Accelerating Partnerships for Commercial Impact

The Laboratory’s Feynman Center for Innovation is developing new ways to connect with partners to meet our national security science mission.

Pioneering Past

Los Alamos has an 80+ year legacy of revolutionizing the nation’s understanding of science and engineering.

Innovative Present

Our most inspired minds are making revolutionary contributions in fi elds from satellites to cancer reseach, from materials to energy.

Visionary Future

Los Alamos continues to transition scientific ideas into technologies for real world applications.

Visit our website www.lanl.gov/feynmancenter to explore the wide variety of technologies available.

Revio Sequencing System

Pacific Biosciences

With the accuracy of short-read DNA sequencing and the utility of longread sequencing, Revio Sequencing System leverages HiFi sequencing technology to sequence entire human genomes, telomere-to-telomere, with 100% accuracy. A single Revio instrument has the bandwidth and speed to sequence 1,300 HiFi human genomes in a year. The combination of high accuracy and complete characterization of complex genomes empowers researchers and scientists to address challenges in agricultural genomics, conservation, genetics, cancer research, human health, and disease research, microbiology, and infectious diseases with increased accuracy and speed, driving the field forward. Revio Sequencing System offers a complete assembly of complex genomes, accurately constructing the full sequence of chromosomes, including centromeres and telomeres.

TESCAN TENSOR: The World’s First Integrated, Precession-Assisted, Analytical 4D-STEM

TESCAN

The TESCAN TENSOR is the world’s first integrated, precession-assisted, analytical 4D-scanning transmission electron microscope (4D-STEM) designed with usability in mind. The microscope frees researchers to interact with samples instead of microscopy optics. This is achieved by implementing “measurements” with preset optical properties such as beam current, convergence angle, spot size, and precession on or off adjusted and aligned automatically. The result is an analytical 4D-STEM microscope that is as easy to use as TESCAN scanning electron microscopes (SEMs), with all the efficiency and benefits of a results-driven electron microscope. This approach also potentially yields economic benefits, such as better accessibility for novice users, leading to more frequent tool use that ultimately supports a rapid return on investment.

Thermo Scientific DynaSpin Single-use Centrifuge

Thermo Fisher Scientific

The DynaSpin Single-Use Centrifuge was created to more efficiently and effectively separate proteins and antibodies from their cells as part of the vaccine and therapy development. It is a continuously operated single-use centrifuge that implements established disc stack principles in a novel single-use format, facilitating efficient separation of cell culture harvest material. The material is continually fed, separated, and discharged through the DynaSpin Single-Use Centrifuge. Intuitive automation enables end users to constantly monitor and control processes in real time, allowing the most efficient use of manufacturing resources and increasing process quality. Its state-of-the-art filtering system reduces plastic waste, decreases run costs, and minimizes operational and warehousing footprints.

Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Ascend Tribrid Mass Spectrometer

Thermo Fisher Scientific

With new capabilities for multiplexed quantitative proteomics and native protein characterization, the Thermo Scientifi c Orbitrap Ascend Tribrid mass spectrometer delivers ultimate experimental throughput and versatility. Users can quantify more samples at lower concentrations, achieve greater coverage, and characterize the largest biopharmaceuticals with an optional mass range of up to m/z 16,000. The spectrometer combines versatility and usability with the exceptional performance afforded by its built-in intelligence and revolutionary Thermo Scientifi c Tribrid architecture to deliver an instrument designed to address the most diffi cult analytical challenges. These features make this instrument uniquely suited for accurate and high-throughput full-proteome quantitation, characterization of complex peptide and protein mixtures, small molecules, and deciphering higher-order protein structures.

Unique Eye Drop Formulation for Glaucoma Therapy

ITRI

Glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness, requires effective control of intraocular pressure (IOP) to prevent optic nerve damage. Traditional eye drop treatments have limitations, including side effects and drug resistance. ITRI’s dual-target eye drop surpasses existing medications with three times the efficacy and low side effects, improving patients’ quality of life and simplifying treatment. The unique eye drop provides a breakthrough solution by synergistically targeting trabecular meshwork blockage, improving aqueous humor drainage, and preserving optic nerve integrity. This innovative medication provides glaucoma patients with a safer and more effective treatment option, addressing the need for diverse mechanisms of action and better safety profiles in glaucoma management.

We are honored that Revio is one of the R&D 100 winners for 2023! Thank you, R&D World for this prestigious recognition.

A 250 kW All Silicon Carbide Motor Drive for Hybrid Electric Aircraft University of Arkansas Power Group

Cerberus: Cybersecurity for EV Charging Infrastructure

Idaho National Laboratory

Researchers anticipate a large network of EV charging equipment to be an attractive target for adversaries or criminal enterprises. The Cerberus system — relying on basic sensors and computer hardware linked together in a smart configuration — sharply limits or sometimes eliminates damage to assets and human health. Recent work demonstrated that high-power EV charging infrastructure is, in fact, vulnerable to hackers and that Cerberus has a strong ability to detect signs of tampering. It detects malicious exploits by blocking them, limiting their damage, powering down if necessary, and quickly restoring full operational capabilities. Cerberus lends much-needed resilience to fast-charging systems.

