Goddard Space Flight center is developing a novel LIDAR instrument which will be capable of tracking both ground vegetation as well as ice and snow simultaneously, with high resolution. In this program, we will develop a key component to be used in the LIDAR instrument, a low SWaP tunable laser seed source operating in the 1030nm wavelength range. This laser will be based on Freedom Photonics’ swept laser platform, which is commercially available on other wavelengths.
This program was inspired by an existing need within NASA (GSFC) for new, more precise and powerful remote sensing instrument implementations.
Another key application area that we will pursue with a derivative product is the area of ophthalmic optical coherence tomography. The entire OCT market is expected to be valued at $1.8 billion by 2024. An inexpensive, chip-scale solution for a laser source operating in the 1060nm range is highly desirable.