LAWRENCE, Mass. - kSARIA Corp. in Lawrence, Mass., won a U.S. Naval Air Systems Command Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase II contract to help accelerate the Navy’s migration to fiber-optic technology in mission-critical aeronautical applications.

The $850,000 contract calls for kSARIA to develop an automated field-service tool designed to deliver dramatic improvements in speed and effectiveness when cleaning multichannel fiber-optic connectors used in harsh military environments.

“The field maintainability of fiber-optic connectors is one of the remaining challenges impeding the widespread implementation of fiber optics in fail-safe Navy applications,” says Michael Hackert, NAVAIR fiber-optics specialist and SBIR evaluation team member.

“This SBIR program is designed to address this challenge by developing a field-service tool for quickly and thoroughly cleaning fiber-optic connectors on the flight line to ensure their integrity and reduce aircraft downtime. We selected kSARIA based on the breadth of its engineering experience and the compelling results of its initial concept for this tool during the Phase I effort.”

Onboard aircraft carriers, a variety of ever-present substances including chemicals, jet fuel, salt spray, antifreeze, and other adhered particulates can contaminate today’s military-grade, multichannel fiber-optic connectors when they are disconnected for servicing.

Failure to remove these substances causes significant signal loss, which renders the connectors virtually inoperable. If left in place, such debris can also scratch the polished end-faces of the optic fibers when they are mated together, which can result in permanent damage that requires field technicians to repair or replace each connector.

“The current method of removing this debris calls for manually inserting an alcohol-soaked, lint-free swab into the blind cavities of a multichannel connector,” says Tony Christopher, vice president of engineering at kSARIA. “Because field technicians can’t see inside these cavities, this cleaning process is highly ineffective. Because they must repeat the swabbing process several times to dislodge the contaminants, always using a new swab at a cost of up to $2 each, the process is time-consuming and costly. In addition, the large number of swabs deployed on the flight deck raises the threat of foreign-object damage (FOD) to the aircraft.”

During the Phase II effort, kSARIA experts will develop a prototype automated, easy-to-use, handheld device that will dramatically improve speed, efficiency, and effectiveness when cleaning multichannel fiber-optic connectors. Designed to remove a wide variety of contaminates, the automated cleaning device will be compatible across the range of connector types common in a military aerospace platform.

Unlike the manually intensive “swab” approach, the new device will eliminate the threat of FOD and require far less training for technicians. Early prototypes of this device are expected for demonstration later in 2006, with future versions planned for 2007, company officials say.

For more information contact kSARIA online at www.ksaria.com