Nalu Scientific recently received three federal research and development grants for its advanced microchip research, the Hawaii-based tech firm announced Tuesday.
Funding for the research, which focuses on specialized ultra-fast data acquisition circuitry, got a $1.15 million boost from a Phase II Small Business Innovative Research grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The funds will be used to support the design and fabrication of Nalu Scientific’s high-density digitizer system-on-chip, or HDSoC.
The ultra-fast chip makes possible capturing hundreds of channels of data at resolutions of a billionth of a second.
In addition to being able to support particle physics experiments, the chip can be applied to other uses including astrophysics, medical imaging and diagnosis, and LiDAR, the sensor technology behind self-driving cars. The HDSoC project is a result of continued research that Nalu Scientific first began in 2016.
Nalu Scientific is also developing a commercially viable 64-channel waveform sampling chip that has an integrated readout and can be adjusted for sensor biases.
“Modern sensors with applications in measuring fundamental properties of matter require advanced electronics for fast processing from many independent sources,” said Nalu Scientific Founder and CEO Isar Mostafanezhad, in a statement. “Our solution provides a low cost, low power, but high-performance electronic processing microchip with applications in fundamental research as well as commercial applications.”
The other two Department of Energy SBIR grants awarded to the firm are for Phase I projects, with $200,000 going to each, including: the Streaming Autonomous Waveform-Digitizer With Zero-Suppression, or STRAWZ, project which proposes ultra-fast and precise data acquisition via an advanced digitizer chip with zero suppression and self-triggering; and the High Performance Amplified Readout Electronics for X-Ray Spectroscopy, or HiPAREX, project which is aimed at enhancing X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy.
“The future of basic science, engineering, and medical discoveries depend upon user-friendly electronic lab tools with ever more precise timing measurements,” Mostafanezhad said. “Our technology provides low-cost, low-power, turn-key solutions usable by scientists and engineers.”
The phase I awards received by Nalu Scientific are part of $37 million in funding disbursed to 139 small businesses in 32 states. The Phase II award was part of a $115 million funding opportunity announced for fiscal year 2021.
“By investing directly in small businesses, including diverse entrepreneurs, we can foster the creative ideas that will transform our nation’s energy sector, address the climate crisis, and build an equitable clean energy economy,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a statement.
The new funding comes after the tech firm received a $400,000 grant for its ocean scanning technology in April, according to previous reporting by Pacific Business News.
Additionally, Nalu Scientific received $2.3 million in federal grants for its Ultrafast Pixel Array Camera and the Advanced ASoC Rapid Digitizer, Variable Adaptive Readout Chip which can quickly process information in October of last year, PBN reported.
