SBIR-STTR Award

Development of an EO/IR Common Aperture Modular Multifunction Sensor
Award last edited on: 4/26/2019

Sponsored Program
STTR
Awarding Agency
DOD : Navy
Total Award Amount
$927,069
Award Phase
2
Solicitation Topic Code
N11A-T024
Principal Investigator
Salah Khodja

Company Information

Ultimara Inc

370 Convention Way
Redwood City, CA 94063
   (650) 503-3217
   info@ultimara.com
   www.ultimara.com

Research Institution

Stanford University

Phase I

Contract Number: N00014-11-M-0309
Start Date: 6/27/2011    Completed: 10/31/2012
Phase I year
2011
Phase I Amount
$149,983
The goal of this program is to develop and fabricate an ultra-low Size, Weight, and Power (SWAP) integrated electro-optic beam-steering technology that utilizes ultra-fast electro-optic active plasmonic waveguide arrays to achieve very wide scanning angle with diffraction limited beam quality. We propose a very scalable electro-optic plasmonic waveguides array that provides the electro-optic phase shift in subwavelength waveguide cross-section in the near-field. plasmonics enable sub-diffraction-limit dimension, allows for ultra-high speed, low power consumption, on-chip integration, and low-unit-cost. The innovative scalable plasmonic array design can steer efficiently the optical beam over wide angle range >1700, while being ultrafast, compact and power efficient, with very low loss to the laser beam, the large optical aperture > 1cm allows the device to handle very high laser beam power. Existing beam steering device are bulky, hybrid and cant be integrated on miniature multifunction aperture for EO/IR sensors. The use of novel plasmonic metallic nano-structure waveguide array, with efficient and fast electro-optic material, will enable miniature fast beamsteering devices that have never been done before. The plasmonic beam steering resolution and scalability will be able to generate diffraction limited beam that match the beam quality of steering mirrors.

Benefit:
Anticipated development of integrated electro-optic plasmonic beam steering concept, with very good SWAP, will be of immediate use where conventional beam steering devices has been prohibited by, size, integration, weight, vibration and power consumption and steering speed. This technology is critical to the success of beam steering aperture to combine a number of passive and active electro-optical functions. When brought to product, some of the commercial applications that will benefit directly from the use of this technology are laser projection systems, laser detection and ranging, heads-up displays, and free-space optical communications, and aerospace applications. Commercial applications are driven by the need for compact, flexible, low weight electro-optic beam steering for EO/IR multifunction sensors applications. The electro-optic plasmonic beam steering concept will be integrated on a variety of devices on production for dual use military and commercial applications, such as miniature laser detection, imaging, ranging sensors, free space data communication links, and high performance data, projection display and image processing.

Keywords:
Integrated phased array, Integrated phased array, nanophotonics fabrication, electro-optic beam steering, optical EO/IR sensor, Plasmonic waveguide array

Phase II

Contract Number: N00014-13-C-0082
Start Date: 4/17/2013    Completed: 10/17/2014
Phase II year
2013
Phase II Amount
$777,086
The goal of this program is to develop and fabricate an ultra-low Size, Weight, and Power (SWAP) integrated electro-optic beam-steering technology that utilizes ultra-fast electro-optic active plasmonic waveguide arrays to achieve very wide scanning angle with diffraction limited beam quality. We develop a very scalable electro-optic plasmonic waveguides array that provides the electro-optic phase shift in sub-wavelength waveguide cross-section in the near-field. plasmonics enable sub-diffraction-limit dimension, allows for ultra-high speed, low power consumption, on-chip integration, and low-unit-cost. The innovative scalable plasmonic array design can steer efficiently the optical beam over wide angle range >1700, while being ultrafast, compact and power efficient, with low loss to the laser beam, the large optical aperture > 1cm allows the device to handle very high laser beam power. Existing beam steering device are bulky, hybrid and cant be integrated on miniature multifunction aperture for EO/IR sensors. The use of novel plasmonic metallic nano-structure waveguide array, with efficient and fast electro-optic material, will enable miniature fast beam-steering devices that have never been done before. The plasmonic beam steering resolution and scalability will be able to generate diffraction limited beam that could match the beam quality of steering mirrors.

Benefit:
Anticipated development of, ultra-low SWaP, high throughput, plasmonic beam steering (HPBS) devices concept will be of immediate use where conventional beam steering devices has been prohibited by steering speed, size, integration, weight, vibration and power consumption. This technology is critical to the success of beam steering devices. When brought to product, some of the commercial applications that will benefit directly from the use of this technology are laser projection systems, laser detection and ranging, heads-up displays, and free-space optical communications, and aerospace applications. Commercial applications are driven by the need for compact, flexible, low weight electro-optic beam steering for LIDAR applications. The high throughput plasmonic beam steering (HPBS) concept will be integrated on a variety of devices on production for dual use military and commercial applications, such as miniature laser detection, imaging, ranging (LADAR/LIDAR) sensors, free space data communication links, and high performance data, projection display and image processing.

Keywords:
nanophotonics fabrication, free-space optical communications, Electro-optic Effect, Plasmonic waveguide array, laser detection and ranging, LADAR/LIDAR, plasmonic beam steering