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Contract Opportunity

Opportunity:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), operated by the Lawrence Livermore National Security (LLNS), LLC under contract no. DE-AC52-07NA27344 (Contract 44) with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is offering the opportunity to enter into a collaboration to further develop and commercialize its Widefield Catadioptric Monolithic Telescopes technology.

Background:

Monolithic telescopes fabricate a reflective telescope into a single silica substrate. This approach provides exceptional mechanical stability because the relative position of the mirrors is permanently polished into a monolithic substrate and is inherently temperature insensitive due to the low CTE of fused silica (0.5 ppm/K). Once fabricated, monolithic telescopes can be taken for granted because the mirrors will always be aligned, even after subject to extreme force like during launch into space. There is a need for telescope designs that achieve good image quality at wide field of view compared to conventional Cassegrain designs.

Description:

This invention achieves both a wider field of view and faster f-number within a monolithic substrate by incorporating an aspheric convex refractive first surface and a planar aspheric field corrector surface on the final refractive surface. These two refractive surfaces work in conjunction with a concave aspheric primary and convex aspheric secondary mirror (e.g. Cassegrain type) to improve high-order off-axis aberration correction (e.g. coma, astigmatism) thereby permitting wider fields of view and at faster f-numbers. The additional refractive surfaces are fabricated into the same monolithic substrate.

Advantages/Benefits:

• Excellent mechanical and thermal stability.


• Achieves good image quality at wide field of view and low f#.


• Reduced complexity and cost compared to optomechanical approaches.


• No need for adjustment or focusing.


• Compatible with space deployments and operations.


• Can be used in any application requiring fixed reflective optical elements.

Potential Applications:

• Space situational awareness and navigation


• Remote sensing

Development Status:

Current stage of technology development: TRL4-5

LLNL has filed for patent protection on this invention.

U.S. Patent Application No. 2023/0288692 Widefield Catadioptric Monolithic Telescopes published 9/14/2023

LLNL is seeking industry partners with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Moving critical technology beyond the Laboratory to the commercial world helps our licensees gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. All licensing activities are conducted under policies relating to the strict nondisclosure of company proprietary information.

Please visit the IPO website at https://ipo.llnl.gov/resources for more information on working with LLNL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process.

Note: THIS IS NOT A PROCUREMENT. Companies interested in commercializing LLNL's Widefield Catadioptric Monolithic Telescopes technology should provide an electronic OR written statement of interest, which includes the following:

1. Company Name and address.


2. The name, address, and telephone number of a point of contact.


3. A description of corporate expertise and/or facilities relevant to commercializing this technology.

Please provide a complete electronic OR written statement to ensure consideration of your interest in LLNL's Widefield Catadioptric Monolithic Telescopes technology.

The subject heading in an email response should include the Notice ID and/or the title of LLNL’s Technology/Business Opportunity and directed to the Primary and Secondary Point of Contacts listed below.

Written responses should be directed to:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Innovation and Partnerships Office

P.O. Box 808, L-779

Livermore, CA 94551-0808

Attention: IL-13632

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