NSF Award
9901815
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop a prototype Micro-Optic <br/>Spectroscopic Imaging Sensor (MOSIS), based on a polarization sensitive, diffractive micro-optic array. <br/>The MOSIS prototype will be a miniature, lightweight monolithic device capable of multi-spectral, polarimetric imaging in real time. MOSIS is a simple focal-plane array device consisting of a stack of three basic elements: a refractive microlens array; a pair of conjugate birefringent diffractive optics arrays; and a 2-D detector array, which can be a commercial CCD chip. Phase I demonstrated the feasibility of MOSIS technology by developing an analytical model and computer simulation, and through experimental evaluation of polymers and birefringent materials and demonstration of the concept by fabricating a birefringent diffractive optical element. Phase II will optimize the MOSIS design, increasing the performance efficiency of the device and packaging it into a compact prototype with 256x256 pixels, 6 to 12 simultaneous spectral polarimetric channels, wide field-of-view, and a high speed spectral signature processor for real-time spectral image sensing and identification. The MOSIS module can be integrated simply into an existing remote sensing digital video camera system without major modification or effect on image quality.<br/> Commercial applications are expected in compact, low-cost, reliable, polarimetric imaging, multispectral sensor systems for remote sensing, including ocean monitoring, environmental sensing, mineral identification, agricultural surveillance, and for biomedical and chemical spectroscopic imaging, industrial inspection, fire fighting, and law enforcement.
