SBIR Phase I: Integrated Broad Band Opticall Calibration Sources for Star Simulation

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目的目标是开发、制造和测试微型高稳定集成超宽带光发射源，用于天文学研究中广泛使用的恒星光度计和光谱仪的现场和飞行校准。目前还没有用于现场、飞行中或实时宽带星模拟的校准源。在这个项目中，公司将利用他们在碳化硅（SiC）和硅基雪崩发光二极管（led）领域的成就，结合SiC和III氮化物材料生长、表征和加工的新发展。采用基于带内热电子跃迁的雪崩电致发光工艺，将提供器件的高稳定性和可靠性。高性能将源于改进的材料质量和先进的加工方法。提出的研究将发展对碳化硅制造方法的基本理解，以及用于光电应用的氮基结构，这将导致所有电子器件领域的技术进步。天文学最重要的目标之一是根据恒星的基本特性来解释恒星、星团和星系的光度观测结果。这对于任何成功地研究恒星系统的形成和演化都是必要的，这需要基于光度数据。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is directed towards the development, fabrication, and testing of miniature high-stability integrated super broadband optical emission sources for field and in-flight calibration of stellar photometers and spectrometers widely used in astronomy research. No calibration sources for field, in-flight or real time broadband star simulation are currently available. In this project the company will utilize their achievements in the area of Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Si-based avalanche Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) combined with the new developments in SiC and III nitride material growth, characterization, and processing. The high stability and reliability of the proposed devices will be provided by employment of the avalanche electroluminescence process based on intra-band hot electron transitions. High performance will result from implementation of improved materials quality and advanced processing methods. The proposed research will develop fundamental understanding of methods for fabrication of silicon carbide, and nitride-based structures for optoelectronic applications, which will result in technological advances in all electronic device areas. One of the most important astronomy goals is interpretation of photometric observations of stars, star clusters, and galaxies in terms of their fundamental stellar properties. This is necessary for any successful study of the formation and evolution of stellar systems, which needs to be based on photometric data.