Compact Power Amplifier for Hybrid Fiber/Bulk Wind Lidar Transmitters

This proposal identifies enhancements to the SBIR Phase II program, which is developing a compact power amplifier for use in wind measurement and other lidar systems. This Phase II Extension will advance the results from the baseline program to the production of a prototype transmitter system compatible with the NASA Wind-SP/AWP demonstrations as well as with commercial markets for airborne and ground-based lidar systems. The scope of this Extension program significantly enhances the baseline program by integrating into a single compact package a compact reliable oscillator with the amplifier developed under the baseline program. The matching Phase III program also enables build and test of other needed transmitter reference and control subsystems, providing a more robust evaluation of the overall compact prototype transmitter system. Progress to date on the baseline program has been the development of an operational compact high-power amplifier in the form of a full-performance breadboard and preliminary design of a brassboard amplifier module that uses a novel compact mount-less optics optical construction technique. The mount-less optical construction technique developed in the baseline Phase II will greatly enhance reliability and lower production cost. On a sibling program we are developing the technology for a highly-compact short-cavity-length Q-switched oscillator that will be more robust and reliable compared to much larger oscillators like that used in the NASA Wind-SP lidar transmitter. Our current results show that we have successfully advanced the amplifier, compact oscillator, and mount-less optical assembly technologies to a level that a prototype compact transmitter combining these technologies can now be designed and built. Designing, building, and testing the prototype compact transmitter is the subject of this Phase II-E and matching Phase III proposal.

Potential NASA applications of the proposed hybrid fiber/bulk power amplifier/lidar transceiver technology include on-going and future measurement of global winds from space; ground-based and airborne coherent lidar programs; eye-safe remote laser spectroscopy applications for measurement of atmospheric constituents like CO2, water vapor, and methane; tracking of fast-moving space debris and asteroid hazards; spacecraft docking applications; and other shortwave-IR wavelength instrument developments in the 1.5-to-2.0 micron wavelength region. Non-NASA commercial uses of fiber/bulk MOPA transmitters include DoD hard target and space debris tracking/imaging problems & research/industrial applications requiring very compact efficient front-end transmitter lasers and bulk amplifiers at eye-safe SWIR wavelengths. Commercial development is planned for compact, high-FOM remote-sensing products for winds and other remote sensing applications.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 6) — 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.

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