Camarillo Company Wins $70,000 NASA Grant

Advanced Photonix Inc., a Camarillo producer of electronic light-sensing devices, has been awarded a small-business research grant by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Of nearly 2,000 proposals, only 304 small businesses received the NASA grants.

Advanced will use its $70,000 award to develop a near-infrared version of its Large Area Avalanche Photodiode light-detection system. NASA plans to use the new version of the system to map the Earth’s surface from aircraft and satellites.

If the initial research is successful, the work may lead to a much larger second-phase grant, Advanced said.

James W. Ward, the company’s chairman, said he hopes the grant will help position the Avalanche system as “the detector of choice in a wider range of applications.”

In addition to the NASA contract, Advanced has received detector-related grants of $1.1 million from the Defense Department and $750,000 from the Energy Department.