The motor drive for hybrid electric aircraft represents a leading-edge application technology based on wide bandgap (WBG) power semiconductor technology. It contains breakthroughs in performance, power density, integration, and thermal management contained.

WBG semiconductors like SiC promote high power density that enables increased range from electric vehicles. This is the first application of this technology to hybrid aircraft that has succeeded all the way to flight validation. The impact of these drives will be to inspire further research and development into electric planes and other forms of transportation, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and addressing climate change concerns.

High Performing Dual Phases Nano Immersion Coolant for 5G Servers

Nano and Advanced Materials Institute

NAMI’s dualperforming coolants, based on segregated fluorination technology, with specific operating temperature, high heat of vaporization, specific heat, and thermal conductivity, can overcome the drawback of high-power usage effectiveness (PUE) of single-phase cooling and the high maintenance cost of a twophase cooling system. Through molecular engineering, NAMI can achieve high heat of vaporization of over 150 kJ/kg, high specific heat capacity of over 1500J/kgK, and higher thermal conductivity of up to 0.1W/mK. The coolant is chemically robust with high material compatibility. Immersion cooling also offers the chance for servers to operate in a more energy-saving direction, reducing the energy footprint by up to 50%, as well as low global warming potential (GWP) and zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) levels to minimize environmental concerns.

Intelligent Pillow for Healthy Sleeping

Nano and Advanced Materials Institute

Nano and Advanced Materials Institute (NAMI) has developed Pillooo, a pillow designed to ease neck discomfort and chronic fatigue during sleeping. It automatically adjusts shape based on a contact pressure map collected through a fl exible sensor mat that captures pressure on the neck and head area. The sensor mat is a column-row structured matrix sensor array consisting of three layers of soft fabric placed on a pillow surface. It measures pressures at hundreds of points on the pillow surface simultaneously, providing the pressure map indicating the hot spots of pressure. Sleeping postures, such as back sleeping or side sleeping, can be identifi ed based on the pressure map and a program on an MCU controller.

Joint Communication Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JCAUS) Security/ Cyber Module End Cryptographic Unit

MIT Lincoln Laboratory

The JCAUS SCM ECU transforms the development landscape for uncrewed systems that handle sensitive information. It opens the tradespace to small and emerging businesses, which are often sources of innovation. It is the first crypto device to provide highly secure communications for a wide range of uncrewed systems within the JCAUS architecture, which the DoD officially standardized in 2022. Adherence to JCAUS means the SCM is built on industry standards for easy integration with commodity hardware and delivers a strong set of well-thought-out capabilities for future use cases. These capabilities include innovative key management for secure encryption of classified data without keyfill using a certificate-based key-distribution scheme, remote unlock, and a configurable bypass function to decouple the crypto from the radio.

Ordered Key-value Computational Storage Device (KV-CSD)

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Current methods for scientific data analysis fall short by consuming excessive amounts of time and computational resources. Moving applications to keyvalue-oriented I/O and incorporating advanced hardware and software-based computational-storage techniques, the KV-CSD reduces the amount of time required for the analysis of output from a supercomputer simulation by a factor of 183 when experimenting at a small scale, and that figure is expected to grow to 1000 when large experiments are conducted. Offloading data reduction and other resourceintensive operations to the KV-CSD storage system maximizes the efficiency of data retrieval and reduces the total amount of data unnecessarily passed between storage and computational components. This technology can be paired with existing key-value applications to benefit many areas of computing.

Scalable Photonic Quantum Memory Module

MIT Lincoln Laboratory

The Scalable Photonic Quantum Memory Module is the first to combine, into a single module, the three capabilities required for networking together quantum systems: a photonic interface, efficient heralded operation, and scalable architecture. This is achieved by using silicon-vacancy color-center technology — a promising technology that has a photonic interface and can operate in an efficient heralded manner. The module incorporates both a novel integrated photonics interposer and a novel packaging process that scales eight quantum memories into a single module. This modular architecture can be further scaled by using multiple modules. The resulting quantum memory is the first that combines all required capabilities needed to network together spatially separate quantum systems.

SCHOTT TO PLUS headers

SCHOTT TO PLUS is a transistor outline (TO) header packaging solution that enables unprecedented transmission speeds for fiber-optic data transmission. Hermetically sealed with glass-to-metal sealing technology, SCHOTT TO PLUS headers deliver twice as much data over a single fiber than existing technology while being more economical. The headers unlock an unprecedented delivery of 50 GB of data per second over a single channel. This means more customers can be supplied with data on an existing line than ever before, enabling telecommunications providers to bring optical fibers to the end consumer at a low cost.

The Cryo-FE: A Near-Monochromatic Tuneable Cryogenic Niobium Electron Field Emitter for Ultra-High-Resolution Electron Microscopy and Spectroscopy

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Co-Developer: National Renewable Energy Laboratory

The Cryo-FE represents a quantum leap for the electron sources used in electron microscopy and spectroscopy. This innovation enables new advances in materials science, solid-state physics, biology, chemistry, and industrial applications, such as vibrational spectroscopy, high-resolution electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS), low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM) with ultra-low aberration, the detection of defects in semiconductors with sub-nanometer resolution, and quantum electron microscopy. The CryoFE leverages the properties of superconducting niobium and the quantum confinement produced by an innovative nanoscale tip design to produce an electron beam with an unprecedentedly narrow energy distribution down to 16 meV — 10 to 20 times better than the best commercial sources.

