NASA SBIR 2007 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Nanohmics, Inc.
6201 East Oltorf Street, Suite 400
Austin, TX 78741 - 1222
(512) 389-9990

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Keith Jamison
kjamison@nanohmics.com
6201 East Oltorf, Suite 400
Austin, TX 78741 - 7511
(512) 389-9990

Expected Technology Readiness Level (TRL) upon completion of contract: 6

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
Next-generation space telescopes require advanced optical coatings to provide low-loss polarization-preserving transmission/reflection of light in a variety of spectral ranges. These coatings also need to protect optical components as well as the coatings themselves, from damage in a space environment. For example, one of the critical technologies identified in the NASA capabilities roadmap for advanced telescopes and observatories is advanced optical coating technology for cryogenic mirrors that is uniform and polarization preserving in the visible through far IR regions as well as improved dichroic, spectral and combiner coatings . To address this need Nanohmics is investigating us of sputter deposited amorphous nitrides and oxides as high quality, long lived radiation resistant coatings for production of anti-reflection and bandpass coatings on optical substrates including metals, PMMA, beryllium and other materials. Discussions with the contracting officer's technical representative indicated that the main Fresnel lens in the EUSO (Extreme Universe Space Observatory) may be a good candidate for amorphous nitride anti-reflective coatings. The Phase II effort will focus on coatings for PMMA based optics; however, this coating technology can be applied to many other optical systems.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The main benefit to NASA will be a robust wide-band anti-reflective or band-pass coating for optical components in space that can be applied at low substrate temperatures. This coating is radiation hard and ideal for space based applications. This coating system can be applied to a variety of optical components to provide radiation hard, flexible, scratch resistant coatings.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
High quality radiation and scratch resistant coating are useful in a wide variety of applications. The amorphous nitride / oxide coating system can be applied to standard optical components to produce hard scratch resistant coating for harsh environmental in a large number of civilian and military applications.

NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING

Large Antennas and Telescopes Optical Optical & Photonic Materials Sensor Webs/Distributed Sensors