Contact Jerry Pignolet, Power
Marketing/Public Relations, at 440-527-0446.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CLEVELAND
– November 28, 2006 – Teraphysics Corporation has been selected
to receive a $200,000 supplemental contract from the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to further development
of a terahertz signal source for compact and portable concealed
weapons detection systems. The DARPA funds are a Phase Ib
contract from its Terahertz Imaging Focal-plane Technology
(TIFT) program and are provided to supplement a $750,000 Phase
II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contract already in
place.
In addition, Teraphysics also received
$780,000 in contracts this summer from the Army Research Office
(ARO) to initiate the development of a higher power terahertz
signal source. Under both the DARPA and ARO contracts
Teraphysics will develop a type of vacuum electron device known
as a backward wave oscillator. The ARO contracts, which utilize
a different device design, are Phase I Option and Phase II SBIR
contracts.
Citing the unprecedented efficiency and
power of Teraphysics’ backward wave oscillator designs, the
defense agencies are coordinating funding to expedite the
introduction of promising technology into the field, according
to Dev Palmer, PhD, program manager for electromagnetics
and radio frequency circuit integration projects at the ARO
office in Research Park Triangle, North Carolina.
“The Department of Defense has been
pursuing terahertz technology for many years,” Palmer said. “To
our knowledge, no one else is close to a signal source of this
power and efficiency. Teraphysics’ staff sat down and considered
how to build our target capability from scratch. They’ve gotten
around many limitations of existing approaches.”
Teraphysics President Gerald Mearini, PhD,
said the company expects to demonstrate a working prototype of a
0.65 terahertz backward wave oscillator to DARPA by spring. The
DARPA supplemental funding will expedite the development of the
prototype and enable the investigation of alternate
manufacturing engineering considerations.
“An additional $200,000 in DARPA
supplemental funds will go toward collaborating with experts in
laboratory-grown nano-diamond at the Naval Research Laboratory
in Washington D.C.,”
Mearini said.
Since 2002, Teraphysics has received 12
development contracts worth $4 million from seven government
agencies. Four are SBIR Phase II contracts.
ABOUT THE COMPANY
Cleveland, Ohio-based Teraphysics
Corporation (www.teraphysics.com)
develops powerful, efficient and compact devices that operate in
millimeter frequencies and the sub-millimeter terahertz band,
the only commercially untapped portion of the electro-magnetic
spectrum.
