Brimrose wins STTR awards for quantum-dot mid-IR FPAs and lightweight directed-energy optics
Sparks, MD--Founded in 2007 as a spin-off R&D company of Brimrose Corporation to focus on the development of novel photonic materials and electro-optic sensor systems for the aerospace, US military, and the Department of Defense (DoD), Brimrose Technology Corporation (BTC) received two new Phase I STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) awards—one from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for mid-IR focal plane array (FPA) detectors and the other from the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) for lightweight optics for directed-energy applications.
DARPA awarded Brimrose Technology an award for $100,000 for a proposal entitled "Narrow Band Gap Quantum Dots and Quantum Wires for Mid-Wave Infrared Focal Plane Array Detectors." This DARPA proposal's objective is "to demonstrate the feasibility of producing quantum dot focal plane arrays for mid wavelength Infrared (MWIR) photodetectors." The study may extend the detection range into the long-wavelength infrared (LWIR). The Research Triangle Institute (RTI; Research Triangle Park, NC) is a collaborator on the project.
"These photodetectors will find many uses both in military and civilian applications such as night vision, surveillance, IR countermeasures and IR spectrometers," according to Dajie David Zhang, a senior scientist at BTC and the DARPA STTR project’s principal investigator.
BTC also has received a new Phase I STTR from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) focused on "Light Weight Optics for High Power Directed Energy Applications." The objective of this MDA award is to demonstrate the feasibility of producing lightweight and thermally manageable integrated optical systems suitable for airborne and space high-power, directed-energy applications. BTC is working in collaboration with Penn State University's Applied Research Lab on the MDA award.
"This project will focus on improving two of the most important parts of a high energy mirror design, the reflective mirror surface, and the multifunctional substrate," according to Zhang, also the principal investigator for this STTR.
SOURCE: Brimrose Technology Corporation; http://brimrosetechnology.com/press.html#sttr_pr
Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.