November 1, 2006 

The IRIS™ 1000 is a tunable laser system that provides high purity single longitudinal and transverse mode laser light in the signature C-H, N-H, and O-H stretching regions of the middle infrared. Traditionally, this region has only been accessible with either cryogenic lead-salt diode lasers or complex and expensive OPO-based systems, both of which have significant drawbacks. The IRIS™ 1000 thus provides the first low cost, turnkey solution for generating tunable laser light in this important spectral region, which is presently not accessible using emerging quantum cascade (QC) laser devices.

The cryogen-free IRIS™ laser system features tunability in the 3.3 micron region, with external modulation capability for spectroscopic applications. The system features output powers in the 100W to mW level, which is more than adequate for gas sensing applications. The system includes a compact, remote laser head with a built-in copropagating visible alignment laser, an on-board touch screen computer interface, and built-in Ethernet capability for remote control. The IRIS™ platform is designed to provide frequency agility for the end-user, with an signal (DFB) laser access panel that enables the user to rapidly generate new wavelengths. A single laser head can access approximately 100cm-1 using a few off-the-shelf DFB lasers, while a second head can also be added to provide an additional 100cm-1 of coverage. The system produces linewidths of a few MHz with mode-hop free tuning, circumventing many of the drawbacks of the previous laser technologies that are capable of accessing the middle infrared. “

The capabilities of IRIS™ 1000 bring new and powerful opportunities to a much broader customer base than previous middle infrared lasers, which have required the use of cryogens or are simply too complex for many end-users”, said James J. Scherer, NovaWave’s President and CEO. “The Iris™1000 is a turnkey solution that will have immediate applications for high resolution molecular spectroscopy, gas sensing, metrology, and chemical analysis. We specifically designed the system with the spectroscopist in mind. Having spent many years ourselves working with cumbersome middle infrared lasers, we wanted to provide a unique solution that leveraged the significant benefits from existing telecom-derived solid state lasers, such as room-temperature operation, long lifetime, and ease of use. The IRIS DFG platform translates these attributes into the middle infrared region, thereby enabling the researcher to focus more on research than the lasers themselves”, states Dr. Scherer. “We have combined our expertise in non-linear optical materials, diode and fiber lasers, and spectroscopy to produce the IRIS platform, which we will continue to extend to new wavelength regions. Our goal is to eventually employ these lasers in turnkey sensor platforms as well as provide OEM versions to other end-users”, states Dr. Scherer. “We are very excited about this new technology, and are convinced that it will enable many new applications in the desirable middle infrared”.

The IRIS 1000 is presently configured for operation in the 3.2-3.5 micron spectral region, while work is also underway to extend this tuning range to include other important middle infrared regions.

Second Quarter CY 2005 

NovaWave Technologies (Redwood City, CA) has recently reached the $1M milestone for commercial product sales, comprising a combination of specialty optical components and diagnostic instruments. “Since founding of the company, we have been focused on gaining early market traction in parallel with our R&D incubation projects, so achieving the $1M milestone two years after setting up operations is very rewarding for us”, states James Scherer, NovaWave’s President and CEO. “Our goal is to significantly grow commercial revenues in the next few years, and we believe that we will achieve this as our numerous R&D programs move into commercialization and production phases. We have assembled a first-rate, seasoned engineering and product development team to work to this end, and are very excited about our new products coming down the pipe.”

NovaWave expects to hit sales targets primarily in its laser and chemical sensor technologies, culminating its stepwise commercialization strategy to offer complete, integrated sensor solutions. According to Dr. Joshua Paul, NovaWave’s Vice President and CTO, “We decided since founding the company to focus on solving some critical problems related to core laser technologies, and are now beginning to see the fruits of our labor as functional prototypes show great promise for full scale commercialization. NovaWave’s core competencies in laser technologies and laser-based sensing methods are coalescing to provide unique sensor platforms that we believe will outperform existing technologies, opening up a vast array of applications and markets”. NovaWave is now developing refined sensor systems at the pre-production prototype level, and anticipates launching its first integrated sensors in CY2006. The company also plans to launch novel laser subsystems in early CY2006, primarily as R&D tools for the broader scientific community.

