Navy Contract to Develop Fast, Miniature Chemical Sensor System

PASADENA, Calif. /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VIASPACE Inc., a company that works to transform proven space and defense technologies from NASA and the Department of Defense into hardware and software, said today that its subsidiary, Ionfinity LLC, has been awarded a Phase I STTR contract by the U.S. Navy to develop a novel, miniaturized chemical sensor system capable of detecting chemical and biological weapons, explosives, and illegal drug residues in the holds and storage bays of suspect vessels. The goal is to develop a miniature field-qualified, battery-operated, non-contact chemical sensor system to detect these dangerous and illegal substances at low concentration levels within 10 seconds. The Navy contract will be pursued jointly with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), managed by Caltech, and Imaginative Technologies, LLC (IT). The proposed sensor system is based on IT's Differential Mobility Spectrometer and Ionfinity's patented Soft Ionization Membrane.

Ionfinity is working to develop the next-generation mass spectrometry technology, which could not only revolutionize the traditional applications of mass spectrometry for industrial process control and environmental monitoring, but could also ring in a new era of detection systems for homeland security.