SYLMAR, Calif., 27 April 2007.The U.S. Navy has awarded QPC Lasers Inc. (QPC) two contracts totaling $1 million to deliver high-energy laser engine prototypes for naval aviation directed-energy weapons applications.
The QPC laser prototypes are being developed for potential deployment onto naval aviation platforms and utilize QPC's patented and proprietary semiconductor laser technologies which are designed to achieve a 10x reduction of cost, size, and weight compared to conventional laser technology.
The concurrent nine-month contracts build upon the company's previous high-brightness chip-based laser development for the U.S. Navy, as well as for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. Army, the Missile Defense Agency, and the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
The contracts leverage three of QPC's proprietary and patented technologies:
-- Low-cost high-power surface-emitting lasers (HPSEL) technology. The HPSEL technology enables QPC to place hundreds of high-brightness lasers onto a single chip.
-- Rugged military fiber-coupled module production capability designed for reliable operation in demanding military environments applications.
-- BrightLase high-power, high-brightness lasers which are designed to produce laser beams more than 10 times brighter than conventional semiconductor lasers used in industrial and medical applications.
