Lumera Wins $5.8 Million Contract from DARPA.BOTHELL, Wash. -- Lumera Corporation (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :LMRA LMRA Labor Management Relations Act LMRA Lockheed Martin Recreational Area (Fort Worth, Texas) LMRA Land Mobile Radio Architecture ), an emerging leader in the field of nanotechnology, announced today that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), U.S. government agency administered by the Department of Defense (see Defense, United States Department of). (DARPA DARPA: see Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) The name given to the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency during the 1980s. It was later renamed back to ARPA. ) selected Lumera amongst competing companies to award it a $3.45 million contract which, based on the achievements of certain milestones, will be followed by a $2.43 million contract for a total of $5.8 million. The contract is to build state-of-the-art electro-optic polymer modulators. The scope of the two year multi-phase project involves developing materials with unprecedented electro-optic coefficients, with qualified thermal and photo-stability and processing them into devices. The objective of the project is to provide high performance polymer optical modulators Optical modulators Devices that serve to vary some property of a light beam. The direction of the beam may be scanned as in an optical deflector, or the phase or frequency of an optical wave may be modulated. that are critical in leading-edge defense applications, including terrestrial and satellite RF photonic Dealing with light (photons). See photon and photonics. links and phased array radar. These devices will be manufactured by transitioning recently developed electro-optic polymers into novel device designs to reduce drive voltage and optical loss. The combination of reduced drive voltage and optical loss will enable defense applications that are impractical with currently available optical modulator An optical modulator is a device in which a signal-controlled element is used to modulate a beam of light. See:
"We are very proud to have been selected by DARPA for this important project. The recent advance that Lumera has made on our polymers' electro-optic properties and device design was a key factor in our winning this contract over competition from multi-billion dollar international corporations," said Tom Mino, President and Chief Executive Officer. Overall system efficiency is a crucial consideration for certain power-limited systems. This means that power efficient electro-optic polymer modulators must possess both low drive voltage and low optical loss, while still maintaining a large bandwidth, and being consistent with large-scale manufacturing parameters. Several attempts have been made with limited success. The combination of Lumera's unique proprietary materials and patented device designs has succeeded in achieving lower drive voltages and lower loss. With this project, Lumera will develop enhanced versions of these modulators in scale-up quantities. Dr. Raluca Dinu, Director of Electro-Optics Business Division, added: "The effort required to meet the goals of the DARPA award directly parallel the roadmap for our commercial products. We anticipate that this could generate significant revenues in materials, modulator Modulator Any device or circuit by means of which a desired signal is impressed upon a higher-frequency periodic wave known as a carrier. The process is called modulation. The modulator may vary the amplitude, frequency, or phase of the carrier. devices and systems. Applications for these products are optical components and communication systems, sensing and imaging, and interconnect markets. Recent forecasts predict $400 million in modulator sales by 2010." About Lumera Lumera is a leader in the emerging field of nanotechnology. The company designs proprietary molecular structures and polymer compounds for the bioscience and communications/computing industries, both of which represent large market opportunities. The company also has developed proprietary processes for fabricating such devices. For more information, please visit www.lumera.com. Certain statements contained in this release are forward-looking statements forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the company's forward-looking statements include the following: market acceptance of our technologies and products; our ability to obtain financing; our financial and technical resources relative to those of our competitors; our ability to keep up with rapid technological change; government regulation of our technologies; our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights and protect our proprietary technologies; the ability to obtain additional contract awards and to develop partnership opportunities; the timing of commercial product launches; the ability to achieve key technical milestones in key products; and other risk factors identified from time to time in the company's SEC reports, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K Form 10-K A report required by the SEC from exchange-listed companies that provides for annual disclosure of certain financial information. Form 10-K See 10-K. , and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q Form 10-Q See 10-Q. . |
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