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PHYSICAL SCIENCES INC.

Address

20 NEW ENGLAND BUSINESS CENTER DR
ANDOVER, MA, 01810-1022
USA

View website

UEI: RMG1AZ1ZH8Q7

Number of Employees: 259

HUBZone Owned: No

Woman Owned: No

Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No

SBIR/STTR Involvement

Year of first award: 1983

1210

Phase I Awards

596

Phase II Awards

49.26%

Conversion Rate

$144,287,116

Phase I Dollars

$572,634,805

Phase II Dollars

$716,921,920

Total Awarded

Awards

Up to 10 of the most recent awards are being displayed. To view all of this company's awards, visit the Award Data search page.

Off-axis Laser Event Recorder (OALER)

Amount: $139,994 Topic: N252-099

Physical Sciences Inc. will develop an Off-Axis Laser Event Recorder (OALER) that can robustly detect, characterize, and classify indirect laser illumination in the 400-1700nm spectral range.ÝThe program objective is to design and demonstrate a compact cost-effective wide angle (?120∞ Horizontal, >110∞ vertical) sensor that can discriminate between indirect laser, direct laser, and non-laser events, and subsequently record key laser characteristics including wavelength, incident power, pulse characteristics, and angle of incidence while avoiding false positives due to naturally occurring events such as solar glints. The sensor will serve as an early warning system for threat detection and classification (targeting, sensing, damaging, or lethal) of incoming laser light. The OALER sensor will be man-portable, robust, low-cost, and battery-powered.ÝÝThe Phase I program will demonstrate feasibility through the development of a high-fidelity system model, which will be validated by a breadboard. Detection algorithms will be developed as part of the Phase I effort using data collected from the breadboard. The refined system requirements and prototype design will be developed to enable fabrication of a prototype OALER system in Phase II.Ý

SBIR

Phase I

2026

DOW

NAVY

TFLN Interconnect for Gigabit-rate Environment Ruggedization (TIGER)

Amount: $239,911 Topic: N252-084

Ruggedized high-power and high-speed transceivers for aircraft datalinks are becoming increasingly essential with the growing need for real-time data processing in combat scenarios. Current datalinks leverage low-cost vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), but this technology cannot meet the high data rate and high optical power requirements necessary for future missions. To solve this challenge, Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) will develop a new ruggedized transceiver technology based on the co-integration of commercially-available high-power distributed feedback (DFB) lasers with high-speed and chirp-free photonic modulators to achieve datalinks capable of operating at 400 Gbps under the extreme environments of aircraft deployment. Our high-speed transceiver units will provide robust operation in extreme temperature and vibrational environments without compromise to its data-rate capacity or signal integrity.Ý

SBIR

Phase I

2026

DOW

NAVY

Bio-inspired Energy Dissipating Structures for Enhanced Airdrop Capabilities

Amount: $1,799,923 Topic: HR0011SB20244-03

Physical Sciences Inc. and George Mason University developed a biomimetic approach to produce novel energy dissipating biopolymer foams produced from upcycled cellulosic waste feedstocks. After the completion of a successful Phase I SBIR program, the team proposes a subsequent Phase II program to mature and demonstrate the technology validated in Phase I. The team has successfully demonstrated the feasibility of the developed foam materials in a 6-month Phase I SBIR program. This 100% bioderived biopolymer foam made from cellulosic waste feedstocks was integrated into novel, bio-mimetic form factors and demonstrated high energy dissipation characteristics. The Phase I results achieved a >7.5X improvement in SEA from state-of-the-art (SOA) paper honeycomb. The team performed a preliminary techno-economic analysis that shows PSI’s technology has a 1.1-5.3X reduction in material cost compared to commercially available paper honeycomb. The Phase II Base program seeks to enhance material properties to achieve a specific energy absorption (SEA) of > 40 J/g EDS at normal impacts, and > 20 J/g EDS when impacted at a 30° incline. The team will incrementally scale-up the material production, creating 6” x 6” test coupons to demonstrate mechanical properties. In the Phase II Option, the team will further scale up the Energy Dissipating Structure (EDS) production to create a proof-of-concept full size (36”x96”) foam panel and demonstrate its mechanical properties at scales relevant to airdrop applications. Additionally, PSI will produce a detailed design and plan for constructing and operating a pilot plant capable of producing one full size EDS panel per hour. The team will build the pilot plant and operate it to generate at least 10 full-sized EDS panels over a fabrication campaign. This SBIR program will enable a scalable, domestically produced enhanced material for U.S. air drop capabilities across the world. PSI’s foam material will increase air drop mission success rates, providing efficient airborne and airlift operations to resupply missions, unit deployments, and humanitarian aid.

