SBIR-STTR Award

Design of a custom chirped-pulse Fourier transform (CP-FT) mm-wave rotational spectrometer to meet the chemical analysis needs of the ARMY will be informed by current BrightSpec instrumentation which includes a CP-FT spectrometer operating in either the 260-290 GHz or 530-580 GHz frequency range. The 260""290 GHz spectrometer uses recently developed segmented CP-FT techniques coupled with high-throughput signal digitizers to achieve real-time, broadband spectrum acquisition performance. The key components are: 1) the high speed arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) capable of creating tailored waveforms (pulses) for spectrum acquisition and analysis, 2) high-power active multiplier chains (AMC) used for generating the millimeter/submillimeter excitation pulse and the low noise heterodyne receiver, 3) high-speed, 8-bit signal PCI digitizer with FPGA accumulator for real time signal averaging enabling a near 100% measurement duty cycle.

BrightSpec will assess and develop new frequency bands for rotational spectrometers in order to maximize our spectral library chemical coverage, satisfying more of our customers needs.BrightSpec will build two instruments to cover bands that target key small analytes: a K-Band spectrometer (18-26 GHz) and a 550 GHz spectrometer (520-580 GHz). These two bands will enable BrightSpec to offer a full solution to customers with applications that require a diverse molecular library.BrightSpec would deliver a 550 GHz spectrometer to Redstone as early as ready for testing and evaluative feedback.In addition to, BrightSpec will advance on our initial spectral library which is incorporated into our instrument software suite by creating a web based library interface for interacting with the data. This would give our spectral library a public facing interface on the web, driving awareness of the benefits of rotational spectroscopy and ultimately higher adoption rates, translating to instrument sales.Target users for this interactive web based interface would be the academic spectroscopy community, our existing customer base, and potential users from our target markets.