Tech Briefs Magazine - August 2022 - 10

Products of
Tomorrow
u HumanPowered
Ventilator
Innovators
at
NASA Johnson
Space Center
have created a
human-powered
ventilator that utilizes hand-pump motions, rather
than hand or wrist motions such as with a Bag
Valve Mask (BVM), to help stabilize respiratory
distress in a patient, without electricity. By using an
arm-pumping motion to operate the accordion-like
ventilator, minimally trained operators can provide
respiration to a patient on space-based missions
with greater endurance. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak,
this device was reengineered for terrestrial
applications in areas where electrically powered
ventilators are nonexistent or in short supply. The
ventilator is designed to be made of parts that are
portable and inexpensive to manufacture as well as
simple to assemble and use. This allows for rapid
deployment to areas in need such as resource-poor
localities or for use by minimally trained personnel,
allowing for quick availability to areas in need.
Contact: NASA's Licensing Concierge
Phone: 202-358-7432
E-mail: Agency-Patent-Licensing@mail.nasa.gov
This column presents technologies that have
applications in commercial areas, possibly
creating the products of tomorrow. To learn
more about each technology, see the contact
information provided for that innovation.
u Beyond 5G Mobile
Communications
Researchers from the University
of Birmingham, UK, have
revealed a new beam-steering
antenna that increases the efficiency
of data transmission and
opens up frequencies for mobile
communications. The technology
has demonstrated vast improvements
in data transmission
efficiency at frequencies ranging across the millimeter
wave spectrum, specifically those identified for 5G
(mmWave) and 6G, where high efficiency is currently
only achievable using slow, mechanically steered antenna
solutions. It does not require the complex and
inefficient feeding networks required for commonly
deployed antenna systems, instead using a low complexity
system, which improves performance and is
simple to fabricate. Experimental results show the
device can provide continuous 'wide-angle' beam
steering, allowing it to track a moving mobile phone
user in the same way that a satellite dish turns to track
a moving object, but with significantly enhanced
speeds. The team is now developing and testing prototypes
at higher frequencies and in applications that
take it beyond 5G mobile communications.
Contact: Ruth Ashton
Phone: + 44 7989 558041
E-mail: r.c.ashton@bham.ac.uk
u Reconfigurable Metasurfaces
One of the most impactful breakthroughs of lens technology in recent history has
been the development of photonic metasurfaces - artificially engineered nanoscale
materials with remarkable optical properties. Driven by device miniaturization and system
integration, as well as their ability to selectively reflect different colors of light, metasurfaces
are rapidly replacing bulky optical assemblies of the past. Now Georgia Tech
researchers have demonstrated the first-ever electrically tunable photonic metasurface
platform. The pronounced tuning measures achieved through the new platform represent
a critical advancement toward the development of miniaturized reconfigurable
metasurfaces. The results of the study have shown a record 11-fold change in the reflective properties, a large range
of spectral tuning for operation, and much faster tuning speed. Immediate impact on technologies like LiDAR
systems for autonomous cars, imaging, spectroscopy, and sensing is expected. More aggressive applications like
computing, augmented reality, photonic chips for artificial intelligence, are also possible with further development.
Contact: Georgia Parmelee
Phone: 404-281-7818
E-mail: georgia.parmelee@gatech.edu
10
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