Meadowlark Optics, Inc.

Meadowlark Optics, Inc., a small business manufacturer of advanced optical systems based in Longmont, Colorado, sells spatial light modulators, polarization components, beam splitter cubes, and specialized optical instruments to federal research and defense agencies as a prime contractor (97% of recent awards) competing full-and-open — the vendor holds no SBA set-aside designations and competes across multiple civilian and military customers without preferential set-aside reserve.

Meadowlark Optics operates across research, development, and manufacturing. The company manufactures high-precision optical products including spatial light modulators with specifications ranging from 1024×1024 to 1920×1200 pixel resolution, thermoelectric liquid chillers rated to 200 W/cm² handling capacity, polarization optics, beam splitter cubes, and LIDAR systems. Representative prime work includes a $1.97 million SBIR Phase II Other Transaction Agreement contract with the Air Force (award date December 20, 2023, ultimate completion October 20, 2025) for advanced spatial light modulator development; a $26.8 thousand firm-fixed-price purchase order from NASA's Shared Services Center (December 19, 2024) for an ultra-high-speed 1024×1024 pixel spatial light modulator with recalibration capability for Glenn Research Center; and a $22.4 thousand purchase order from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (September 18, 2026) for a spatial light modulator and benchtop thermoelectric liquid chiller meeting high-power optical specifications.

Customer concentration spreads across research and defense. The Department of the Air Force, Office of Naval Research, and NASA's Shared Services Center anchor the top by potential value (combined roughly 45% of visible potential value). Forty-eight percent of awards cluster among Navy, Air Force, NIST, and NASA entities. The vendor serves 27 distinct federal customer agencies. Meadowlark Optics holds minimal parent vehicle positioning — one task order each on an Air Force Indefinite Delivery Contract (F0460686C0208) and a Navy Basic Ordering Agreement (N0016417GJQ02). Award activity has remained sparse in recent years (2–3 awards annually from 2021–2024, declining to 1 award in 2026 so far), though historical awards reach back to 1986. Only three awards with combined potential value of $22 thousand face recompete within the next twenty-four months.

The vendor maintains a minimal subcontract footprint — two subs listed — including optical filter components supplied to Raytheon Company for the Multi-Spectral Targeting System DAS-3 (October 4, 2022) and distributed-aperture imaging components supplied to General Atomics under an Office of Naval Research contract (June 25, 2024). Federal grant work comes through the Department of Energy's Office of Science: recipients of a Project Grant for Large-Format Spatial Light Modulators for High Peak Power Lasers (award date February 12, 2024, completion April 13, 2027) and a completed Project Grant for Low-Cost LIDAR for Efficient Wind Energy Production (July 10, 2023, completed June 29, 2024). The NAICS profile tilts heavily toward optical manufacturing — 28 awards under Optical Instrument and Lens Manufacturing (334513), 15 under Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing (334516) — with primary PSC coding Optical Instruments, Test Equipment, Components And Accessories (16 awards).

Meadowlark Optics designs, develops, and manufactures an extensive range of high quality polarization systems and components including liquid crystal devices from the UV to MWIR. Standard products include shutters, rotators, waveplates/retarders, spatial light modulators (SLM), tunable optical filters, tri-color filters, polarizers, polarimeters and more. We also provide custom solutions and a complete line of fabrication services.