October 20, 2005

NovaWave Technologies (Redwood City, CA) has recently been selected for a NASA SBIR Phase II contract that will focus on the development of a precise and accurate CO2 sensor for atmospheric monitoring applications. The sensor leverages NovaWave’s success in developing non-cryogenic infrared laser sources that are spectrally pure, wavelength agile, and compact. “The need for accurate, real-time greenhouse gas sensors is acute, yet such systems must achieve an absolute accuracy of better than one part in 1000 to be of much use for quantitative monitoring, which presents a formidable challenge”, according to Dr. Joshua Paul, NovaWave’s Vice President. “During Phase I, we demonstrated an accuracy level consistent with this need using a breadboard apparatus, which exhibited some long-term drift issues. We are confident that the refined Phase II version will address these problems, resulting in an environmentally robust sensor that can be reliably used in quantitative atmospheric studies. The potential to further refine the sensor for autonomous field sensing is enormous, and will be our focus as we re-engineer the core subsystems to be more robust.”

The Phase II prototype will ultimately be delivered and installed at NASA AMES, in Mountain View, CA, where it will be used for laboratory as well as potentially flight studies. NovaWave envisions Phase III versions that could be used, for example, in the Ameriflux distributed sensor network, potentially leading to significant sales. According to Dr. James Scherer, NovaWave’s CEO, “The cross-cutting nature of the sensor platform enables it to be adapted for numerous real-time sensing applications, ranging from homeland defense to clinical diagnostics. Additionally, we are presently working on a commercial version of the core laser subsystem, which will provide a turnkey tool for spectroscopists across many disciplines. This laser will constitute the first commercial system of its kind that we are aware of, providing users with enormous frequency agility at a very competitive price point”. NovaWave will focus on constructing and extensively testing the sensor during the Phase II program in order to hit the accuracy targets for the sensor over a range of environmental conditions, thereby enhancing the effort to produce autonomous commercial versions.

October 1, 2005

NovaWave Technologies (Redwood City, CA) has recently been awarded an NSF SBIR Phase II Research Grant worth approximately $500K to develop a novel, ultrasensitive explosives sensor based on the company’s new, fiber-based laser system. The two-year program will first focus on demonstrating a new rapid scan laser technology, followed by integration of this source with an ultrasensitive spectroscopic method. “We see the potential to either enhance or replace existing Ion Mobility Spectroscopy (IMS)-based systems with this new technology, and have targeted specific screening applications for initial development”, states Dr. James Scherer, NovaWave’s President and CEO. “If the program achieves all of its goals, we will have developed an explosives sensor capable of detecting sub-picogram levels of the most common classes of explosives, as well as have demonstrated a powerful new laser technology that can be leveraged for other sensor applications.”

The follow-on Grant to the Phase I project, wherein the fundamental core technologies of the sensor were demonstrated, will comprise prototype construction and possible testing alongside established sensors, working closely with an industry leader in explosives detection systems. “We seek to compare our approach directly with established sensors in order to compare performance as well as identify possible orthogonal sensing capabilities, which could significantly enhance systems presently deployed in the field”, states Dr. Scherer. “We have received great interest from industry in this project, and are establishing industry partnerships that will foster the rapid transition of our technology into the marketplace if successfully developed during Phase II.” NovaWave is optimistic that the project will lead to an autonomous sensor with no consumables that can screen for explosives in a timescale of a few seconds, thereby enabling the technology to be used for passenger and cargo screening applications.

October 1, 2005 

We have spent a great deal of time demonstrating the core technologies employed in both of these projects, and are thrilled that the Army has recognized the potential for highly selective and sensitive sensors based on these platforms,” states Dr. Stephen Holler, Director of R&D. “In both projects, the impact on existing monitoring systems presently in use for homeland defense could be significant, resulting in widespread use of the technology.” The two-year programs are anticipated to begin by the end of 2005, while interim period “option” funding has begun to bridge the gaps in funding between Phase I and Phase II. “Our focus during the programs will be to demonstrate the core sensor technologies as well as iron out issues related to manufacturing the systems on a larger scale,” states Dr. Scherer, NovaWave’s CEO. “In some applications, our ultimate goal is to insert these technologies into existing Government sensor procurements as possible ‘upgrade’ technologies, working with larger Government Primes for integration, distribution, and support. These SBIR projects include tests at facilities such as Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Edgewood MD, where the efficacy on real agents can be put to the test in a safe manner.”

NovaWave hopes to subsequently commercialize the technologies and secure additional funding to focus on issues including sensor refinement, design for manufacture, and developing specific embodiments for early market penetration in clinical applications.

