United States - TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OPPORTUNITY: Fiber-Optic Sensing and Characterization Portfolio (LAR-TOPS-213)

Description

Added: Jul 29, 2019 10:55 am

NASA's Technology Transfer Program solicits inquiries from companies interested in obtaining license rights to commercialize, manufacture and market the following technology.  License rights may be issued on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis and may include specific fields of use.  NASA provides no funding in conjunction with these potential licenses.

THE TECHNOLOGY:

NASA Langley Research Center has developed a portfolio of technologies for distributed fiber-optic strain sensing, distributed Rayleigh scatter sensing, and related characterization technologies.  The primary application for these technologies is for down-hole sensing in the petrochemical industry.  Other applications include structural, aerospace, and medical sensing. The characterization technologies, in addition to supporting the sensing technologies, have applications in the telecommunications market.

This portfolio of technologies includes fiber-optic sensor and fiber-optic device characterization technologies.  The sensors include the Distributed Fiber-Optic Strain Sensor (DFOSS) (US 5,798,521) technology and the supporting technology, Edge Triggered Apparatus for Measuring Strain in Bragg Gratings (US 6,566,648), which go together as a system.  The DFOSS system allows precise strain sensing at hundreds of positions along a sensing fiber.

In addition, NASA has patented the Distributed Rayleigh Scatter Sensor (DRFOSS) technology (US 6,545,760), which also provides strain sensing at many points along a sensing fiber. DRFOSS determines strain from scattering within the fiber itself as opposed to DFOSS, which relies on low reflectance fiber Bragg gratings.  Both DFOSS and DRFOSS offer new approaches to distributed strain sensing with much higher sensor counts than state-of-the-art systems.  DRFOSS, however, offers an alternate approach to prior art for oil field down-hole sensing.  These NASA fiber-optic technologies also have utility for distributed strain sensing in petrochemical, civil structure, and aerospace applications.

The characterization portion of this technology portfolio includes the High Precision Wavelength Monitor (US 6,426,496), which enables very precise triggering and laser tracking of the tunable lasers employed in the DFOSS and DRFOSS systems.  NASA also has a patent for a Single Laser Sweep Full SParameter Characterization of Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG) technology (US 6,376,830), which is a dispersion measurement technique that also provides the complete spectral response of a FBG.  These two characterization technologies have applicability in support of the sensor applications as well as in systems that employ tunable lasers or Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBGs). Commercial uses for these technologies exist in fiber-optic test and measurement applications.

To express interest in this opportunity, please submit a license application through NASA's Automated Technology Licensing Application System (ATLAS) by visiting https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/LAR-TOPS-213

If you have any questions, please contact Langley Research Center at LARC-DL-technologygateway@mail.nasa.gov with the title of this Technology Transfer Opportunity as listed in this FBO notice and your preferred contact information.  For more information about licensing other NASA-developed technologies, please visit the NASA Technology Transfer Portal at https://technology.nasa.gov/

These responses are provided to members of NASA's Technology Transfer Program for the purpose of promoting public awareness of NASA-developed technology products, and conducting preliminary market research to determine public interest in and potential for future licensing opportunities.  No follow-on procurement is expected to result from responses to this Notice.

Opportunity closing date

18 July 2020

Value of contract

to be confirmed