Success Stories

Numat Technologies Advances Military Protection with STTR Support

Numat Technologies, a materials technology company located in Skokie, Illinois, is enhancing military protection against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBURN) threats, thanks to the non-dilutive investment of the Army Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. Their work on Scaling and Supramolecular Engineering of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) is proving to be a game-changer in CBURN protection by making protective gear lighter, more breathable, and more effective against various threats. Thanks to the funding and opportunity of the Army STTR program, Numat transitioned from small scale lab experiments to producing MOFs at a production rate suitable for the Army’s needs.

Metal-organic frameworks are a breakthrough in toxic chemical remediation, medical oxygen storage, high-value gas recovery, and other military and civilian applications like water filters, industrial purification, and odor control. Prior to Numat’s groundbreaking STTR work, the lack of a quality-controlled supply limited these materials to laboratory environments.

The military is often first at the scene after a release of toxic chemicals. Our warfighters and first responders require state-of-the-art technology to aid with cleanup. MOFs can be designed to react with specific molecules, which can immediately improve readiness to a wide variety of existing and new threats.  Filter material can also be made thinner, thereby reducing pressure drop, bulkiness, breathing resistance, and compressor energy cost.

“STTR funding validates the business case for emerging technologies and helps identify sectors where innovation can have a significant impact,” said Patrick Fuller, Numat’s Director of Business Development. “Thanks to the STTR funding which allows us to scale up the production of our MOFs, we are currently building a plan to supply 50 tons of the materials a year; enough get it to every gas mask military has while supporting special forces garments and protection gear.”

The company spun off from Northwestern University, and they maintained that relationship as the STTR work’s research institution partner. The Army STTR program benefits both the research institution and small business alike. Numat gets the benefit of Northwestern’s scientific expertise and analytical tools to assist in solving scaling issues, and Northwestern can work on a challenging basic science issue, giving them further experience in their field and opportunities to publish on exciting breakthroughs.

Numat's journey underscores the importance of the Army STTR program in driving innovation, solving real-world problems, and securing national interests. Collaborations between small businesses and research institutions, powered by programs like STTR, leads to groundbreaking advancements in commercial and defense technology.

MelaTech Unlocks the Potential of Melanin Technologies Through Army STTR Program

MelaTech, LLC and Johns Hopkins University, in an Army Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) partnership, are revolutionizing melanin use. Melanin is the pigment that gives human skin its color and has the potential to be used in radiation and heat shielding, as an insulator or semiconductor material, and other capabilities desirable for Army applications.

Melanin's insulation strength, combined with its solar heat absorption, can protect critical assets in cold environments, block radiation, and improve the performance of electronics. Melanin could be a low-cost, safe non-toxic alternative to conventional materials used for these applications.

Historically, accessing useful amounts of natural melanin has required the use of squid ink, costing over $500 per gram; gold is merely at $65 per gram. The STTR team aimed to produce melanin more affordably using common fungi as the raw material source. Over the course of their Phase 1 STTR, the MelaTech team was able to increase their melanin yields five-fold. Thanks to Melatech’s efforts, supported by the Army STTR program, melanin is becoming increasingly affordable which will allow researchers across the U.S. to test the material more efficiently for a wide variety of conventional and novel applications and lead the world in use.

“Our vision is to establish global leadership in melanin provision by producing melanin of the highest quality and catalyzing the commercialization of melanin-based technologies,” said MelaTech’s CEO Dr. Radamés JB Cordero.

The STTR team is also looking into embedding melanin in different forms of protection; paint-like coatings, incorporating it into fabrics, and producing a 3D-printable material, to name a few tests thanks to affordable melanin production. Cosmetics companies have shown interest in developing new, safer non-bioreactive sunscreens.

NASA has purchased melanin produced by MelaTech and has recently carried out the first studies testing the stability and radioprotection capacities of melanin on the outside of the International Space Station. Dr. Cordero, who is also a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, hopes that MelaTech and the considerable interest in melanin represent the foundation of a burgeoning melanin industry.

The team utilizes industrial yeast production methods, such as those used for brewing beer, to create a “melanin brewery.” As the fungus grows, it covers itself with melanin. The melanin is harvested via a chemical process that destroys everything but the melanin, leaving hollow, useable microparticles behind.

Dr. Cordero lauded the Army STTR program, saying that their work with melanin was just an idea until the STTR funding made it possible. And the nature of the funding is such that they need not give up equity or ownership of the company. Dr. Cordero attributes the realization of their melanin-focused ambitions to the Army STTR program's support. This funding avenue not only eliminated the need for equity renunciation but also bolstered MelaTech's credibility and attractiveness to other potential investors.

“The timely release of funds by the Army STTR program enabled us to make rapid progress,” Cordero said. “By swiftly receiving the funding, we could direct our focus and resources toward the science itself, accelerating our research and development activities. This streamlined process has been essential in driving our success and achieving meaningful milestones.”

