SBIR-STTR Award

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is in the field of advanced manufacturing. This project develops a low cost, high resolution nanomanufacturing technology platform for building optical fiber devices with approaches that are currently out of reach because of manufacturing cost. While both size and cost reductions are needed for this technology to address the optical component market, if successful, demand could reach 8 figures for a single customer. This technology could thus transform optics manufacturing across the entire spectrum of markets that use photonics: including biomedical, energy, military, and consumer markets. If it meets the needs of the photonics sector, this platform, which uses a template to assemble building blocks into composite materials, could penetrate a much broader commercial marketplace. One example includes extending additive manufacturing (3D printing) to nanoelectronics, information technology, and personalized low-cost manufacturing of consumer devices. The scientific and technological understanding created by developing this platform could enable businesses to leverage low-cost U.S.-based nanomanufacturing to address markets for advanced materials and components around the world. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will miniaturize optical fiber components that are used in fiber optical line cards, by leveraging an advanced nanomanufacturing platform with potential to reduce component cost as well. These optical line cards contain many cylindrical components that are 5 mm in diameter, each of which performs different operations on the optical signals coming into the card, and then routes certain signals to output optical signals. Being able to reduce component size means optical fiber component manufacturers can pack more components into a given physical space, or reduce the overall footprint of a line card without negatively impacting performance or increasing cost. Phase I research activities will include assembling prototype components with diameters approaching 1 mm, verifying that component performance can approach that of current devices, and evaluating specific manufacturing and assembly strategies to assess size reduction and manufacturing cost. Expected results include performance data and an accurate forecast of the required technical innovations and trade-offs needed to reduce component size without increasing manufacturing cost.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is in advanced manufacturing. This project will develop a low cost, small-footprint high-resolution nanomanufacturing platform for building optical devices that are traditionally manufactured using cleanroom microlithography. Compared with modern cleanroom approaches that require significantly more complicated and expensive facilities, this platform holds strong promise to build visible-to-infrared wavelength optical components that are both smaller and lower cost, in order to serve the fiber-optic sensor, telecommunications, and lens markets. If this platform can deliver optics components that meet specifications, demand could reach 8-figures for a single customer, thus transforming optics manufacturing across the entire spectrum of markets that use photonics: biomedical, energy, military, and consumer. If it meets the needs of the photonics sector, this platform could penetrate a much broader commercial marketplace such as information technology, nanoelectronics and personalized low-cost consumer devices. The scientific and technological understanding created by developing this platform could enable businesses to leverage low-cost US-based nanomanufacturing to address markets for advanced materials and components around the world.This project will commercialize an innovative nanomanufacturing platform for producing diffractive optical elements (DOEs) with potential to reduce component cost and size. Recently fiber-optic communications has expanded beyond its traditional function of long haul or backbone communications. Reducing the size, cost and complexity of optical components could allow DOEs to further expand their reach. Ideally the functionality of these components could be built right onto the end of an optical fiber. The proposed technology could allow true fiber-to-fiber components at a cost equal to or less than currently available optical components. It could further allow for sensing capabilities of "lab on a fiber" with the lab incorporated onto the end-face of a fiber. The project will focus on scaling the nanomanufacturing capability demonstrated during Phase I for end product prototype demonstrations that incorporate the DOEs.