Several technology development activities of the HEA experimental group also have more general applica- tions in other fields.

GPS Timing

The HEA group has developed extensive expertise with the application of GPS receivers for synchronized precise absolute timing. Our work to design for a new GPS calibration test stand based on the I-Lotus M12M GPS receiver can be extended to achieve a new completely portable time-tagging system for two asynchronous pulses that could achieve 2 or 3 nanoseconds precision. Development of this system is underway and a working prototype should be fabricated within a year.

To our knowledge, no other portable system provides this level of precision for absolute time tagging at such a low cost. In principle such a system has applications in many scientific and technical fields, especially networking and telecommunications diagnostics. We are already working with representatives on campus to determine the feasibility of further development of our system for industrial applications.

Non-imaging Optics

Our group continues to design and implement effective concentrating optical components, including two-stage reflective-conical concentrators and Dielectric Total Internal Reflection Concentrators (DTIRCs). Although non-imaging concentrators have been used in physics experiments for some time, our group has developed our own optimal design software and fabrication techniques. These optical design software tools have wide application for optical concentrators and have been already been used by a group from the Phillips Laboratory at Sandia to design concentrators for laser interferometry ranging of geosynchronous satellites.