The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $750,000 - Friday the 7th of February 2014
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  IGF::OT::IGF OTHER FUNCTION - MICROELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS (MEMS) TECHNOLOGY HAS THE POTENTIAL TO CREATE DEFORMABLE MIRRORS (DM) WITH 10^4 ACTUATORS THAT HAVE SIZE, WEIGHT, AND POWER SPECIFICATIONS THAT ARE FAR LOWER THAN CONVENTIONAL PIEZOELECTRIC AND ELECTROSTRICTIVE DMS. HOWEVER, BUILDING A MEMS DM WITH A RELATIVELY LARGE APERTURE THAT IS FLAT IN THE UNPOWERED STATE IS CHALLENGING. CURRENTLY, A LARGE PORTION OF THE MIRROR STROKE MUST BE USED TO FLATTEN THE MEMS DMS. IN THE CASE OF THE LARGE-STROKE SEGMENTED MEMS DMS MANUFACTURED BY IRIS AO, THERE IS SUFFICIENT STROKE FOR WAVEFRONT CORRECTION AFTER FLATTENING. HOWEVER, THE RESOLUTION IS SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED BECAUSE THE DYNAMIC RANGE OF THE DIGITAL-TO-ANALOG CONVERTERS (DAC) USED TO OPERATE THE DM IS SPREAD OVER MULTIPLE MICRONS OF STROKE RATHER THAN THE 0.5 MICRON RANGE REQUIRED FOR A CORONAGRAPH. THIS PHASE I SBIR WILL MAKE SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FABRICATION PROCESS OF MEMS SEGMENTED DMS THAT REDUCE THE DELETERIOUS RESIDUAL SURFACE-FIGURE ERRORS. IT WILL DO SO BY SYSTEMATICALLY ADDRESSING THE SOURCES OF THE SEGMENT POSITION VARIATIONS AS WELL AS ADDRESSING LOW-SPATIAL FREQUENCY CHIP BOW THAT CAN RESULT IN LARGE PEAK-TO-VALLEY DEFORMATIONS ACROSS THE DM ARRAY. THE IRIS AO DM ARCHITECTURE WILL ALSO BE MODIFIED TO ENABLE PICOMETER RESOLUTION ACTUATION WITH ULTRA-PRECISION DRIVE ELECTRONICS.

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• $35,000 - Thursday the 22nd of May 2014
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
  SMART DRIVER II-512 CHANNEL HIGH SPEED ELECTRONICS FOR MEMS DEFORMABLE MIRROR. FREIGHT.

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• $220,016 - Monday the 27th of October 2014
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA HEADQUARTERS
  IGF::OT::IGF OTHER FUNCTIONS: NRA AWARD MANY OF THE CORONAGRAPHS BEING STUDIED AND DEVELOPED FOR SPACE-BASED EXOPLANET DETECTION RELY ON MICROELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEM (MEMS) DEFORMABLE MIRRORS (DM) TO CONTROL OPTICAL WAVEFRONTS AT PICOMETER LEVELS. FAILURE OF EVEN A SINGLE DM ACTUATOR COULD RENDER THE CORONAGRAPH USELESS BECAUSE OF THE STRINGENT CONTRAST REQUIREMENTS. DESPITE THIS, RELATIVELY LITTLE EFFORT HAS BEEN DIRECTED TOWARDS ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING OF MEMS MIRRORS FOR SPACE QUALIFICATION. ATTENDING TO MEMS DM FLIGHT QUALIFICATION IS ESSENTIAL TO FURTHER ADVANCING THE TRL OF CORONAGRAPHS IN GENERAL. THE FIRST MILESTONE FOR THIS RESEARCH IS TO DEVELOP FEM MODELS OF EXISTING IRIS AO DM DESIGNS AND VALIDATE THEM WITH MEASURED DATA FROM AN APPROPRIATE SAMPLE OF DMS. EARLY IN THE RESEARCH, A SET OF DMS WILL BE DESTRUCTIVELY TESTED AND THE FAILURES WILL BE CORRELATED WITH THE VALIDATED FEM MODEL. ALSO, THE MIRRORS WILL BE TESTED FOR SHOCK AND ACOUSTIC LOADS OVER A FLIGHT ENVELOPE OF TYPICAL LAUNCH VEHICLES TO ASSESS ANY POTENTIAL WEAKNESSES IN THE DESIGNS THAT COULD RESULT IN FAILURES DURING LAUNCH. THE FEM STUDIES AND TESTING HERE WILL BE FOCUSED ON THE IRIS AO DM TECHNOLOGY AND ITS USE IN THE VNC.

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