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AOPTIX TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Address

580 Division St.
Campbell, CA, 95008
USA

UEI: N/A

Number of Employees: 25

HUBZone Owned: No

Woman Owned: No

Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No

SBIR/STTR Involvement

Year of first award: 2002

Phase I Awards

Phase II Awards

50%

Conversion Rate

$309,809

Phase I Dollars

$1,351,048

Phase II Dollars

$1,660,857

Total Awarded

Awards

Up to 10 of the most recent awards are being displayed. To view all of this company's awards, visit the Award Data search page.

Ship-to-Ship High-Bandwidth, Secure Free-Space Optical Communications Using Adaptive Optics

Amount: $601,529 Topic: N02-126

AOptix Technologies proposes to build and demonstrate a laser communication system that uses adaptive optics to mitigate atmospheric turbulence. Lasercom systems require accurate pointing capability to direct the narrow optical beam and compensate for platform vibration and jitter. In AOptix lasercom systems, adaptive optics (AO) techniques are employed to accomplish this as well as compensate for atmospheric scintillation, another factor critical to successful system operation. In Phase I, a prototype unit was demonstrated operating 10 miles across Chesapeake Bay. Phase II objectives include increasing the closed-loop bandwidth of the AO system to improve performance and link budget. Semi-automated beam acquisition and tracking functionality will also be a significant addition to the system capability. These developments will be accomplished by new designs at both the component and system level. Ship simulation tests and transmission over long distances will be included in the testing program.

SBIR

Phase II

2004

DOD

NAVY

High-Bandwidth, Compact Free-Space Optical Communications Using Adaptive Optics

Amount: $749,519 Topic: MDA02-036

AOptix Technologies proposes to build and demonstrate a laser communication system that uses adaptive optics to mitigate atmospheric turbulence. Lasercom systems require accurate pointing capability to direct the narrow optical beam and compensate for platform vibration and jitter. In AOptix lasercom systems, adaptive optics (AO) techniques are employed to accomplish this as well as precorrect the transmitted beam to reduce atmospheric scintillation, another factor critical to successful system operation. In Phase I, a prototype unit enabled sustained operation of a 28 km link between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and a remote mountain site. Phase II will miniaturize the optical system for aircraft compatibility. Smaller and faster adaptive optics components will be used to advance system capability. Demonstration of atmospheric transmission over long links will be included in the testing program.

SBIR

Phase II

2004

DOD

MDA

Anti-Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) Technologies

Amount: $99,975 Topic: N04-902

This solicitation seeks to apply novel Adaptive Optics (AO) technologies and high energy light based weapons to protect U.S. forces from Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) attacks. We plan to use our knowledge of AO to detect the launch, track and acquire the RPG projectile and then destroy or disable it with high-energy laser light. Our AO systems emit beams with minimized speckle and wander, resulting in tight diffraction-limited spots on targets.

SBIR

Phase I

2004

DOD

NAVY

Development of a Scintillation-Insensitive Curvature Wavefront Sensor

Amount: $69,848

Wave-front sensors are key elements of adaptive optics systems that compensate for aberrations encountered by a laser beam as it propagates through the atmosphere. Removing such aberrations are critical for applications such as high energy laser weapons,high bandwidth laser communication systems and precise target designators. AOptix has previously developed a wavefront sensor that directly measures wave-front curvature. Measuring wave-front curvature instead of the traditional practice of measuringwave-front slope offers significant advantages including immunity to scintillation and phase branch points (thus avoiding the need for wavefront reconstructors), absence of calibration and offset problems, higher efficiency and the use of one pixel persubaperture. When combined with a curvature deformable mirror, further benefits can be realized in the overall system performance. The proposed work will develop a novel curvature sensing wave-front sensor that is immune to branch-point errors, requires noreference calibration and will enable adaptive optic systems to operate with closed-loop bandwidth exceeding 1 kHz. The development of high speed wavefront sensors for adaptive optics has numerous potential commercial and military applications. Examplesof such applications are:1) High energy laser beam control for precise cutting, machining, surface heat treatment, marking and surface ablation, both in manufacturing and medical applications.2) Laser communications through turbulent media.3) Low energy laser beam control for scanning devices such as large format laser printers and 3D digitizers.4) Focus and aberration control for confocal scanning microscopes.Applications 1) and 2) benefit from high speed, due to the intrinsic rapidity of processes to be corrected. Applications 3) and 4) benefit from high speed, since it allows for an increase in the scan rate of the devices.Utilization of AO for cutting and machining lasers, would allow more precise control of the tool spot size and shape.In AO-enhanced free space laser communications, quality of correction is currently limited by system speed. Higher correction speed will enable multi-gigabit military laser communications systems, such ground to air, air to air, and ground or air to space,and will enable robust commercial communications systems to work through a wide range of environmental conditions.For scanning applications, AO would allow for more precise beam control in the presence of thermal aberrations, turbulence aberrations, scanner induced aberrations or specimen aberrations. This could allow for a combination of cheaper optics, larger scanranges, and enhanced resolution in a wide variety of applications.

SBIR

Phase I

2003

DOD

MDA

High-Bandwidth, Compact Free-Space Optical Communications Using Adaptive Optics

Amount: $69,993

The objective of the project is to develop a small, very-high bandwidth optical communications link for the Missile Defense Agency for data telemetry during missile tests. AOptix Technologies has developed a novel Free Space Optical communication systemthat uses Adaptive Optics to dynamically correct atmospheric aberrations that result from turbulence and scintillation. By correcting these optical distortions, AOptix is able to build multi-gigabit performance, all-optical, long-range FSO systems. TheseFSO systems are inherently secure because the light beam is precisely controlled and collimated to fill the receiver aperture. AOptix Technologies will adapt its terrestrial FSO system to meet the MDA's requirements for a long-range, high-speed, secure,compact communications technology that can be flown on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles during test launches. Multi-gigabit, multi-wavelength Free Space Optical Communications capability will break the information access bottleneck. AOptix's highly collimated beamassures the highest degree of security for optical through-air data transmissions. Other military applications exist in ground-to-air, ground-to-space, air-to-space, ship-to-ship, ship-to-air and ship-to-shore. Commercial applications exist in areas thatrequire long-distance, high-capacity telecommunications links such as cellular phone traffic backhaul.

SBIR

Phase I

2003

DOD

MDA

Ship-to-Ship High-Bandwidth, Secure Free-Space Optical Communications Using Adaptive Optics

Amount: $69,993

"The objective of the project is to develop a small, very-high bandwidth optical communications link for the Navy ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore applications. AOptix Technologies has developed a novel Free Space Optical communication system that usesAdaptive Optics to dynamically correct atmospheric aberrations that result from turbulence and scintillation. By correcting these optical distortions, AOptix is able to build multi-gigabit, all-optical, long-range FSO systems. These FSO systems areinherently secure because the light beam is precisely controlled and collimated to fill the receiver aperture. AOptix Technologies will adapt its terrestrial FSO system to meet the Navy's requirements for a long-range, high-speed, secure, compactcommunications technology. Multi-gigabit, multi-wavelength Free Space Optical Communications capability will break the information access bottleneck. AOptix's highly collimated beam assures the highest degree of security for optical through-air datatransmissions.Other military applications exist in ground-to-air, ground-to-space and air-to-space. Commercial applications exist in areas that require long-distance, high-capacity telecommunications links such as cellular phone traffic backhaul."

SBIR

Phase I

2002

DOD

NAVY