Solid State Electro-Optic Tunable Fabry-Perot Filters (SSET-FAB) 

Scientific Solutions, Inc. 

North Chelmsford, MA

This tunable optical filter utilizes a liquid crystal cell within the resonant cavity of a next-generation, custom-coated Fabry-Perot interferometer, allowing for rapid and precise spectral selection via simple low-voltage electric input. Compared to other tunable FPIs, these Liquid Crystal Fabry-Perot (LCFP) devices are completely solid state and therefore virtually impervious to mechanical shock and vibration.

• Filter features millisecond spectral selection, wavelength stability to 1 part in 105, transmissions approaching 80% of polarized light, absolutely no moving parts, power requirements of less than 5 amps at 12V, insensitivity to LEO radiation, and miniaturization to 10mm in diameter.
• Filed patent application #09/775,970 entitled "An Optical Multiplexer and Cross-Switch Using Etched Liquid-Crystal Fabry-Perot Etalons."
• Won a Circle of Excellence Award in 2001 distinguishing LCFP as one of the 25 most innovative products of the year.

• Product is currently being sold, and as of March 2003, related cumulative revenue totaled $210,000.
• An outside investment of $150,000 was realized in 2000 for adaptation of LCFP technology to telecommunications applications.

• NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Optics Branch purchased an ultra-high resolution LCFP from SSI in 1999 for a Laser Velocimetry application.
• Two NSF-funded observatories use SSI LCFPs for scientific research applications: Sonderstrom Observatory in Greenland performs daytime LIDAR measurements; the MIT Haystack Observatory in Massachusetts performs nighttime LIDAR measurements.
  

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