Apr 13 2010
The U.S. Navy will provide an additional funding valued $786,000 to Ionfinity, a security technology company and a subsidiary of the alternate energy company VIASPACE, for a contract awarded earlier.
According to a notification received from the U.S. Navy by Ionfinity, the Navy has exercised an option for the provision of the funding for an extra duration of development for 18 months for which the company has received $492,000 as initial payment. So far, the total award received by Ionfinity under this Navy contract is $1,278,000.
The Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program of the U.S. Navy had awarded the Miniature Electronic Sniffer for Navy Vertical Take off Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (VTUAVs) project to Ionfinity. In this project, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA, Sionex, Caltech, and Imaginative Technologies, VIASPACE and Ionfinity are collaborating on the development of small-sized, sensitive sniffer sensor.
This sniffer sensor is in the form of a stand-alone and compact chemical detection gadget. The sensor incorporates a micro-gas chromatograph unit for better confirmation and detection capability, and a powerful detector that is known as the differential mobility spectrometer. The sensor has adopted a non-radioactive ionization technique that does not ionize multiply or fragment the specimens that are sampled. This gadget will able to detect particular chemicals at trace quantities as low as parts per billion in less than 5 s.
James Weiss, CEO at Ionfinity, explained that this sensor can be used for security industry, as well as commercial applications related to the medicine, agricultural, and environmental monitoring.
Source: http://www.viaspace.com