Raydiance Awarded $500,000 for Phase II Contract with Naval Air Warfare Center

PETALUMA, Calif.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Raydiance, Inc., the world’s first practical source of ultrafast light, today announced it has been awarded $500,000 for a Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract with the Naval Air Warfare Center (NAVAIR).

“Raydiance is pleased to receive this grant from NAVAIR to further this breakthrough research and tackle the next step in our ‘Moore’s Law’-like path to deliver cheaper, smaller, and more powerful lasers for a wide range of applications”

The funding will support continued development of a novel fiber technology for delivering high power Ultrashort Pulse (USP), or “ultrafast,” lasers over fiber in multiple NAVAIR applications. These include LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), ECM (electronic countermeasures), explosives detection, exotic materials machining and others.

“Raydiance is pleased to receive this grant from NAVAIR to further this breakthrough research and tackle the next step in our ‘Moore’s Law’-like path to deliver cheaper, smaller, and more powerful lasers for a wide range of applications,” said Raydiance co-founder and President Scott Davison. “The development of a fiber that can transmit the high power of ultrafast pulses to any material is an extreme challenge but one we are confident we can achieve."

Raydiance recently completed Phase I of the STTR, for which the company was awarded $100,000. During a collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), it successfully demonstrated for the first time the feasibility of using flexible, short length fibers to compress and then deliver extremely high peak power pulses in a compact ultrafast laser platform. This technological breakthrough, as it is reduced to practice, will obviate the need for free-space optics in the creation and delivery of ultrafast laser signals and promises to open up a wide array of both military and commercial opportunities.

In Phase II, Raydiance is working with the Photonic Bandgap Fibers & Devices Group at MIT to improve the capabilities, form factor, weight and cost of ultrafast lasers by integrating this novel fiber technology into commercial and military systems. The objective is to advance ultrafast performance to a level at which these lasers can be integrated into many critical Navy missions as well as into multiple lucrative commercial markets. Commercial applications potentially include next generation Lasik, minimally invasive surgery, advanced manufacturing and even port security.

Earlier this year, Raydiance demonstrated the highest pulse energy ever achieved in a fiber laser at the eye-safe wavelength of 1552 nanometers. The milestone was reached as part of a multi-million dollar research and development contract with the U.S. Department of the Navy. And in keeping with its Moore’s Law approach to ultrafast technology, Raydiance recently released its second generation commercial platform just 18 months after its first with more than double the pulse energy, a dramatically shorter pulse and enhanced applications software capabilities.

About Raydiance

Raydiance is the world’s first practical source of ultrafast light, a breakthrough technology platform that harnesses the incredible power and precision of ultrashort pulse (USP), or “ultrafast,” lasers and makes it easily accessible for the development of revolutionary new applications across a broad range of industries. Built on an architectural framework that leverages the billions invested in broadband communications, microelectronics and software development, the Raydiance Discovery system delivers a compact, reliable and intelligent ultrafast platform with state of the art computing and software controls. Raydiance is led by Barry Schuler, former CEO of AOL. For more information, please visit www.Raydiance-Inc.com.