling system for cooling the JJs to an operating temperature based on the JJ materials, and a thermal management system for maintaining the operating temperature. An oscillator can determine times of arrival (TOAs) of magnetic field components of the PULSAR pulses. A processor can compute the terrestrial position of the navigation system using the TOAs and the known celestial position of the PULSARs. A GPS sub-system can be included for navigation using GPS signals. The processor can be configured to compute terrestrial location using the PULSAR magnetic field components when GPS signal strength falls below a predetermined level or is lost.

Systems and methods for navigation using PULSARs

Disclosed is a transceiver that includes a three-dimensional array of Josephson junctions. When transmitting, the junctions drive an array of micro-antennas. When receiving, the micro-antennas drive the array of Josephson junctions. By extending the junction array into the third dimension, this transceiver packages a large number of Josephson junctions into a small volume, thus increasing the power of a transmitted beam. Multiple different micro-antenna arrays can be included, thus allowing the transceiver to work efficiently at multiple frequency ranges.

Josephson junction-based transceiver

A cavity oscillator comprising: an amplifier operable to provide energy to a local oscillating signal; a superconducting resonant cavity arranged to receive the local oscillating signal and being operable to reflect a portion of the local oscillating signal for use in a feedback circuit, to support an electromagnetic wave related to the local oscillating signal in a desired TM mode, and to output a filtered signal of a desired frequency or frequencies based on the geometry of the cavity; a feedback circuit operable to generate an error signal based on the local oscillating signal and the reflected signal; and a phase shifter arranged operable to adjust the filtered signal based on the error signal to generate an adjusted filtered signal. The amplifier can amplify the adjusted filtered signal.

Superconductive cavity oscillator

A system and method involve using sferic signals to synchronize clocks and/or determine relative receiver positions within a communications network. A sferic signal is detected, encoded, and then identified. A time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) for the sferic signal is then calculated. A clock error estimate is determined from the TDOA. The clock error estimate is then used to synchronize clocks and/or determine relative receiver positions.

Clock synchronization using sferic signals

In one preferred embodiment, the present invention provide a navigation system for a movable platform comprising a GNSS receiver sensor for providing position signals representative of the estimated current position of the movable platform; a camera sensor for providing photographic images representative of the surroundings of the movable platform; and an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) sensor for providing specific force and angular rate signals representative of the current specific forces and rate of the movable platform. A processor is responsive to the camera photographic images to estimate the position and attitude of the movable platform, the covariance of the position and attitude estimates and the covariance of consecutive position and attitude estimates. The processor is responsive to the GNSS receiver's estimated position signal, the camera's estimated position and attitude signal, the camera's estimated position and attitude covariance, the camera's estimated correlation of the covariance of consecutive position and attitude estimates, and the specific force and angular rate signals, for providing a navigation solution representative of the estimated current position, velocity, and attitude of the movable platform.

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San Diego, CA, United States of America

Lee Lemay