OBLATE OPTICS INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: A20-044

Description

The weight of conventional refractive optics used in cameras can be too high. Multiple refractive lenses are required to correct for image aberrations (including chromatic aberrations). Oblate Optics has developed a novel approach to replace these multi-lens imaging systems with a single fully-aberrations-corrected flat lens with no compromise in image quality. Furthermore, our lens can be up to 2 orders of magnitude lighter than a comparable refractive lens. Another important advantage of our technology is that when manufactured at volume, their costs can be lower as well. We have demonstrated lenses with high efficiency over very broad bandwidths and at high numerical apertures. We have also demonstrated concatenating two flat lenses for focus adjustment. In this 6-month Phase 1 SBIR base period, Oblate Optics will perform the component and system design for the Army's soldier-borne LWIR camera. In Phase 2 of this project, we will expand the design palette to increase efficiency and field of view, and to reduce imaging aberrations.