Stacked Waveguide Imaging Spectrometer for Airborne and Spaceborne Applications

To meet the challenges of multispectral and/or hyperspectral imaging from NASA manned and unmanned airborne platforms and next-generation space platforms, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes a miniature Stacked Waveguide Imaging Spectrometer (SWIS), a hyperspectral imaging system. The monolithic design of the SWIS keeps it small, lightweight, and low-cost, with high throughput and inherent environmental stability. SWIS spatio-spectral 3-D (2 spatial dimensions and 1 spectral dimension) images will have high spatial and spectral resolution provided by the 2-D detector array. Because of their compactness, many SWIS modules can easily be combined, expanding spectral sensing capability to cover the UV, visible, and IR bands. In Phase I, POC will initiate SWIS system design and analysis, and will demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed concept by developing the components and integrating a laboratory proof-of-concept SWIS module. In Phase II, the system design will be optimized based on Phase I results for SWIS prototype development. When fully developed, the proposed SWIS sensor system will be compact, light, power efficient, and producible at low cost. Its high resolution hyperspectral imaging will cover a wide band, and its inherent environmental stability will make it well suited for airborne/spaceborne applications.