Critical Frequency Design Receives Phase I Grant from U.S. Army
Melbourne, Fla. (August 31, 2020) – Anyone serving in battlefield understands the difficulty of communication between soldiers. RF frequencies are often crowded. Satellite radios are dependent on terrain.
And, communications on both of those devices are easily intercepted by enemy combatants.
The U.S. Army is hoping Critical Frequency Design will be able to develop a solution for each of those issues in one device.
As such, the Army awarded the Melbourne-based optical communications company a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR). The initial phase is for $150,000. With successful completion of phase I, the company is eligible to move to phase II and $750,000.
“We are pleased to be partnering with the Army to develop these communication solutions,” said Rebecca Warren, CEO, Critical Frequency Design. “Our team brings together top researchers and industry leading professionals with full lifecycle management experience, which uniquely positions Critical Frequency Design to rapidly develop state-of-the-art products.”
The key to the development is utilizing a next-generation Free Space Optical (FSO) transceiver to provide high throughput and secure communications – both voice and text – between dismounted soldiers.
Specifically, Critical Frequency Design is making Free Space Optical communications more practical by reducing the size, weight, complexity, and cost per link.
A key enabling feature will be the use of Critical Frequency Design’s unique approach to non-mechanical beam steering — as the position of the Free Space Optical links changes, the lasers will stay pointed in the right direction, even at high speeds.
This activity will be led by Critical Frequency Design’s Chief Engineer Dr. Micah Jenkins, a world-renowned optics and photonics engineer with three patents and twenty-four publications.
“With the advancements in using optics for communications, we believe we are about to change how our troops communicate in the battlefield,” Jenkins says. “By making communication more reliable and more secure, we will be saving lives.”
# # #
For more information media should contact –
Critical Frequency Design: Rebecca Warren, 321-987-5369, rwarren@criticalfrequency.com or Johnathen Warren, 321-987-5272, jwarren@criticalfrequency.com
UCF Business Incubation Program: Carol Ann Dykes Logue, 407-635-9882, carolann.dykeslogue@ucf.edu or Alan Byrd, Alan Byrd & Associates, 407-415-8470, Alan@ByrdConnections.com
About Critical Frequency Design: More and more, modern warfare has been transitioning from the battlefield to the computer. Information through communication, imagery and video continues to exponentially increase with the use of sophisticated communication and sensor systems. The key to winning the next generation battle is the ability to transport and process this information to actionable intelligence instantly.
Critical Frequency Design was founded by industry’s top subject matter experts to help our customers solve these challenging problems. Our decades of experience bring innovative solutions to the warfighter rapidly. For more information, please visit CriticalFrequency.com
About the UCF Business Incubation Program: The University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program is a community resource that provides early-stage companies with the tools, training and infrastructure to become financially stable, high growth/impact enterprises. Since 1999, this award-winning program has helped over 390 local startup companies reach their potential faster by providing vital business development resources.
With seven facilities throughout the region, the UCF Business Incubation Program is an economic development partnership between the University of Central Florida, the Corridor, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties, and the cities of Apopka, Kissimmee, Orlando and Winter Springs. For the 2016/17 and 2017 /18 fiscal years, the activities of these participating firms have helped sustain more than 6,275 local jobs and have had a cumulative impact of more than $888 million on regional GDP and more than $1.59 billion on regional sales. During the same period, the program has returned $12.03 for every $1 invested in the program. For more information, visit Incubator.UCF.edu.
