Advanced Lithography to Maximize Performance of Wafer-thin Integrated Photonic Spectrographs, Year 2

The ability to characterize the wavelength properties of a light source (spectroscopy) is a key method in many areas of fundamental research from Astronomy to Earth Science. Making the dispersion element smaller and more affordable without sacrificing performance has a direct impact on the instrument. For flight instruments in particular, smaller devices it impacts the size, weight and power (SWaP) of the instrument. Integrated Photonic Spectrographs (IPSs) are composed of an Arrayed Waveguide Grating (AWG) and hold the promise of making dispersion elements that are orders of magnitude smaller than existing devices. An image of such a device is shown below in Figure 1, and has a size of only a couple of grains of rice laid side-by-side. The activity funded by the CIF first year produced several AWG devices in support of science cases ranging from radial velocity instruments for Astronomy to mid-IR spectrometers for greenhouse gas monitoring for Earth Science to future space-based telescopes.

Spectrometers that incorporate AWGs as a key component will immediately benefit from a reduction in size, weight and power – without sacrificing performance. These are key considerations for any flight missions. However, there are other benefits as well. Because the elements are made using photolithography, once they are designed, these dispersion elements can be mass produced at very little cost making instruments very affordable. The intrinsic small size also makes the instruments more mechanically and thermally stable as well. Thus, it’s conceivable to architect a swarm of Earth-observing cube-sat scale spectrometer instruments that can provide greater temporal and spatial coverage than more traditional monolithic satellites.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.