SBIR-STTR Award

X-Ray Tomography
Award last edited on: 1/17/2020

Sponsored Program
SBIR
Awarding Agency
DOD : AF
Total Award Amount
$898,889
Award Phase
2
Solicitation Topic Code
AF183-021
Principal Investigator
Rob Matthews

Company Information

Tetrahive Technologies (AKA: RJ Matthews LLC)

8114 Covington Court
Brentwood, TN 37027
   (615) 339-5166
   info@tetrahive.com
   www.tetrahive.com
Location: Single
Congr. District: 07
County: Williamson

Phase I

Contract Number: FA8571-19-P-A017
Start Date: 4/11/2019    Completed: 4/11/2020
Phase I year
2019
Phase I Amount
$149,000
Aircraft fleets in the U.S. and around the world are aging. With this age, electronic components are wearing out and in need of replacement. Oftentimes OEMs for electrical components, and the printed circuit boards (PCBs) on which they are placed, no longer exist or have halted production on the parts that are now failing. In many cases, these are parts that have been reliable for decades and original designs are no longer available. To maintain fleet readiness in the face of stringent validation and certification requirements, it is often cost-effective re-engineer these parts. Current re-engineering best practices are destructive, meaning at least one component must be lost to obtain the required designs. This destructive approach also expends extensive man-hours and is prone to human error. A technology solution which enables reverse engineering in a more robust, automated way could save the Air Force millions of dollars each year. This project will effectively meld and improve two existing technologies, X-Ray tomography (XRT) and image-based PCB re-engineering software, to solve this crucial problem and yield and a more robust and automated XRT-based PCB re-engineering framework.Electronics Manufacturing,Reverse Engineering,X-ray tomography,Non-destructive evaluation,Durability,Modeling & Simulation,Image processing

Phase II

Contract Number: FA8571-20-C-0023
Start Date: 4/13/2020    Completed: 7/13/2022
Phase II year
2020
Phase II Amount
$749,889
Aircraft fleets in the U.S. and around the world are aging and require a sound supply of replacement electronics to maintain fleet readiness. Oftentimes OEMs for electronics printed circuit boards (PCBs) no longer exist or have halted production on critical parts. Lack of original designs or technical data packages (TDPs) for these components leads to extensive reverse engineering (RE) efforts in order to reproduce these critical components to meet form, fit, and function requirements and thereby reduce the need for costly re-certification efforts. Current PCB RE methods are destructive, prone to human judgment & error, time-consuming, and require highly skilled & specialized labor. A technology solution that enables PCB RE to be accomplished in a more robust, non-destructive, and automated way could save the Air Force millions of dollars each year. This project is combing non-destructive X-Ray tomographic (XRT) imaging with novel data processing, simulation, and machine learning techniques along with legacy PCB re-engineering software typically used in destructive settings, to solve this crucial problem and yield and a more robust and automated XRT-based PCB re-engineering framework.