This is a publication of our intent to award the contract for Substates containing high-accuracy liquid-crystal patterns to Color Link Japan Ltd. If no representations are received within 20 days after the publication on Tenderned/TED, we intent to award the contract. For information you can use the message system or the Q&A module. The key liquid-crystal technology that enables this proposed R&D program  was developed within the Geometric-phase Photonics Lab at North Carolina  State University (PI Dr. Michael Escuti), and its spin-off company  ImagineOptix. In particular, they have obtained patents on the  direct-write technology (EP2906974B1 / US9690026B2) that is crucial to  manufacture virtually any phase pattern with high accuracy, and on the  self-aligning multi-twist retarder approach (EP2764402A4 / US9298041B2)  that is crucial to minimize polarization leakage over large spectral  bandwidths while maintaining pattern accuracy. Over the last 10 years,  the Leiden/NOVA group, in collaboration with NCSU/ImagineOptix, have  introduced these technologies to astronomy, designing, manufacturing,  testing and commissioning coronagraphic (and other) optical components  based on broadband patterned liquid-crystals at several ground-based  telescopes. In 2019, the NCSU GPL group was disbanded, and all activities and  patents transferred to ImagineOptix. In 2021, ImagineOptix was bought  and fully absorbed by Meta (previously known as Facebook), and all of  its public services were terminated. Recently, an exclusive license deal  was signed between Meta and ColorLink Japan that provides the latter  company with exclusive access to the aforementioned patents for  commercial use in application areas that include astronomy and remote  sensing. Hence, ColorLink Japan has become our single-source supplier  for substates containing high-accuracy liquid-crystal patterns based on  MTR broadband coatings, which constitute essential sub-components for  our proposed project. To the best of our knowledge, two other companies sell custom optics  based on patterned retarders: BeamCo and Thorlabs. However, neither of  these companies have access to the key technologies (direct-write and  MTR) that are required to attain the pattern accuracy and polarization  leakage spectral properties that are necessary to attain the extreme  coronagraphic performance objectives that we foresee.