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News Subject:
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Two SBIR success stories have been posted to the Electronic Library (see Innovation and Transition success story folders):
GATR Technologies Inc., located in Huntsville, Alabama, developed an antenna system (ground-based inflatable antenna) that supports high-bandwidth satellite communications at equivalent transfer rates to rigid dish systems at 1/16th the package's volume and orders of magnitude less in weight. The GATR antenna is the world’s first Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licensed inflatable satellite antenna. With over 30 units deployed, GATR continues to field units which enable high-bandwidth Internet, phone and data access for deployments and projects in Afghanistan, South Africa, South America, Haiti, and Korea, as well as assisting in humanitarian efforts (hurricane disaster recovery) in the United States. The AFRL Materials & Manufacturing Directorate manages this SBIR project.
Photon-X, LLC, located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, developed a compact radiation-hardened, high-power optical amplifier under a SBIR project managed by the AFRL Directed Energy Directorate. Techniques were engineered by Photon-X to further harden and shield the commercial off-the-shelf rare earth doped fibers for space-based applications, with the radiation-hardened modules providing 2X improvement over commercially available counterparts without any shielding. As a result of the SBIR program, Photon-X now offers a wide range of unique radiation-hardened optical modules for a variety of applications to be deployed in both natural and man-made radiation environments.
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