TECHNICAL POINT OF CONTACT (TPOC)
Sang-Yeon Cho
PROJECTED CMMC LEVEL REQUIREMENT
Level 1
TECHNOLOGY AREAS
Materials
|
Sensors
MODERNIZATION PRIORITIES
Advanced Materials
KEYWORDS
Additive Manufacturing; AM; lens; LWIR; 3D Printing; Material Science; Metallurgy
OBJECTIVE
Develop cost effective, high throughput wafer scale manufacturing processes for custom achromatic meta optic components operating in the mid wave infrared (MWIR, 3 5 m) or long wave infrared (LWIR, 8 14 m) spectral bands.
ITAR
The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120-130, which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services, including export of sensitive technical data, or the Export Administration Regulation (EAR), 15 CFR Parts 730-774, which controls dual use items. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals (FNs), their country(ies) of origin, the type of visa or work permit possessed, and the statement of work (SOW) tasks intended for accomplishment by the FN(s) in accordance with section 3.5 of the Announcement. Offerors are advised foreign nationals proposed to perform on this topic may be restricted due to the technical data under US Export Control Laws.
DESCRIPTION
Meta-optics have recently garnered significant attention for their ability to drastically minimize the size, weight, and complexity of infrared (IR) systems. By substituting bulky, multi-element, three-dimensional curved optics with flat surfaces comprised of subwavelength-scale meta-units, they offer an ideal optical platform for size- and weight-constrained systems, such as portable IR vision systems, UAV surveillance platforms, and wearable electronics. Furthermore, a single meta-optic element can be precisely engineered to extract or encode high-dimensional information (including polarization, wavelength, and wavefront) from incident IR signals, unlocking advanced sensing and beam-shaping capabilities unattainable with conventional refractive components. One of the primary drawbacks of conventional meta-optic components is chromatic aberration. Several approaches have been developed to increase the operational wavelength bandwidth of meta-optic components, including stacked metalenses [1], phase dispersion engineered achromatic metasurfaces [2], and multi-level metalens systems [3]. To implement achromatic meta-optics, several fabrication methods like electron beam lithography [2], UV immersion lithography [3], nanoimprint lithography [4], grayscale lithography [5], and deep UV projection lithography [6] have been explored. However, current techniques remain bottlenecked by slow throughput, complex alignment steps, expensive tooling, and limited material compatibility. In addition, these demonstrated achromatic metalenses operate mostly in the visible or near-infrared regimes. To overcome these barriers, the Army seeks a cost-effective, high-throughput manufacturing process compatible with standard semiconductor fabrication infrastructure to produce wafer-scale achromatic meta-optic components using high-index, IR-transparent materials optimized for both MWIR and LWIR bands.
PHASE I
Propose a novel, wafer-scale manufacturing process capable of creating sub-micrometer-scale, non-uniform meta-units for multiple IR materials. The selected materials must be transparent within the MWIR spectral bands and possess a large refractive index. The primary objective of Phase I is to demonstrate the feasibility of the manufacturing process by developing prototype achromatic metalenses, focusing primarily on the MWIR range. The demonstrated metalens manufacturing process should include meta-unit libraries for the target spectral band across multiple IR materials to support future foundry services. Furthermore, the proposed processes must be fully compatible with standard semiconductor fabrication lines. The manufacturing process aims to deliver high-spatial-resolution phase control, seamless integrability with other components via an ultra-flat fabricated surface, and an expansive, diverse meta-atom library covering the entire MWIR spectral band (3 5 m). These performance metrics must be clearly quantified in Phase I. To validate these targets against Army program requirements, the process must achieve the desired point spread function (PSF) profiles and high focusing efficiency in Phase II. Ultimately, these metrics establish the fundamental baseline needed to evaluate and optimize manufacturing yield, high-volume scalability, and future Phase II deployment planning.
PHASE II
The central objective of Phase II is to experimentally demonstrate the performance targets of the prototype MWIR achromatic metalenses developed in Phase I and to validate the scalability of the end-to-end manufacturing process, while expanding meta-atom library development into the LWIR region using diverse, high-index materials. This effort focuses on optimizing the combined fabrication equipment parameters, process conditions, and material integration required to achieve high-volume, wafer-scale production without requiring a proposer-owned physical foundry. Manufacturing scalability objectives target maximizing the volume of meta-optic units per wafer run and increasing individual component diameters while successfully maintaining the device performance metrics established in Phase I. Process validation will center on demonstrating multi-material fabrication capabilities across both MWIR and LWIR bands, backed by empirical test data and verified through collaborative U.S. Government laboratory evaluations. Iterative testing aims to drive continuous process improvements, ultimately enabling the production of field-ready achromatic MWIR and LWIR meta-optic components optimized for military systems.
PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS
Successful execution of these manufacturing goals will enable IR camera and imaging system developers to integrate custom sized optical elements with precisely engineered amplitude and phase transmission profiles. A dual band MWIR/LWIR imaging system will enhance the detection of subtle thermal anomalies across a wide range of temperatures for industrial monitoring, while also improving target detection and classification of potential threats in military environments.
REFERENCES
Zhou, Y., Kravchenko, I. I., Wang, H., Nolen, J. R., Gu, G., & Valentine, J. (2018). Multilayer noninteracting dielectric metasurfaces for multiwavelength metaoptics. Nano letters, 18(12), 7529-7537.
Wang, S., Wu, P. C., Su, V. C., Lai, Y. C., Chen, M. K., Kuo, H. Y., ... & Tsai, D. P. (2018). A broadband achromatic metalens in the visible. Nature nanotechnology, 13(3), 227-232.
Chang, S., Zhang, L., Duan, Y., Rahman, M. T., Islam, A., & Ni, X. (2024). Achromatic metalenses for full visible spectrum with extended group delay control via dispersion-matched layers. Nature communications, 15(1), 9627.
Khorasaninejad, M., Chen, W. T., Devlin, R. C., Oh, J., Zhu, A. Y., & Capasso, F. (2016). Metalenses at visible wavelengths: Diffraction-limited focusing and subwavelength resolution imaging. Science, 352(6290), 1190-1194.
Hu, T., Tseng, C. K., Fu, Y. H., Xu, Z., Dong, Y., Wang, S., ... & Gu, Y. (2018). Demonstration of color display metasurfaces via immersion lithography on a 12-inch silicon wafer. Optics express, 26(15), 19548-19554.
Jung, D. E., Howell, I. R., Einck, V. J., Arisoy, F. D., Verrastro, L. D., McClung, A., ... & Watkins, J. J. (2023). Refractive Index Tuning of All-Inorganic TiO2 Nanocrystal-Based Films and High Aspect Ratio Nanostructures Using Atomic Layer Deposition: Implications for High-Throughput Fabrication of Metalenses. ACS Applied Nano Materials, 6(3), 2009-2019.
Zheng, H., Zhou, Y., Ugwu, C. F., Du, A., Kravchenko, I. I., & Valentine, J. G. (2021). Large-scale metasurfaces based on grayscale nanosphere lithography. Acs Photonics, 8(6), 1824-1831.
Park, J. S., Lim, S. W. D., Amirzhan, A., Kang, H., Karrfalt, K., Kim, D., ... & Capasso, F. (2024). All-glass 100 mm diameter visible metalens for imaging the cosmos. ACS nano, 18(4), 3187-3198.
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