Transformer Watchman

National Energy Technology Lab

Co-Developer: University of Pittsburgh Sensible Photonics

The Transformer Watchman is a simple-touse and integrated measurement system that monitors large power and distribution transformers and reports on the health of these critical components. It is an optical fiber-based sensor system with several key measuring devices to check transformer health in real-time. Transformers fail when overheated or when insulating oil degrades, so temperature monitoring and dissolved gas analysis (DGA) for the insulating oil are critical for transformer health monitoring. With Transformer Watchman, system operators have real-time distributed temperature measurements, vibration data, and most importantly, dissolved gas concentrations in real-time. The system’s AI-driven data engine then reports on the current health of the transformer system.

Wearable Thin-Film Thermoelectric Cooling Device (TFTEC) for Prosthetics and Haptics

The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

State-of-the-art prosthetic limbs that can restore near-natural hand and arm control for people living with the loss of limb and limb differences have long been the dream of researchers. Researchers at The Johns Hopkins APL have developed the wearable thin-film thermoelectric cooling (TFTEC) device, one of the world’s lightest, thinnest, and fastest refrigeration devices. The devices’ low profile and lightweight nature — resembling an adhesive bandage — make them suitable for skin surface applications without weight or volumetric hindrances that could affect movement. The device’s reliability, intensity, size, and efficiency offer a world of possibilities, from revolutionizing prosthetics to enabling enhanced virtual and extended reality applications, pain management, neuromuscular disease remedies, and beyond.

Wideband Conformal Continuous-Slot Antenna Array

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)

SwRI’s novel AS-750 family of Wideband Continuous-Slot Antenna Arrays offers UHF/ SHF capabilities without experiencing the grating lobes that plague modern higherfrequency direction-finding antenna arrays. They provide beamformed omnidirectional acquisition and direction-finding outputs for signal intelligence processing. It is the first practical implementation of the current sheet concept, initially proposed in the mid-20th century and until now largely relegated to theory. The low-profile system is seven inches in height with up to an 18-in. diameter when installed in sections conformed around a ship’s mast. It offers an alternate and viable approach from traditional antennas’ that must be mounted to the very top of a mast to achieve high performance at higher frequencies.

Winners

Wrinkle-Free, Flexible, and High Contrast Screen for Portable Display

Nano and Advanced Materials Institute

Co-Developer: Arovia Hong Kong Ltd.

Smarter Surfaces for a Better World

A wrinkle-free, flexible, and high-contrast screen, for the world’s only collapsible, large, and portable display shows a 24.5-inch image with 2K high resolution that seamlessly expands and folds away in just seconds. The whole display weighs only 2.5 lb and folds to the size of a book, making it suitable for anyone on the go. It has broad applications in various scenarios, for example, a dual or portable display for work or personal use. It can be used at trade shows, coffee shops, presentations, or for camping, gaming, or around the house when cooking, teaching, or relaxing.

5-tonne per day (TPD) CO2 Capture from Blast Furnace Gas

Tata Steel Ltd.

To decarbonize the steel industry globally and in a growing country such as India, an economical solution for capturing and using CO2 at scale is essential. The collaborative approach of Tata Steel and Carbon Clean enabled co-development and installation of a first-of-its-kind plant for CO2 capture from blast furnace gas. This process generates the highest purity CO2 (>99% purity) at lesser OPEX which can be converted into value-added products, such as methanol and mineral carbonates. Captured CO2 is used for in-house wastewater treatment to promote a circular carbon economy.

80° F Thermostatic Microcapsules Ultra-fine Fiber Leather

Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI)

Researchers at TTRI have developed temperature-regulated leather material by combining two waterbased elements: microcapsule technique and water-based long-fiber foundation fabric. The former can regulate temperature by keeping or releasing heat to maintain an ideal skin temperature of 80° F (27° C) on average; the latter can provide softness and sturdiness to the leather material. The manufacturing process is zero-VOC, specially designed for products with prolonged skin contact. This material has a wide range of application potential for household, automotive, and headphone products.

A Continuous Hot-Roll Process to Manufacture Nanograin Neo Magnet

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Powerful Nd-Fe-B-based magnets are essential for wind turbines and EV applications. These magnets require additions of the critical element Dy to function at elevated temperatures. Though nanograin Nd-Fe-B magnets may function the same as Nd-FeB-Dy magnets, the current manufacturing process for nanograin Nd-Fe-B magnets is too expensive to be widely used. ORNL’s novel hot-roll process addresses the shortcomings in nanograin magnet production by implementing the deformable die concept. This simplifies the traditional hot-press densification and hot-deformation texture development process into one continuous process. It also eliminates the need for expensive tools and furnaces and dramatically improves productivity.