SBIR

Phase II

2026

DOW

DARPA

Advanced Ruggedized Modulators for Onboard Receivers (ARMOR)

Amount: $239,976 Topic: N25B-T029

High-speed RF data acquisition is critical for modern military aircraft, enabling real-time situational awareness, precision targeting, and secure communication in contested environments. With surging bandwidth demands, direct digitization receivers have become essential to reduce latency, preserve signal integrity, and enhance tactical response. However, this approach, which relies on advanced analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and bulky coaxial cabling, faces significant challenges including high power consumption, susceptibility to electromagnetic interference (EMI) and thermal shocks, bandwidth limitations, and scalability issues. Thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) RF-over-fiber links, which convert RF signals to high-speed optical analog signals routing them through lightweight, low-loss optical fibers, provides an effective alternative for RF data acquisition receivers. TFLN modulators feature low drive voltages (sub-1V) and compact footprints, making them highly scalable. Additionally, both TFLN modulators and optical fibers support ultra-high bandwidths, reaching hundreds of gigahertz. Conventional TFLN MZI implementations are, however, not optimized to handle extreme vibration, thermal shocks, and EMI conditions encountered in military aircraft. This proposal aims to overcome these barriers by developing ruggedized TFLN modulators using advanced photonic engineering, novel material designs, and robust packaging to achieve low Vp, wide bandwidths (10 MHz to 20 GHz), and reliable performance across the full military temperature and EMI ranges to support high-capacity, low-latency optical links.

STTR

Phase I

2026

DOW

NAVY

Scalable, Controllable Inductive Arrays for Weld Heating

Amount: $139,989 Topic: N252-106

The navy needs a robust system for weld preheating and post-weld heat treatment in shipyards. This will improve both the throughput of existing welders and remove potentially dangerous electric resistance heater bars which can cause fires upon failure. The new system needs to align with navy welding specifications with regards to thermal uniformity, heating rate, and maximum operating temperatures while also improving survivability in a shipyard environment versus the existing system. To address this need, Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes the Heating Inductive Array for Thermal Uniform Soaking (HIATUS) system, which will deliver high-accuracy preheat and post-weld heat treatment capabilities while improving the lifetime of system components and providing repairable equipment. Our technology serves as a drop-in replacement for the existing heater bar solution to provide faster heating while maintaining uniformity and preventing overheating.

SBIR

Phase I

2026

DOW

NAVY

Modular Bypass Valve for Solid Fuel Ramjets

Amount: $246,377 Topic: N252-082

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to design, develop, and demonstrate a modular, real-time, active control bypass valve for solid fuel ramjets (SFRJ). The coupling of an active bypass valve with a SFRJ will enable an agile propulsion system for the Navy and Department of Defense to engage a variety of ever-changing threats with a single missile platform. PSIís modular bypass valve will allow SFRJ designers to integrate the valve into their system with minimal engineering development work reducing the overall time and cost to develop individual systems. Additionally, the valve incorporates a software designed control mechanism that will allow the valve to adapt to system performance to maintain a desired thrust profile or bypass ratio. In Phase I, PSI will design and develop a bypass valve for air inlet temperatures up to 2,000∞F. The bypass valve will be experimentally tested with cold and hot (up to 1,000∞F) air. In Phase II, PSI plans to develop a flight-like bypass valve and conduct testing on up to a 5-inch diameter system with air inlet temperatures up to 2,000∞F.Ý

