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Institute technologies receive six R&D 100 Awards

Internationally respected journal honors work from Institute, Lincoln Laboratory
Takeoff Hold Lights are shown implemented at the Los Angeles International Airport. These components of the Runway Status Lights system are placed at departure positions and indicate to pilots that it is unsafe to take off because a runway ahead is occupied by another aircraft.
Caption:
Takeoff Hold Lights are shown implemented at the Los Angeles International Airport. These components of the Runway Status Lights system are placed at departure positions and indicate to pilots that it is unsafe to take off because a runway ahead is occupied by another aircraft.
Credits:
Image: Lincoln Laboratory

Six MIT technologies — five of which come from MIT's Lincoln Laboratory — were named 2010 recipients of R&D 100 Awards. These awards are given annually by R&D Magazine, an internationally respected journal providing news and technical articles to research scientists and engineers.

Previous R&D 100 award winners, which have included large companies, start-ups, universities and government laboratories, span a broad range of applied research: fax machines, liquid crystal displays, antilock brakes and the artificial retina.

This year's winners from MIT include:
  • Geiger-Mode Avalanche Photodiode Detector Focal-Plane Arrays — a two-dimensional array of ultrasensitive solid-state photodetectors, each of which can measure the arrival time of single photons;
  • Subwavelength-Separated Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detector Arrays — a component in an optical detection system that enables broadband single-photon detection with high efficiency and low noise at rates exceeding one billion photons per second;
  • Digital-Pixel Focal-Plane Array — a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor readout-integrated circuit for infrared imaging. Fast on-chip processing provides an extreme dynamic range from a minimally sized package;
  • Runway Status Lights — a system integrating data from airport surveillance sources to control in-pavement lights that directly alert pilots to potential runway incursions
  • Miniaturized Radio-Frequency Four-Channel Receiver — the smallest, least-power-demanding receiver that can detect frequencies over a six-octave range;
  • The Leveraged Freedom Chair — an affordable wheelchair that can carry users comfortably and efficiently off-road, but is also small and maneuverable enough to use indoors.
Instituted in 1963, the awards recognize the 100 most technologically significant innovations introduced during the previous year. Recipients of R&D 100 Awards are chosen from hundreds of nominations by an independent panel of evaluators and the editors of R&D Magazine.

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