NASA SBIR 2012 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Fibertek, Inc.
13605 Dulles Technology Drive
Herndon, VA 20171 - 4603
(703) 471-7671

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Wei Lu
wlu@fibertek.com
13605 Dulles Technology Drive
Centreville, VA 20171 - 4603
(703) 471-7671 Extension :3661

CORPORATE/BUSINESS OFFICIAL (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Larry Johns
ljohns@fibertek.com
13605 Dulles Technology Drive
Herndon, VA 20171 - 4603
(703) 471-7671 Extension :3680

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 4
End: 6

Technology Available (TAV) Subtopics
Lidar Remote Sensing Technologies is a Technology Available (TAV) subtopic that includes NASA Intellectual Property (IP). Do you plan to use the NASA IP under the award?
No

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
CO2 sensing using absorption bands near 1570nm is very attractive by taking advantage of the mature fiber-amplifier technology derived from fiber-optic telecom heritage. This necessitates sufficient power scaling in 1.5 micrometer fiber-amplifiers, either in the pulsed-mode, or in the cw-mode for modulation spectroscopy.In this SBIR program we propose the design, optimization, experimental evaluation and prototype development of a high-power,high wall-plug efficiency, 1571.1 nm fiber-amplifier laser transmitter, compatible with multi-line cw intensity-modulated integrated-path differential absorption spectroscopy, with the size, weight and power (SWaP) optimized for airborne and eventual space-qualifiable roadmap for ASCENDS mission. We leverage innovations in high-power 1.5 micrometer fiber-optic technology and fiber-amplifier architecture, while using high-reliability 1.5 micrometer silica-fiber based passive/active components. Our expectation is that at the end of Phase 2, a TRL-6 level hardware can be developed and delivered for an airborne mission, and which is also compatible with a space-flight maturation roadmap.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Airborne campaign for CO2 column sensing via integrated-path differential-absorption approach.
Roadmap for an eventual space mission for highly accurate CO2 mapping over day/night conditions (ASCENDS).
Planetary atmospheric sensing e.g. CO2 sensing on Mars.
Pump source for an OPO/OPA based lidar transmitter architecture, to access strong mid-IR absorption bands of CO2, or other atmospheric species of interest, e.g. CH4 (via the 3.27 micrometer lines).

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Laser source to enable CO2, CH4 sensing in process control.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING (NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.)

Fiber (see also Communications, Networking & Signal Transport; Photonics) Lasers (Communication) Lasers (Ladar/Lidar) Optical/Photonic (see also Photonics) Transmitters/Receivers Waveguides/Optical Fiber (see also Optics)