SBIR Phase II: Reducing size and cost of optical devices with nanomanufacturing - a novel use of disk drive technology

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是在先进制造业。该项目将开发一种低成本、小尺寸的高分辨率纳米制造平台，用于制造传统上使用洁净室微光刻技术制造的光学器件。与需要更复杂和昂贵设施的现代洁净室方法相比，该平台有望构建更小、成本更低的可见光到红外波长光学元件，以服务于光纤传感器、电信和镜头市场。如果该平台能够提供符合规格的光学元件，单个客户的需求可能达到8位数，从而改变使用光子学的整个市场的光学制造：生物医学，能源，军事和消费。如果它能满足光子学领域的需求，这个平台可以渗透到更广泛的商业市场，比如信息技术、纳米电子和个性化的低成本消费设备。通过开发这个平台创造的科学和技术理解可以使企业利用低成本的美国纳米制造来解决世界各地先进材料和组件的市场。该项目将商业化一个创新的纳米制造平台，用于生产衍射光学元件（do），具有降低组件成本和尺寸的潜力。近年来，光纤通信已经超越了其传统的长途或骨干通信功能。减小光学元件的尺寸、成本和复杂性可以使do进一步扩大其范围。理想情况下，这些组件的功能可以直接构建在光纤的末端。提出的技术可以使真正的光纤对光纤组件的成本等于或低于目前可用的光学组件。它可以进一步实现“光纤上的实验室”的传感能力，将实验室集成到光纤的端面上。该项目将专注于扩展第一阶段演示的纳米制造能力，用于包含do的最终产品原型演示。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is in advanced manufacturing. This project will develop a low cost, small-footprint high-resolution nanomanufacturing platform for building optical devices that are traditionally manufactured using cleanroom microlithography. Compared with modern cleanroom approaches that require significantly more complicated and expensive facilities, this platform holds strong promise to build visible-to-infrared wavelength optical components that are both smaller and lower cost, in order to serve the fiber-optic sensor, telecommunications, and lens markets. If this platform can deliver optics components that meet specifications, demand could reach 8-figures for a single customer, thus transforming optics manufacturing across the entire spectrum of markets that use photonics: biomedical, energy, military, and consumer. If it meets the needs of the photonics sector, this platform could penetrate a much broader commercial marketplace such as information technology, nanoelectronics and personalized low-cost consumer devices. The scientific and technological understanding created by developing this platform could enable businesses to leverage low-cost US-based nanomanufacturing to address markets for advanced materials and components around the world.This project will commercialize an innovative nanomanufacturing platform for producing diffractive optical elements (DOEs) with potential to reduce component cost and size. Recently fiber-optic communications has expanded beyond its traditional function of long haul or backbone communications. Reducing the size, cost and complexity of optical components could allow DOEs to further expand their reach. Ideally the functionality of these components could be built right onto the end of an optical fiber. The proposed technology could allow true fiber-to-fiber components at a cost equal to or less than currently available optical components. It could further allow for sensing capabilities of "lab on a fiber" with the lab incorporated onto the end-face of a fiber. The project will focus on scaling the nanomanufacturing capability demonstrated during Phase I for end product prototype demonstrations that incorporate the DOEs.