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Advanced Photonix Inc. Announces Phase III T-Ray 4000 System Sale

Ann Arbor-based Advanced Photonix Inc. (NYSE Amex: API) Thursday announced that the Naval Undersea Warfare Center purchased a T-Ray 4000 terahertz ray generator from API  subsidiary Picometrix LLC, to be used for research and testing applications.

The purchase was made via a Phase III contract which is a continuation from prior SBIR contracts. A Phase III contract gives preference to companies involved in related development previously funded under the SBIR program.

The NUWC is a shore command of the U.S. Navy within the Naval Sea Systems Command Warfare Center Enterprise. NUWC engineers, builds and supports America's fleet of ships and combat systems. It is the Navy's premier research, development, test and evaluation, engineering, and Fleet support center for submarine warfare systems and other systems associated with the undersea battlespace. NUWC activities include the test and evaluation of submarines, autonomous underwater systems, as well as offensive and defensive weapon systems associated with undersea warfare and related areas of homeland security and national defense.

"This represents yet another sale into the research market and has the potential to lead to future sales for quality and process control applications," said Richard Kurtz, CEO of API. "This sale utilized a Phase III contract, which is not only a fast and simplified government procurement tool, but also permits us to be sole sourced. Our long history of SBIR contracts favorably positions us for future government sales of our terahertz systems using the Phase III contracting vehicle."

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 security checkpoints, because it can see through clothing and even the top layers of human flesh — but it doesn't pack the damaging, ionizing punch of X-rays.

Advanced Photonix offers optoelectronic products to a global customer base -- optoelectronics, high-speed optical receivers and terahertz instrumentation for telecom, homeland security, military, medical and industrial markets.

More at www.advancedphotonix.com.

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