SBIR Phase I: All-Semiconductor Nanostructured Lenses for High-Tech Industries

SBIR 第一阶段：用于高科技行业的全半导体纳米结构镜头

• 批准号: 2335588
• 负责人: Wei Ting Chen
• 金额: $ 27.5万
• 依托单位: SNOCHIP INC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-01-01 至 2024-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2335588&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Semiconductor; Nanostructured; Lenses

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to develop lightweight, compact, and all-semiconductor-manufactured optical devices based on metasurface technology. The manufacturing process of conventional optical devices involves techniques that face challenges in integration, assembly, and testing as well as long turnaround times and high costs. This lens technology, called metalenses, is superior to conventional lenses, which are typically made of glass or plastic. Metalenses are made from arrays of nanostructures, and these nanostructures interact with light at the nanoscale, allowing for precise control of the light properties. This project will significantly reduce the complexity of fabrication process where metalenses will be integrated with a semiconductor laser diode in a conventional manufacturing facility without the need for any additional or special equipment. The novel metalenses will be engineered and made of special multilayered thin films with high reflectivity. The metalenses will have wide application across a spectrum of industries, including, but not limited to, imaging, sensing, telecommunication, aerospace, and defense. The realization of this project will amplify global competition within the photonics industry and increase the competitiveness of the United States. It will increase employment opportunities across diverse high-tech domains, including chip manufacturing, photonics and optics.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to address the limitations of conventional methods for the control of laser beams. The innovation offers a novel approach to design and fabricate a spatial-dispersion-engineered metalens through cost-effective wafer-scale manufacturing. The metalenses will have the potential to replace the distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) in both top- and bottom-emitting Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers. This goal is to achieve either low ( a few degrees) or high divergence ( 30 degrees) angles. The metalenses will be designed with a proprietary algorithm and special code based on an application programming interface linking and enabling data exchange between different design software and will have design flexibility such that wavelengths of interest could be achieved by linearly adjusting each film thickness followed by an optimization. The project's key objectives are (1) the validation of the concept and exploration of its limitations, (2) the experimental fabrication and characterization of the designed metalenses, and (3) the development of scalable manufacturing pathways for the integration of such metalenses with laser chips.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）I阶段项目是基于元图技术开发轻巧，紧凑和全智能器制造的光学设备。常规光学设备的制造过程涉及在整合，组装和测试方面面临挑战的技术，以及长时间的周转时间和高成本。这种称为金属镜的镜头技术优于常规镜片，通常由玻璃或塑料制成。 金属是由纳米结构阵列制成的，这些纳米结构与纳米级的光相互作用，从而可以精确控制光。 该项目将大大降低制造过程的复杂性，在这些过程中，金属将与传统制造设施中的半导体激光二极管整合在一起，而无需任何其他或特殊设备。 新颖的金属将是由具有高反射率的特殊多层薄膜设计和制成的。这些金属将在各种行业中具有广泛的应用，包括但不限于成像，传感，电信，航空航天和防御。该项目的实现将扩大光子行业内的全球竞争，并提高美国的竞争力。它将增加各种高科技领域的就业机会，包括芯片制造，光子学和光学。此小型企业创新研究（SBIR）I阶段项目旨在应对控制激光光束的常规方法的局限性。这项创新提供了一种新颖的方法，可以通过成本效益的晶圆制造制造设计和制造空间分散工程的金属。 这些金属将有可能替代顶部和底部发射腔表面发射激光器的分布式bragg反射器（DBR）。该目标是达到低（几个度）或高差异（30度）角度。这些金属将通过专有算法和特殊代码设计，基于应用程序编程接口链接并启用不同设计软件之间的数据交换，并具有设计灵活性，以便通过线性调整每个膜厚度，然后通过优化来实现感兴趣的波长。 。该项目的主要目标是（1）验证其局限性的概念和探索，（2）设计金属的实验制造和表征，以及（3）开发可扩展的制造途径，以将这种金属与激光整合在一起CHIPS。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准来评估值得支持。