SBIR/STTR Research Award
ALLVAR Alloys for Athermalizing SiC Telescopes with Reduced SWAP-C
Award amount
$149,989Program and phase
SBIR · Phase IAward year
2022Award details
- Awarding agency
- Department of Defense
- Branch
- Missile Defense Agency
- Recipient company
- Thermal Expansion Solutions, Inc.
- Proposal award date
- 2021-12-06
- Contract end date
- 2022-06-05
- UEI
- JDMKJN2L1G17
- Solicitation number
- 21.2
- Topic code
- MDA21-001
Research abstract
This Phase I seeks to develop optical seekers that must operate in the endo-atmosphere and exo-atmosphere with high mechanical and thermal stability. ALLVAR Alloy support structures have the potential to create smaller, lighter, and lower cost athermalization solutions for Silicon Carbide (SiC) mirrored telescopes without sacrificing the thermal stability traditionally associated with monolithic or mono-material designs. To realize these benefits, this project aims to tune ALLVAR Alloys’ coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) to zero. The closer to zero thermal expansion (ZTE), the higher the material’s thermal stability. A target of ~100 W/um is based off of SiC’s thermal stability. If successful, a strong and ductile support structure material will be produced that can be used to athermalize telescopes with SiC mirrors. Approved for Public Release | 21-MDA-11013 (19 Nov 21)
Technology keywords
Not reported
Other awards by this recipient
Verified by the same UEI. These are other public SBIR/STTR award pages, not a merged company record.
- Interferometry for Refractive Index and Thermal Defocus Determination
- ALLVAR Alloys for Athermalizing SiC Telescopes with Reduced SWAP-C
- Novel CTE Tuning of Ultra-Stable ALLVAR Alloy Struts for Large Space Telescopes
- Reducing SWAP-C with ALLVAR Alloy Athermalized Optics
- Novel CTE Tuning of Ultra-Stable ALLVAR Alloy Struts for 10m to 20m Telescopes
Awards with the same topic code
Verified by an exact topic code match. This is not a text-similarity match.
- Design, Analysis, and Additive Manufacturing of Silicon Carbide Telescopes with RadHard Coatings
- Design, Analysis, and Additive Manufacturing of Silicon Carbide Telescopes with RadHard Coatings
- Ceramic Silicon Carbide Optical Material Development for Interceptor Telescope
- Thermally Insensitive, Radiation Hardened Telescope Design
Research funding history
11 SBIR/STTR records share this UEI (2015–2025). Reported award amounts total $4,742,592. Reported amounts are not federal obligations.
Phases: Phase I, Phase II
Agencies: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Defense, National Science Foundation