Advanced Photonix Gets Terahertz Development Contract
ANN ARBOR -- Advanced Photonix Inc. (NYSE Amex: API) said Thursday that its Picometrix subsidiary has received a follow-on $600,000 Phase II government contract from NASA for further development of a computed tomography-terahertz scanner accessory designed for inspection of spacecraft and launch vehicle composite structures.
The contract comes under the government's Small Business Technology Transfer program, which encourages small businesses to partner with non-profit research institutions to jointly develop new technologies for commercialization. For this contract Picometrix partnered with the University of Michigan Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department specializing in CT.
The contract encompasses developing a prototype for NASA over 24 months. When complete the CT option will be incorporated in the company's T-Ray product platform. The CT option will include 3-axis motion control and software for creating three-dimensional images of complex aerospace composite structures from terahertz reflected signals. The CT option will enhance the ability to locate and quantify internal structures, regions of damage, porosity, cracking, delaminations, intrusion, and other sub-surface properties where standard reflection imaging is inadequate. The commercial potential of the technology extends well beyond NASA and includes flaw detection, hidden material detection, failure analysis, assembly analysis for automotive, commercial aerospace, homeland security, and other industries.
"This is another example of our long and continuing partnership with NASA," said API president and CEO Richard Kurtz. "In keeping with their tradition of accelerating the adoption of advanced nondestructive testing technologies, NASA has invested over $7 million with us since 2003 to develop terahertz nondestructive testing solutions for the space shuttle and other aerospace applications. The CT option developed under this contract will enhance our ability for imaging complex structures, which will expand our quality and process control in aerospace and industrial markets."
Terahertz radiation, little understood and hard to generate before the 1990s, occupies a space on the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared light. It has potential applications in a wide variety of disciplines, from materials testing to medical diagnostics to security checkpoints, because it can "see through" clothing and other materials -- even the top layers of human flesh — but it doesn't pack the damaging, ionizing punch of X-rays.
Advanced Photonix is a supplier with a broad offering of optoelectronic products to a global customer base. Included optoelectronic systems, high-speed optical receivers and terahertz instrumentation for telecom, homeland security, military, medical and industrial markets.
More at www.advancedphotonix.com.