Empowering small businesses and research institutions, the Army STTR program enabled Johns Hopkins and MelaTech to scale up melanin production. Melatech is on track to meet their goal of a cheap, high-quality, and reliable source of melanin for a wide array of uses for the Army warfighter and civilians, propelling MelaTech to the forefront of a billion-dollar industry and boosting the U.S. in the global synthetic biology materials sector.

Phosphortech Commercializes 3D Infrared Projector Thanks to Army STTR Funding

Phosphortech’s HOLO-IR projector is a low-power, portable projector that can create high resolution three-dimensional images using LEDs which are customizable to fit a wide range of infrared (IR) detection systems. HOLO-IR technology was made possible by the Army’s initial STTR funding and subsequent commercialization efforts. HOLO-IR is useful to the Army because it enables testing the effectiveness of IR sensor technology, such as night-vision goggles, in outdoor field training exercises at a higher fidelity than other systems, providing the Army with a state-of-the-art testing environment for some of its most important equipment. It is also useful to commercial entities to evaluate the performance of devices such as CCTV and low-light-level security cameras, medical and biological imaging for phenomena beyond the range of human sight, and many other imaging applications in which the US is a world leader. 

Traditional IR projectors simulate complete scenery in the IR spectrum. HOLO-IR, however, enables placing an image into a real-world environment to utilize the natural IR background. This helps in testing devices by creating more realistic imagery that blends with dynamic backgrounds in real-time. Testing and training with these devices in as realistic an environment as possible is of great importance to the Army. This ensures that newly acquired technology works well and fits the required mission profiles and that soldiers are already familiar with equipment when in the field during potentially stressful situations and can utilize it effectively.

Phosphortech’s STTR, “Novel Robust IR Scene Projector Technology” garnered both Phase I and Phase II funding from the US Army. The STTR’s focus was to develop an IR projector using a combination of Quantum Dot technology and commercial LCD displays. Quantum Dots (QD) are materials less than 10 nanometers in size. Using QD takes advantage of the “Quantum confinement effect” which is when quantum dots are increased in size to shift the light emission from red to infrared.  QDs are often made of toxic materials which require specialized handling and equipment which Phosphortech’s research institution partner, Georgia Tech, brought to the team. Phosphortech was formed in 1998 as a university start-up out of Georgia Technical Institute and the company has maintained a relationship with Georgia Tech ever since.

Initially, commercialization of the HOLO-IR was a difficult proposition for Phosphertech because the use case was very narrow, therefore the market for such technology was limited. However, commercially available IR camera technology has become less expensive and much more common in commercial applications, of which Phosphertech took advantage.

Dr. Hisham Menkara, President of Phosphortech is grateful for Army STTR funding. The Army STTR program allows companies to try out their ideas in a lower risk environment and can allow technology to mature at a slower pace to give a technology time to find its market. The Army STTR program also provides guidance and expertise from the first proposal writing, through product commercialization.

Albanese Defense and Energy Revolutionizes Military Communications with Wavelet-Based Adaptive Antenna

The Albanese Defense and Energy Development Company is poised to change the way radio frequency communications work via the groundbreaking technology, Wavelet-Based Adaptive Antenna, developed thanks to funding through the Army Small Business Technology Transfer program.

US Army Military operations rely on a variety of communication bands, each requiring a different antenna size, adding weight, size, and complexity to already overburdened kits. The managing of multiple antennas for different bands is cumbersome and inefficient, especially for small forward deployed teams of limited manpower. Albanese Defense’s Wavelet-Based Adaptive Antenna technology has solved this problem by using a few small antennas to effectively mimic larger antennas, reducing logistical footprints and complexity for Army units

Small antennas can efficiently transmit short pulses in nanoseconds. These tiny pulses, when sent in quick succession, form a much longer wavelength signal in front of the transmitter; a process known as signal fragmentation. Albanese Defense built the first transmitter based on this concept, creating a “radio frequency gatling gun,” utilizing only two small antennas and shifting between them to produce a wide range of useful signals. The transmitter is incredibly compact; a size comparable to a laptop and can achieve the same power and range as larger antennas of approximately a few meters large across the same frequency range.

Developing such a groundbreaking technology required a cross-disciplinary collaborative effort. The Albanese Defense and Energy Development Company partnered with Auburn University's Mathematics department to further advance signal fragmentation’s mathematical theory, enabling more efficient use of power and successful signals. The technology's data compression techniques allow for the transmission of signals with minimal overlap, enhancing the antenna's overall performance.

To facilitate the technology's fabrication and testing, the company collaborated with the Southwest Research Institute, a large non-profit research institution with the facilities Albanese needed to scale their testing. This partnership allowed for engineering insights and improvements to the antennas.

