SBIR Phase II: Low Cost High Quality Nonlinear Optical Crystals for Laser Light Sources for Miniature Projectors

SBIR 第二阶段：用于微型投影仪激光光源的低成本高质量非线性光学晶体

• 批准号: 1026196
• 负责人: Gisele Maxwell
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: Shasta Crystals, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1026196&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Low; Cost

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will demonstrate how to reduce the cost of manufacturing magnesium-doped lithium niobate (Mg:LiNbO3) crystals by more than an order of magnitude. Frequency-doubling crystals, such as Mg:LiNbO3 can convert 1064-nm light from an infrared laser to 532-nm (green) light. However, LiNbO3 crystals made by the conventional Czochralski technique typically cost $800 each, presenting an economic challenge for consumer applications. The approach is to grow crystals by the laser heated pedestal growth method with a novel afterheater and to pole them in situ. Phase II, enables the development of manufacturing capability for these crystals at a rate of 100,000 crystals per year at a cost of less than $22 each. In Phase III, The manufacturing capacity will be increased to 1,000,000 crystals per year and the manufacturing costs reduced below $8. The proposed cost reduction will enable manufacturers of picoprojectors to increase the brightness of their products by integrating lasers as the light sources instead of LEDs. The technical objectives are to optimize the density of Mg:LiNbO3 ceramic feedstock rods, to increase the manufacturing throughput by optimizing manufacturing yield and automating the growth apparatus. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to enhance scientific and technical understanding by demonstrating a) a novel method of growing crystals with lower cost, higher speeds, and greater purity, and b) a way to pole LiNbO3 crystals in situ at lower cost. The project will generate a strong economic impact because many types of handheld consumer electronics devices (cell phones, PDAs, iPods, game terminals, etc.) contain digital data that require visual displays. Picoprojectors can display the content of handheld devices in large formats, but their LED illumination sources can?t generate images with enough brightness to satisfy customers. Laser illumination sources can solve the brightness problem, but lasers are too expensive, primarily because of the cost of the frequency doubling crystals. This project will reduce the cost of these crystals and may thereby enable the picoprojector industry to realize its optimistic growth scenario ($3.6 billion in sales in 2014) rather than its conservative growth scenario ($901 million in sales in 2014). An intern, a science student who is a member of an under-represented group in the nation?s science and engineering enterprise, will be hired to assist with Phase II research.

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目将展示如何将镁掺杂铌酸锂（Mg：LiNbO 3）晶体的制造成本降低一个数量级以上。倍频晶体，如Mg：LiNbO 3可以将红外激光器发出的1064 nm光转换为532 nm（绿色）光。然而，由传统的直拉技术制造的LiNbO 3晶体通常每个成本为800美元，这对消费者应用提出了经济挑战。采用激光加热基座法生长晶体，并在晶体生长过程中引入了一种新型的后热器，实现了晶体的原位极化。第二阶段，使这些晶体的制造能力能够以每年100，000个晶体的速度发展，每个晶体的成本低于22美元。在第三阶段，生产能力将提高到每年100万枚亚晶，生产成本将降低到8美元以下。拟议的成本降低将使微型投影仪制造商能够通过集成激光器作为光源而不是LED来增加其产品的亮度。技术目标是优化Mg：LiNbO 3陶瓷原料棒的密度，通过优化制造产率和使生长设备自动化来增加制造产量。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是通过展示a）以更低成本、更高速度和更高纯度生长晶体的新方法，以及B）以更低成本原位极化LiNbO 3晶体的方法，来增强科学和技术理解。该项目将产生强大的经济影响，因为许多类型的手持消费电子设备（手机、PDA、iPod、游戏终端等）包含需要视觉显示的数字数据。微型投影仪可以以大格式显示手持设备的内容，但它们的LED照明源可以吗？无法生成足够亮度的图像来满足客户。激光照明源可以解决亮度问题，但激光器太昂贵，主要是因为倍频晶体的成本。该项目将降低这些晶体的成本，从而使微型投影机行业能够实现其乐观的增长方案（2014年销售额为36亿美元），而不是保守的增长方案（2014年销售额为9.01亿美元）。一个实习生，一个理科生，一个在全国代表性不足的群体的成员？的科学和工程企业，将聘请协助第二阶段的研究。