STTR Phase I: Feasibility Study of Chip-Scale Iodine Vapor Cell Fabrication

STTR 第一阶段：芯片级碘蒸气电池制造的可行性研究

• 批准号: 2035963
• 负责人: Douglas Bopp
• 金额: $ 25.59万
• 依托单位: VAPOR CELL TECHNOLOGIES LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-03-15 至 2023-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2035963&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Feasibility; Study; Chip

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is to improve measurement science. Currently, special low-pressure chambers known as "vapor cells" are made by hand in a select number of precision glassblowing shops and suffer from poor dimensional reproducibility, low production capacity, irregular sizes, and variable vapor composition leading to a multifaceted limitation in the marketplace. Optical frequency references on the market today are large, costly, and power-hungry, but are used in a variety of commercial opportunities throughout industrial metrology markets. This study aims to produce a repeatable recipe suitable for high-volume production of miniature vapor cells. The results of this study will lead to the scalable production of references that would be intrinsically trustworthy and perform well in a continuous manner over many years.This STTR Phase I project will leverage micromachining of glass and silicon to enable a new fabrication method for a traditionally handmade component: a glass-blown vapor cell. The research objective of this study is to test if such a method can yield a compact and reproducible vapor cell. Research will employ semiconductor processing techniques and optical frequency metrology to deduce the long-term stability and accuracy of these vapor cells in order to assess their suitability as optical frequency references. The anticipated technical results of this study include a potential pathway to a mass-produced optical frequency standard suitable for optical clocks, interferometers, and wavemeters. Such a technology would underpin accurate measurement science in high-performance optical measurement equipment.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是提高测量科学。 目前，被称为“蒸气室”的特殊低压室在选定数量的精密玻璃吹制车间中手工制造，并且具有尺寸再现性差、生产能力低、尺寸不规则和可变蒸气组成的缺点，导致市场上的多方面限制。目前市场上的光学频率基准体积大、成本高且耗电量大，但在整个工业计量市场中有各种商业机会。本研究的目的是产生一个可重复的配方，适合于大批量生产的微型蒸汽电池。这项研究的结果将导致可规模化生产的参考，这将是内在的值得信赖的，并在连续多年的方式表现良好。这个STTR第一阶段项目将利用玻璃和硅的微加工，使一个传统的手工制作组件的新的制造方法：玻璃吹制蒸汽电池。本研究的研究目的是测试这种方法是否可以产生紧凑且可重复的蒸气室。研究将采用半导体加工技术和光学频率计量来推断这些蒸气室的长期稳定性和准确性，以评估其作为光学频率参考的适用性。这项研究的预期技术成果包括一个潜在的途径，大规模生产的光学频率标准，适用于光学时钟，干涉仪和波长计。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。