This inaugural column highlights the evolving landscape of Research and Development (R&D) funding in the U.S. defense industrial base for optical components and systems and introduces a new industry-led initiative: the High-Energy Laser Optics Sustainability Platform (HELOS).
R&D Funding Shift and Opportunity
The U.S. government’s approach to R&D funding is undergoing a shift. For the past two decades, significant government funding from DoD, NSF, NIST, and DoE has fueled major infrastructure and development projects, benefiting the Optics and Photonics Industry. This dual-use sector is vital, employing over 200,000 people with over $96 billion in annual revenue, serving markets like defense, space, semiconductor manufacturing, and medicine.
The Transformation:
- Past Focus: Government funding for slow and incremental development.
- New Focus: Government shifting toward procuring already developed products.
This change requires optical systems companies to adapt by increasingly funding their own innovations through Internal Research and Development (IR&D). A key opportunity is leveraging government-built infrastructure, such as the AmeriCOM COM-Lab, which offers a “sandbox environment” for R&D without impacting production lines.
The Defense Precision Optics Consortium (DPOC)
The AmeriCOM Defense Precision Optics Consortium, originally established to disseminate government project information and funding, is proposed to expand its role as a conduit for industry-funded projects.
Key New Initiative: High-Energy Laser Optics Sustainability Platform (HELOS)
The consortium’s first proposed industry-funded effort is the HELOS platform, built at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL).
- Objective: To advance the performance of critical optical components under high laser power illumination by evaluating and studying the origins of coating failure mechanisms using optical material science methodology.
- Relevance: These components are essential for next-generation defense technologies, including:
- Directed Energy
- Fusion
- Hypersonics
- Space Optics
- Free-space Optical Communications
- LiDAR and advanced defense sensing
- Technical Focus: Unlike the AmeriCOM/Optimax ODIS platform, which is a high-throughput QA tool for volume manufacturing, HELOS is focused on advancing the science and technology behind advanced coatings and component failure.
The HELOS facility features a precision 10 kW continuous wave (cw) laser system and a comprehensive suite of diagnostics to investigate the initiating causes of catastrophic or progressive failure of optics and coatings at microscopic, nanoscopic, and even atomic levels.
HELOS Capabilities and Services
The consortium effort, centered around the HELOS platform, is designed to support the nation’s need for next-generation high-performance optics by offering the following activities:
CAPABILITY |
DESCRIPTION |
| Fundamental & Applied Testing | Open studies funded by government agencies (NSF, ARO, AFOSR, ONR, NASA, etc.) and the Consortium to investigate fundamental failure mechanisms. |
| Proprietary Tests | Customized studies for specific fabricators and suppliers of optics/coatings under exclusivity agreements. Offered at-cost to be the preferred solution for performance limits characterization. |
| National Laboratory Programs | Serving as the facility of preference for applied studies of optics degradation and failure initiators in specific environments (e.g., battlefield or aerospace conditions). May require secure conditions. |
| Data Archive and Repository | Accumulation of optical performance data, made available to all Consortium members. |
Industry parties interested in collaboration should contact Professor Martin Richardson at UCF and Justin Sigley at AmeriCOM.
Martin Richardson, Director, Center for Directed Energy, University of Central Florida
4304 Scorpius Street, Orlando, FL 32816-2700, USA
tel: 407. 823. 6819, mobile 407 928 4690
email:mcr@ucf.edu
websites: www.directedenergy@ucf.edu and https://lpl.creol.ucf.edu
Justin Sigley, Chief Scientist, The American Center for Optics Manufacturing
78 Schuyler Baldwin Drive
Fairport, NY 14450
tel: 585. 957. 0653
email: jsigley@americom.org
website: americom.org
Interested in joining DPOC? Let’s talk.
The AmeriCOM Defense Precision Optics Consortium (DPOC) is designed to spark new, mission-critical technologies and help the optics industry respond to the needs of the U.S. military. DPOC members have access to AmeriCOM’s COM-Lab, with state-of-the-art equipment to support projects in the precision optics field, including research and proof-of-concept testing.
Membership in DPOC is open to U.S.-based optics manufacturing companies, academic institutions, and other nonprofit organizations. For an overview of member benefits, visit our Manufacturing Technologies page. To join DPOC, submit this Application Form and a member of the AmeriCOM DPOC team will contact you about next steps. Questions? Contact Mike Pomerantz, Director of Engineering.