SBIR Phase I: Focal Plane Array for Active Coherent Imaging

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to enable a cost-effective high-performance imaging technology with widespread commercial opportunities for industrial applications, such as autonomous navigation. The technology has the potential to greatly enhance the performance of autonomous navigation systems, enabling more precise detection of objects at further distances and enjoying greater robustness against environmental conditions. These capabilities help increase the safety of autonomous driving. The proposed technology is designed for manufacturability at low cost and high volume. Applications will benefit the defense, industrial, medical and scientific sectors, potentially bringing new opportunities in the areas of surveillance, security, remote sensing, machine vision, material surface characterization, biomedical imaging, as well as novel areas such as quantum imaging. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims at developing a multi-pixel optical focal plane array (FPA) capable of coherent detection by leveraging photonic integrated circuit technology. Current conventional FPA technologies operate by direct photon detection wherein the incoming photons are converted into electron charges directly at each detection pixel. The measured signal is thus proportional to the intensity of the incident light. However, coherent detection measures both intensity and phase, with advantages including near-shot-noise-limited performance, background light rejection, and additional object information contained in the phase. The proposed technology will enable thousands to millions of coherent detection pixels to be fabricated monolithically on a photonic chip, enabling mass production. This research will result in a design of the coherent FPA with optimal detection performance and small form-factor. 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.