SBIR-STTR Award

Cryogenic radiometers are the primary standards for the measurement of power in the infrared, the visible, and the ultraviolet, a large part of the ueful spectrum. The integrity of the DoD procurement process and of DoD technology development depend critically on these standards. One aspect of this dependence is measuring the characteristics of those devices that work well in battle. Those measurements depend directly on the measurement standards. From this knowledge the specifications for new weapons systems are derived and promulgated as procurement specifications. The measurement standards again play a critical role, by determining if required specifications have been met. We propose the development of a cryogenic radiometer based on new technology, high temperature superconductors, with performance intermediate between that of helium temperature radiometers and room temperature instruments. Because of its relative simplicity for cooling, it should be more broadly useful than existing cryogenic radiometers.

Using a high temperature superconductor (thin film YBCO) at 87 kelvin, a very accurate, wide dynamic range, and easy to use radiometer will be created providing accuracy of 1 percent. A dynamic range of nanowatts to 1 Mw will be measurable without attenuation. The radiometer will have a large aperture, a large acceptance angle, be spectrally flat from the UV to the far IR, and the detector will be fast (MSEC response) for rapid measurements. The details of how to create this exceptional radiometer, for which there is presently no competitive instrument, are described in this proposal. Optical electronics is a large and fast growing technology for both military and civilian markets. Applications are for calibrations of focal plane arrays used for target identification, and for high-fidelity images from reconnaissance, for controlling the bit-error-rate in fiber optic systems, and providing adequate signal-to-noise in optoelectronic signal and image processing. Civilian applications in fiber-optic communications, manufacturing quality-control, and environmental measurements, make this an important dual-use technology.