A Wireless, Thin-Film Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Sensor System for Rocket Propulsion Test Applications

NASA is looking for advanced sensor technologies, especially wireless embedded sensor systems, to support rocket propulsion development. The enabling technology should provide a highly flexible instrumentation solution capable of monitoring remote or inaccessible measurement locations. This sensor system should substantially reduce operational costs and evolutionary improvements in ground, launch and flight system operational robustness. It should provide an advanced diagnostics capability to monitor test facility parameters including temperature, pressure, strain and near-field acoustics. To address this critical need, X-wave Innovations, Inc. (XII) and Prof. Fang Li from New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) propose an innovative passive, wireless, high temperature embedded sensor system that is capable of providing high-bandwidth measurements of temperature, pressure and strain on both rotating and non-rotating propulsion engine components. For the Phase I program, XII will prototype an embedded sensor system and demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed technique for passive, wireless, multi-parameter measurements. For the Phase II program, XII will focus on refining the prototype system design and development with improved hardware and software. For the Phase III program, XII will focus on optimizing the prototype performance and collaborating with our commercial partners to package the sensor technology into a commercially-available system.

NASA has great interest in embedded sensor system with wireless data communication capabilities for a variety of applications, from ground testing, to flight testing, to in-service monitoring, etc. The proposed wireless, cryogenic temperature/pressure sensor system provides a highly flexible instrumentation solution to monitor inaccessible measurement locations such as fuel tanks for NASA's rocket propulsion test facilities.

The proposed wireless sensor system has many market applications in different industries such as exploration, defense, aviation, and civil and environmental engineering sectors. Wireless, cryogenic pressure/temperature sensor technologies for propulsion and other applications are constantly being sought in many markets, especially those that require continuous monitoring of fuel supplies.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.