AIM Photonics, Albany, New York, US -- It’s not every day you get to do a real, live show-and-tell at the U.S. Pentagon, but that’s exactly what AIM Photonics, along with nine other Department of Defense (DoD) Manufacturing Innovation Institutes (MIIs), were invited to participate in last month.

The “meet-and-greet” event held at the Pentagon provided senior leaders at the U.S. Department of Defense with an opportunity to interact directly with the institutes’ executive directors and DoD government program management staff to see the impact the institutes are having on advanced manufacturing in the U.S.

Each institute was asked to bring demonstrations that show off their latest innovations. Some of the products using AIM Photonics’ research and development that were exhibited at the event included:

• A biosensing platform developed by U.S.-based start-up SiPhox, which harnesses the power of several large laboratory instruments in a handheld device that accepts disposable cartridges and provides highly sensitive readout of immunoassays and RNA/DNA.

• A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) designed by Phase Sensitive Innovations for analog RF beamforming, which provides significant advantages including very wide operational bandwidths, small flexible and deployable form factors, and simultaneous real-time zero-power processing of multiple RF signals.

• A medical sampling card from the University of Rochester’s COVID point-of-care project funded by the NIST RACER grant program for the development simple, inexpensive photonic sensors for clinical diagnosis at the point of care or in the field.

A DoD MII is a public-private organization sponsored by the Department of Defense that drives advancements to better enable the affordable and rapid transition of new technology and capabilities into products and systems that help secure national defense and economic priorities. With a combined $1.5+ billion in federal investments and $2.1+ billion in matching funds from industry, academia, and state governments, the Manufacturing Innovation Institutes have convened a network of over 1,590 organizations, including start-ups, commercial manufacturers, universities and community colleges, and state/local economic developers in active partnership with the U.S. Federal Government.