Monolithic Fiber Array Launcher
Established in 1963, the R&D 100 Awards is the only S&T (science and technology) awards competition that recognizes new commercial products, technologies and materials for their technological significance that are available for sale or license. The R&D 100 Awards have long been a benchmark of excellence for industry sectors as diverse as telecommunications, high-energy physics, software, manufacturing, and biotechnology. This 2021 R&D 100 winner is listed below, along with its respective category.
Category: IT/Electrical
Developers: MIT Lincoln Laboratory MIT Lincoln Laboratory
United States
Product Description:Fiber arrays are used for constructing optical phased-array lasers, which are used in high-power industrial applications and beam steering for lidar. We have developed and built an all-glass, monolithic fiber array that is smaller and more robust than standard arrays.
Developers: MIT Lincoln Laboratory MIT Lincoln Laboratory
United States
Product Description:Fiber arrays are used for constructing optical phased-array lasers, which are used in high-power industrial applications and beam steering for lidar. We have developed and built an all-glass, monolithic fiber array that is smaller and more robust than standard arrays.
Figure 1: Traditional fiber array launchers are composed of many different components. The monolithic fiber array launcher combines the functionality of all these components into a single piece of glass that occupies 1/10 th of the volume for the same number of channels, significantly increasing the robustness of such a device.