SBIR

Phase I

2026

DOW

NAVY

Sharp longwave optics with cost-reduced assembly of bolometer (SLOW-CRAB)

Amount: $249,934 Topic: A244-024

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) will develop sharp longwave optics with cost-reduced assembly of bolometer (SLOW-CRAB) to provide high quality, lightweight, and low cost imaging optics for large format longwave infrared (LWIR) microbolometer imaging. PSI will leverage its experience with broadband transmissive flat optics to reduce requirements on optical materials for ability to simultaneously achromatize and athermalize the optical system. The flat optics will integrate with other optics to provide a wide high transmission band optical system suitable for a wide variety of thermal imaging applications. PSI will design a high quality lens and present a scalable solution in terms of performance, cost, and key application drivers.

SBIR

Phase I

2025

DOW

ARMY

sUAS Laser Power Conversion System for Enhanced Range and Endurance

Amount: $1,364,860 Topic: A23B-T023

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to further the development of a laser power beaming (LPB) system to enable extended endurance and range of the DoD’s cleared (“blue”) Group 1 small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS). The LPB system consists of a custom photovoltaic array receiver payload integrated with the sUAS power electronics and a ground-based laser transmitter system to deliver power to the array from 100s of meter distances. The transmitter will autonomously track the UAS and steer the beam to the payload. PSI will partner with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to transfer, fabricate, and adapt their cutting edge multi-junction photovoltaic research to the LPB application. These photovoltaic devices will be characterized for efficiency, and thermal and electrical management requirements via modeling and benchtop experiments. PSI will design, develop, and test a fieldworthy laser transmitter apparatus that collimates/focuses a laser (?300 W) to a beam profile and spot size compatible with the sUAS-mounted receiver array at distances up to 500 m from source to target. Phase I demonstrated key feasibility criteria and defined overall system requirements and designs. The Phase II project will leverage these results to build and test a complete LPB prototype system in the field.

STTR

Phase II

2025

DOW

ARMY

Scalable Composite AlScN/AlYN Epitaxy for High-Temperature Electronics (SCALE)

Amount: $249,986 Topic: A244-044

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) and the research group of Prof. Xiuling Li of the University of Texas at Austin (UT) will develop single crystalline epitaxial thin films and heterostructures of group III-IIIb-Nitride thin films (AlScN and AlYN) for electronic device applications scalable to 4-inch wafer diameters or larger. These AlScN and AlYN based electronics for excellent for high-temperature applications such as within aircraft engines, missiles, and hypersonic platforms. The PSI-UT team’s work will address the fundamental challenges of Metal-Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) grown AlScN and AlYN to realize HEMT and ferroelectric devices. The program will result in a proof-of-principle AlScN and AlYN epitaxial thin films, their corresponding MOCVD recipes, as well as prototype HEMT and ferroelectric devices.

SBIR

Phase I

2025

DOW

ARMY

Maximized Information Display Augmented System (MIDAS)

Amount: $249,732 Topic: A244-048

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to develop a real-time algorithm suite for maximizing the information content and reducing the cognitive load of multi-modal images in the context of a soldier-borne imaging platform. The proposed Maximized Information Display Augmented System (MIDAS) will build upon state-of-the-art deep learning methods for noise reduction, sensor fusion, and perceptually aware dynamic range compression. Sensor fusion will be performed through a mutually informative optimization framework where we determine the features of each modality that are the most instructive and combine them by optimizing the information content with the objective of reducing redundancy and clutter. Dynamic range compression will be accomplished through a novel human visual system aware tone mapping operator which is tailored to present images to an operator in a ‘natural’ manner. If available, event camera information, characterized by low latency and high dynamic range, will be used to further reduce motion blur and normalize the large range of illumination in operating environments. MIDAS will increase user acceptance of these displays by reducing the cognitive overload typical in solder-borne displays. Through these improvements, we expect an operator to detect human targets at least 20% closer than a single modality system.

SBIR

Phase I

2025

DOW

ARMY