PSI SBIR Commercialization History

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) develops advanced technologies for the aerospace, industrial, energy, telecommunications, environmental, manufacturing and medical markets. Our corporate headquarters is located in Andover, MA, with branch offices in Alexandria, VA and San Ramon, CA. PSI is a high technology company with twenty-nine years of experience in contract research and development, having expertise encompassing optics, electronics, materials, mechanics and chemistry, together with the interdisciplinary fields of photonics and optoelectronics, electro mechanics, electrochemistry, and materials. Our broad R&D capabilities regularly lead to new technological developments which we bring to the commercial marketplace via technology transfer to product firms. PSI has co-developed many proprietary products and services in collaboration with corporate partners.

The SBIR program has played a pivotal role in helping PSI develop significant technological advances. These advances have resulted in families of products based on proprietary photonic, electromechanical and materials technologies that have been introduced to the world marketplace.

PSI employs several strategies to commercialize technologies developed under the SBIR program, depending on the nature of the market for products based on the technologies:

• The U.S. Government is the primary user of many of our defense and aerospace technologies. PSI provides follow-on services and products to the appropriate Government agencies, either directly or teamed with larger military equipment providers. We frequently address DoD needs in markets too small to sell interest to commercial product companies.
• PSI manufactures and sells products directly to niche markets consisting of low volume sales of specialized products.
• PSI teams with established industrial partners who have the manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution channels to bring products rapidly to significant commercial markets under licensing agreements.
• For revolutionary technologies that offer the opportunity to establish large markets based on totally new product families, PSI works with venture investors to spin out the technology into development stage companies.

PSI is committed to successful transition of SBIR-developed technologies to meet important needs of defense, aerospace or other sponsoring agencies. Phase III funding for engineering development, technology demonstrations and initial procurement represents a significant source of revenues to PSI. Significant examples include:

• PSI's Advanced Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AIRIS) is undergoing extensive field trials for standoff detection of chemical agents, with the potential for a significant military deployment.
• Our Individual Chemical Alarm System (ICAS) employing conductive polymer sensors for detection of chemical warfare agents and toxic industrial compounds underwent an Active Concept Technology Demonstration program with $2.7 million of Phase III joint funding from the military services.
• We have developed several spacecraft instrumentation packages for DoD and NASA missions to monitor spacecraft environments and related materials effects, including the SAMMES ( Space Active Modular Materials Experiment) package currently performing on the MDA STRV-II satellite.
• Our FAST oxygen atom technology, developed under SBIR funding to meet a need for testing materials for low Earth orbit applications enabled a testing service used to evaluate literally thousands of materials. Three FAST atom facilities are now operational with government agencies in Europe and Japan. The technology has also been used by DoD in evaluating re-entry/exo-atmospheric plume signatures.
• PSI's Aviation Fuel Monitor for monitoring contaminants in aircraft carrier fuel is about to undergo Phase III demonstration testing at sea.

The company sells a variety of specialty instrumentation to industrial and research laboratory customers. PSI has sold units of our Water Scan™ tunable diode laser absorption spectrometers (TDLAS) for non-intrusive measurement of specific gaseous compounds in challenging environments, representing $ in sales. Product and service combinations resulting from SBIR projects include the FAST Atom Testing Services and Aerospace Measurement Services, which have contributed over $ 7.4 million to company sales. A bourgeoning business providing aerospace instrumentation for Japanese industrial customers has evolved from previous success in SBIR-funded aerospace research.

PSI has established strategic partnerships with a wide range of commercial companies, typically involving licensing agreements wherein our partner develops and markets products based on PSI's SBIR-developed technologies. American AirLiquide, for example, is developing instruments incorporating PSI's TDLAS instrumentation for multiple combustion and chemical process control applications. PSI is developing an advanced retinal tracking system in conjunction with Optical Coherence Tomography instruments offered by Zeiss Humphrey Instruments. PSI's microwave-driven plasma source has several applications within the semiconductor manufacturing industry, and we are collaborating with Directed Energy Inc. and International Oil Field Consultants, Inc. to commercialize this important technology. Our spark-induced breakdown spectroscopy (SIBS) trace-metal detection technology has attracted the attention of a leading Massachusetts-based instrumentation company. We are also developing a laser based methane leak detector in collaboration with Heath Consultants Inc. This technology is now in product engineering and should find widespread use with natural gas utilities.

PSI has created focused spin-out companies and secured significant outside investment in cases where a new SBIR technology offers the potential of generating substantial revenues in emerging markets. Inspired by the SpectraTemp® continuous temperature monitor, used primarily by the power industry, and the EmiLith® lithotripsy instrument, for treating kidney stones. We raised over $8 million venture investment to create, respectively, Spectrum Diagnostix (SDX) and PSI Medical Products. SDX developed and manufactured continuous on-line instrumentation for environmental compliance and chemical process control using SpectraTemp® temperature monitor and SpectrScan™ trace gas analyzers. A major commercial success for PSI was the sale of SDx to Bovar Western Research in 1996 (in 1998 Bovar sold Western Research to Ametek Inc.) Quite recently PSI raised $11 million in venture capital to fund Confluent Photonics Corp., a PSI spin-out that is developing key optical switching products for the telecommunication industry.