Project Grant DESC0025557

This Cooperative Agreement award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084) provides $1,000,000 to Iris Light Technologies Inc., a small business in Chicago, Illinois, to develop foundry-scale production of on-chip silicon photonic light emitters enabled by printed photonic ink. The project aims to create black phosphorus-based inks that can be integrated directly onto silicon photonic chips to produce on-chip lasers. This...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $305,000 Project Grant under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) program to LR Innovoptics Inc. in Tucson, AZ. This SBIR Phase I project aims to develop a high-throughput 3D printing system for fabricating high-performance, high-contrast glass micro-optics. The goal is to create a faster, more scalable, and cost-effective manufacturing process for these critical optical components used in cameras, lasers, medical devices,...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Physics award under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) provides $500,000 to the University of Maryland, College Park to develop techniques for directly measuring the intensity of ultra-high power laser light. The project aims to enable real-time, minimally intrusive measurement of laser focal spot characteristics, a critical capability for advancing high-powered laser research. This includes developing methodologies...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) awarded a $174,112 project grant to Trustees of Tufts College to develop a photonic-integrated-circuit two-photon (PIC-2P) microscopy system. This system aims to enable deeper tissue imaging and faster, larger-volume cell observations compared to conventional two-photon microscopy. The project focuses on advancing nanophotonic chip technologies to overcome the depth limitations of two-photon microscopy, which is used to...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) Project Grant award of $305,000 to Topolight, Inc. focuses on the development of a new class of compact, high-power, single-mode laser chips with photonic crystal cavity design. The goal is to advance the technology for applications in remote sensing, environmental monitoring, satellite communication, and biomedical devices. The key innovation is a laser architecture that maintains single-mode operation...

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) awarded Trestle Optics LLC a $305,647 Project Grant under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859) to develop a novel photothermal microscopy system for non-destructive, high-resolution screening and sorting of microalgae to identify and enrich strains producing high-value polyunsaturated fatty acids. The project aims to engineer and prototype a microfluidic platform integrating photothermal imaging...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) Project Grant award of $600,000 to the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) aims to develop additive and subtractive manufacturing processes to rapidly print and erase biomaterials capable of high-density wireless mechanical sensing. Specifically, the project will engineer photolabile ferroelectric bioinks incorporating piezoelectric nanoparticles with electrochromic dyes within a hydrogel. These bioinks will be...

This $1,100,000 Cooperative Agreement was awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), under the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) federal grant program (CFDA 81.135), to The Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford University) for the project "Gaseous Optics for Next Generation Fusion Energy Lasers". The objective is to develop gas-based optical components, including mirrors, lenses, and beam shapers, that can withstand the extreme...

This STTR Phase I project, awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) program, aims to transition the Ti:Sapphire-on-Insulator (Ti:SaOI) platform from an academic demonstration to a wafer-scale, CMOS-foundry compatible process. The $275,000 award, with a performance period from February 15, 2025 to October 31, 2025, will enable the scalable production of integrated Ti:Sapphire lasers and amplifiers in the wavelength range...

The National Science Foundation Division of Chemistry awarded Columbia University a $442,564 Project Grant under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.049) to develop new microscopy techniques for imaging ultrafast chemical transformations between molecules separated by large distances. Principal Investigator Milan Delor and his research group will leverage polaritons, which are part-light part-matter particles, to significantly increase the sensitivity of optical...