September 1, 2005 

NovaWave Technologies (Redwood City, CA) has recently been awarded two Missile Defense Agency (MDA) SBIR Phase II Research Grants with a combined value of approximately $1.5M to develop diagnostic systems primarily for the Airborne Laser (ABL) program. The projects leverage the company’s innovations in cavity-enhanced technologies for optical health monitoring and gas sensing on board ABL’s Boeing 747 platform. The two year programs focus on refining both cavity ringdown (CRD) as well as integrated cavity output spectroscopy (ICOS)-based systems as autonomous sensors for long-term monitoring of vital ABL subsystems. “

We are very excited about both of these programs as we see an opportunity to address significant monitoring problems in the ABL while enhancing our ongoing work on developing deployable, ruggedized sensor platforms”, states Dr. James Scherer, NovaWave’s CEO and President. “The challenging ABL environment requires that we carefully engineer and thoroughly characterize sensor performance under a range of environmental conditions, which will be simulated during the programs using our recently acquired environmental chambers. We expect to learn a lot during these tests about ruggedizing our optical sensor platforms to survive in real-world conditions, which is highly symbiotic with our broader commercialization goals to develop autonomous sensors for field applications.” Both programs will comprise developing, delivering, and testing prototype systems at Government facilities, where additional testing will determine the suitability of the sensors for integration into the ABL program. In addition to ABL applications, it is anticipated that the technology will be suitable for a broad range of sensing applications, including Homeland Defense and environmental monitoring.

  September 1, 2005

NovaWave Technologies (Redwood City, CA) has secured two Department of Energy SBIR Phase II Research Grants with a total value of approximately $1.5M to develop gas sensors based on the company’s novel infrared laser technology. The projects leverage the company’s development of an all-solid state, room temperature, widely tunable middle infrared laser system that produces single transverse mode, single frequency laser light at the mW level. “We are excited about the potential for enabling commercial laser products based on these two projects, and will focus on transitioning our infrared laser platform from the lab to the marketplace as a parallel effort to the two programs” states Dr. James Scherer, President and CEO of NovaWave. According to Dr. Scherer, “Our laser system will constitute the worlds first turnkey, widely tunable infrared laser product of its kind, providing a new tool for high resolution spectroscopy in the middle infrared, with a price point that assures significant market penetration.”

The frequency agile nature of the new laser “engine” to be developed during the programs enables numerous chemical species to be detected via their distinct spectroscopic signatures in the “fingerprint” middle infrared spectral region, creating the opportunity for a wide range of commercial applications for the technology. “Our core laser platform offers an immediate solution to the problem of previously obtaining a rugged, truly single mode, room temperature laser system suitable for high resolution spectroscopic applications”, states Dr. Scherer. “The ability to access the middle infrared precludes the need in many cases to employ less robust, ‘ultrasensitive’ spectroscopic methods, as transition strengths for chemical targets are significantly stronger in this spectral region.”

The two year DoE programs will focus on refining the new laser technology for turnkey absorption-based environmental sensing applications such as greenhouse gas and pollution monitoring. NovaWave plans to release a commercial version of the infrared laser system subcomponent in early 2006, and has already sold several beta version laser systems, which constitute a new versatile, turnkey spectroscopic tool for the broader R&D community. The complete sensor system will subsequently be refined for dedicated sensing applications that require extended, autonomous operation.

August 1, 2005

NovaWave Technologies (Redwood City, CA) has expanded its operations to include an additional 11,000 square foot state-of-the-art R&D and manufacturing facility in the Redwood Shores area of the Silicon Valley. The new facility is located at 900 Island Drive, approximately one-half mile from its 230 Twin Dolphin Drive facility. “The new facility was recently built-to-order to accommodate our expanding operations, significantly increasing our ability to seamlessly grow our commercial as well as R&D business sectors”, states Dr. James Scherer, NovaWave’s President and CEO. “We are now in the process of hiring a number of new staff to round out our technical as well as support team, with special emphasis on putting together a top-notch engineering team to transition prototypes into innovative commercial products.”

The new facility includes high power laser and electronics laboratories, product test, assembly, and validation areas, and class 100 and 1000 clean rooms. “A key feature of our new facility is the potential to grow contiguously as operations expand, providing as much as 40,000 sq. ft. of additional space as needed to accommodate our rapidly growing business,” according to Dr. Scherer. “This, together with the ability and willingness of the owners (Peery-Arrillaga) to build a modern, turnkey facility to our specification were the primary drivers for site selection.” NovaWave anticipates significant additional expansion of operations at the new site in the near future based on projected business revenues, which have more than tripled in the last two years.