SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Boulder Nonlinear Systems, Inc.
450 Courtney Way, Unit 107
Lafayette, CO 80026 - 8878
(303) 604-0077

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Dr. Jay Stockley
jstockley@bnonlinear.com
450 Courtney Way, Unit 107
Lafayette, CO 80026 - 8878
(303) 604-0077

CORPORATE/BUSINESS OFFICIAL (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Mark Tanner
mtanner@bnonlinear.com
450 Courtney Way, Unit 107
Lafayette, CO 80026 - 8878
(303) 604-0077

Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at beginning and end of contract:
Begin: 3
End: 5

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)

 Boulder Nonlinear Systems (BNS) proposes to pursue development of low size, weight, and power (SWaP) beam scanner technology for entry, descent and landing (EDL) or wind sensing Lidar NASA applications that can redirect the beam of light at 1 kHz (threshold) to 10 kHz (goal) framerates. The prototype scanner will steer to 8 spots over at least a 60o field of regard. BNS will employ their current liquid crystal polarization grating (LCPG) technology and ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) switches to meet scanner speed and resolution requirements.  Advantages of applying BNS’ LCPG and switch component technology specific to the space-based Lidar applications will include accuracy, reliability, and improved SWaP as well as high rate (at least 1 kHz ) scanning.  In addition, BNS will develop low SWaP dedicated drive electronics and environmentally test the scanner prototype which will be built in Phase II. 

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
In addition to the Entry, Descent and Landing as well as remote wind sensing application, a low-SWaP beam control system could be used in NASA?s hazard avoidance applications (Docking, Entry, Descent and Landing). The Phase II prototype implementation will serve to demonstrate the beam scanning capability, environmental survivability, as well as optimize size, weight and power. The resultant beam control system will be transitioned to Lidar systems integrators and eventually into a commercial product.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Possible commercial applications include the use of this technology for wind farms, automotive hazard avoidance and headlight steering, and remote sensing.