PHPG from 10-k:
THIS IS KEY+++
The INRAD crystals and crystal components product lines also include crystalline filter materials, including patent protected materials, that have unique transmission and absorption characteristics that enable them to be used in critical applications in defense systems such as missile warning sensors. Other crystal components, both standard and custom, are used in laser applications research and in commercial laser systems to change the wavelength of laser light.
AND TIES IN WITH THIS PR:
B: PPGI Awarded Key Component Production Contract for AN/AAR-47 M
B: PPGI Awarded Key Component Production Contract for AN/AAR-47 Missile Warning
NORTHVALE, N.J., Apr 8, 2004 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Photonic
Products Group, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: PHPG) announced today that its INRAD
business unit has been awarded a follow-on production contract from ATK Missile
Systems' Clearwater, FL facility for over 1900 ultra violet (UV) waveband
optical filter elements for their upgraded AN/AAR-47 Missile Warning Systems.
ATK Missile Systems, a division of Alliant Techsystems, is the developer and
prime contractor for production of this enhanced performance system for
protection of low and slow-flying aircraft from a variety of missile sources.
The dollar value of the contract was not disclosed.
The enhanced performance AN/AAR-47 system detects missile launches, as well as
laser-guided and laser-aided threats. It employs four sensors per aircraft, each
containing several optical components. While primarily deployed on military
aircraft, the AN/AAR-47 system is as well capable of providing protection for
commercial aircraft. In low-rate production since 2002, this next production
release will provide systems for U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. allies'
aircraft.
The subject ultra-violet filters are specialty optical components made from high
purity and high uniformity single-crystals of a proprietary material which
absorbs all wavelengths except those in the UV region of the electro-magnetic
spectrum. This synthetic crystal material was developed by INRAD expressly for
such applications, has the highest temperature stability and mechanical
stability of any alternative material, and is patented for this end-use. These
filters are a key optical component of airborne electro- optical missile warning
systems. INRAD has been the sole provider of these elements for the present
generation of system for slow-flying aircraft, and had previously produced many
thousands for the prior generation of systems. INRAD as well provides
proprietary UV filters for systems that protect high- speed aircraft.
Dan Lehrfeld, President and CEO of Photonic Products Group commented, "We are
pleased to have been a critical component supplier on ATK's team since the
inception of their system upgrade concept. Our component technology has
contributed, at least in part, to making their new AN/AAR-47 system more robust.
Missile warning systems remain a high funding priority in the Congress, in the
DOD, and increasingly in the Department of Homeland Security. We are proud to be
a critical component supplier of choice for this expanding class of defense
electro-optical systems."
ADD'L INFO...POINT IS THERE ARE VERY FEW COMPANIES IN EXISTENCE THAT HAVE THESE CAPABILITIES ALL WRAPPED UP IN SAME COMPANY....THERE IS MORE IN THE 10K THAN WHAT IS BELOW:
PPGI’s business units’ products continue, at present, to fall into two product categories: optical components (including standard and custom optical components and assemblies, crystals, and crystal components), and laser accessories (including wavelength conversion and waveform metrology products that employ nonlinear crystals to perform the function of wavelength conversion or pulse-width measurement). PPGI expects that in the future its products will also include other product categories. Currently, its optical components product lines and operations are brought to market via two PPGI business units: INRAD and Laser Optics. Laser accessories are brought to market by INRAD.
The Company develops, manufactures and delivers precision custom optics and thin film optical coating services via its Laser Optics business unit. Glass and crystal substrates are processed using modern manufacturing equipment and techniques to prepare and polish substrates, deposit optical thin films, and assemble sub-components, thereby producing optical components used in advanced Photonic systems of many kinds. The majority of custom optical components and optical coating services supplied are used in inspection and process control systems, in defense electro-optical systems, in laser system applications, and in medical system applications.
The Company also currently develops, manufactures, and delivers synthetic crystals, crystal components, and laser accessories via its INRAD business unit. INRAD grows synthetic crystals with electro-optic (EO), non-linear and optical properties for use in both its standard products and custom products. The majority of crystals, crystal components and laser accessories supplied are used in laser system, defense EO system, and in R&D applications.
PPGI’s business units’ current customers include leading companies in the following industries: commercial laser systems, inspection and process control equipment, and defense electro-optics. The Company’s customers also include researchers in industry, in National Laboratories and in universities worldwide.
The “new” Laser Optics provides both standard and custom products. It specializes in the manufacture of optical components, optical coatings (ultra-violet wavelengths through infra-red wavelengths) and subassemblies for military, industrial, process control, photonic instrument, and medical end-use. Planar, prismatic, spherical, and cylindrical components are fabricated from glasses of all kinds and crystals of most kinds, including fused silica, quartz, infra-red materials, calcite, magnesium fluoride, silicon, and yttrium aluminum garnate. Component types include mirrors, lenses, prisms, waveplates, polarizing optics, monochrometers, x-ray mirrors, and cavity optics for lasers.
To meet performance requirements, most optical components and sub-assemblies require thin film coatings on their surfaces. Depending on the design, optical coatings can refract, reflect, or transmit specific wavelengths. Laser Optics coating service specialties include high laser damage resistance, infra-red, polarizing, high reflective, anti-reflective, and coating to complex custom requirements on a wide range of substrate materials. Laser Optics both coats customer furnished components and components it manufactures. Coating deposition process technologies employed included electron beam, thermal, and ion assist.
Laser Pulse Measurement Instruments
The Company markets a line of Autocorrelators that can measure extremely short laser pulses. Accurate measurement and characterization of pulses is important in studies of chemical and biological reactions, as well as in the development of high-speed electronics, ultra fast lasers and laser diodes for communications. Since January 2000, a strategic alliance has been in effect with Angewandte Physik & Electronik, GmbH of Berlin, Germany, to market a product line of five Autocorrelators in the U.S., manufactured by Angewandte Physik & Electronik, GmbH. In 2002, the Company was instrumental in conceptualizing and introducing an OEM Autocorrelator for the medical community, the Carpe, that measures the pulsewidth of ultrafast laser excitation pulses used in Multi-Photon Excitation microscopy right at the surface of the specimen under test and interfaces directly with confocal microscopes.
The other products in the Autocorrelator line include the following:
• PulseCheck-Built-in color graphic display, options for high sensitivity, low rep rate, LabView â interface.
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• PulseScope-All the features of a PulseCheck, plus a spectrometer.
• Mini-Compact, built-in display, femtosecond, picosecond operation.
• Micro-Ultra-compact, wavelength, femtosecond, basic alignment tool for modelocked oscillators. |