Wavelet-Based Adaptive Antenna technology is not just about improving military communications; it represents a new era of transmitters. This technology holds the potential to impact not only military communications but also civilian applications, such as repeaters in cell phone towers, reducing size and weight, or allowing towers to handle multiple signal types.

The success of this technology highlights the power of collaboration between classical disciplines. It is a testament to the incredible advances that can be achieved when mathematicians and engineers work together to develop a groundbreaking solution. With the continued support of the Army Small Business Technology Transfer program and private funding streams, Albanese Defense and Energy Development Company is ready to revolutionize military and civilian communication as we know it.

DeepRadio: Deep Learning for Wireless Communications and Security

Intelligent Automation, Inc. (IAI)] developed DeepRadio technology providing reconfigurable embedded implementation of deep neural networks as a stand-alone radio platform to characterize radio frequency (RF) spectrum environment in real time and adapt to spectrum dynamics. DeepRadio uses deep learning to detect and classify RF signals (tactical and commercial waveforms as well as cognitive jammers), identify spectrum opportunities, and reconfigure the software-defined radio (SDR) transceiver. Each DeepRadio device consists of the integrated unit of an SDR front-end, embedded processor, and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Deep neural network architecture is reconfigurable and supports adaptation to spectrum dynamics including topology, channel, interference, and traffic effects. The outcome is an accurate characterization of the RF spectrum in real-time, spectrum efficiency improvement, and supports signal co-existence on busy spectrum bands. Field tests of DeepRadio using embedded processors with tactical and commercial radios demonstrated the effectiveness of DeepRadio in detecting RF interfering sources and mitigating their effects on wireless communications. DeepRadio successfully learned the behavior of a stealth jammer using a deep neural network model. Consequently, DeepRadio can predict with high accuracy when the jammer intends to jam the spectrum. Using this information, DeepRadio improves throughput, avoids extensive packet loss over jammed channels, and suspends the traffic flow transmission until it predicts the spectrum is reliable.

On-Demand Energy Activated Liquid Decontaminants and Cleaning Solutions

TDA Research has developed an electrochemical decontamination technology (eClO2). This technology eliminates toxic agents by utilizing an electrochemical cell to convert electrical power from a battery into reactive chemical species. The eClO2 technology consists of a battery-powered and operated sprayer, a packet of sodium chlorite and sodium bromide salts, and a packet of concentrated surfactants. The salts and surfactants are dissolved in available water on-site (tap water, hard water, surface water, even sea water), and dissolve within one minute with a resulting pot life of multiple days to months. When the solution is sprayed it passes through the electrochemical cell, generating the active decontaminants, chlorine dioxide and hypobromite, directly onto the contaminated surface. The components are extremely shelf stable (8+ years), have low weight and volume, and can be easily shipped commercially overnight with minimal restrictions.

The decontaminant solution is very reactive and has been shown to deactivate live chemical and biological agents including VX, HD, G-agents, and bacterial spores. Residual decontaminant dissipates within 60 minutes, leaving no harmful environmental footprint. Unlike other solutions, there is no decay after mixing. The reactive decontaminant is generated with battery power during the spray application and thus has a known concentration and performance each time it is sprayed. Chemical agent efficacy has been demonstrated by CCDC Chemical and Biological Center, showing excellent performance against G- and V- nerve and HD blister agents on stainless steel, glass, polycarbonate, polyethylene, CARC painted metal, Air Force painted metal, Navy painted metal and tire rubber.

Pathogen Specific Antimicrobial Coatings for Fabrics

Giner, Inc. has developed a phage-based antimicrobial fabric coating that is effective in eliminating harmful skin bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, which is the leading cause of skin and soft tissue infections in military personnel. The coating is processed on nylon/cotton fabric blends using an aqueous multilayer assembly method and consists of phages, bacteria-killing viruses, embedded within a polymer host matrix. Giner’s coating technology eliminates >99.9% of S. aureus without disrupting the beneficial skin microbiome. The applied coating is durable enough to withstand laundering cycles and is applied to “next-to-skin” fabrics using a roll-to-roll coating process, making it a scalable and cost-effective method of preventing S. aureus colonization.

Advanced Buffer Fabric

CTW Development, LLC has worked with the U.S. Army NSRDEC Air Delivery Engineering Support Team to develop a new and innovative buffer fabric to replace the current buffer fabric used in the construction of parachute deployment sleeves. The fabric is designed to protect the parachute canopy from thermal damage during parachute deployment. The Army sought an advanced buffer fabric that was high strength, low shrinkage, not susceptible to fungal growth, and Berry Amendment compliant. CTW Development created a core spun yarn that could be converted into a finished cotton-faced hybrid-construction fabric with high strength, essentially no shrinkage, and enhanced buffer properties. Successful parachute-drop testing during Phase II has resulted in interest from the U.S. Army and the Australian Army who are both purchasing parachute deployment sleeves of the hybrid fabric for advanced testing. Market leader Airborne Systems will be incorporating the innovative fabric into future systems.