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CeLight Receives $1.6M Subcontract From Northrop Grumman for DOD's Secure Optical Communications Program

Posted on: Monday, 14 June 2004, 06:00 CDT

CeLight, a leader in coherent optical technologies, has been awarded a $1.6M subcontract by Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems to support the Secure Digital Coherent Optical Communications program with the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Micro-Electronics Activity (DMEA). The program leverages CeLight's VectorWAVE technology to thwart malicious jamming and eavesdropping of optical links used for secure communications.

"This subcontract underscores the vast potential for CeLight's VectorWAVE platform, which can be applied as part of a multi-mission solution for secure optical communications, discrimination and targeting, optical countermeasures, and remote detection of explosives and trace gases," said Amir Shaked, CeLight's co-founder and CEO.

Under the agreement, CeLight will leverage its unique VectorWAVE digital platform for coherent optical signal synthesis and analysis to provide advanced security at the physical optical layer, using techniques that will thwart malicious jamming and eavesdropping of optical communications links. While CeLight's long-term goal is to provide a secure, ultra high-speed optical transceiver that can be used for thwart malicious jamming and eavesdropping of optical communications links, this phase of the program will focus on analysis, definition, design and demonstration of key enabling components and algorithms as well as analysis of important operational concepts for compatibility with embedded systems and methods. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is providing additional technical subject matter guidance for this 9-month phase of the program.

"Northrop Grumman is teaming with CeLight to advance the state-of-the-art in security of optical communications links," said Mr. James Carlini, Northrop Grumman's Vice President, Products and Technology. "Adversaries will attempt to jam and eavesdrop optical links, just as they do in the RF world today, so we need to be armed with counter-measures."

Dr. Isaac Shpantzer, CeLight's co-founder and CTO, stated "the critical advantage of using digital, coherent optical communications is to provide increased levels of availability and security at the physical optical layer by manipulating numerous dimensions of light in ways that avoid jamming and eavesdropping. CeLight looks forward to working with Northrop Grumman, a global leader in advanced opto-electronic systems, to meet the needs of the Department of Defense."

About CeLight: CeLight, Inc.(www.celight.com) is a leader in coherent optical technologies for military, homeland security and commercial applications. CeLight's VectorWAVE is a unique, multi-application platform that combines state-of-the-art coherent optical technology with digital processing to synthesize, transmit, receive, analyze and process a vast array of high-speed, coherent optical signals. CeLight's products and services enable system integrators to offer solutions with advanced capabilities and improved price-performance to their end-customers. Headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, CeLight is a privately held small business founded in 1999 and is backed by over $47M of funding from world-class investors including: The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Concord Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures, Tamir Fishman Ventures, and Vertex Management.

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