One of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command (USASMDC/ARSTRAT) Army SBIR Phase II contractors, TRS Technologies, Inc., has been competitively selected to receive the Army Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Achievement Award for their effort titled "New Ferroelectric Components for Ferroelectric Generators (FEGs) and Capacitive Discharge Units (CDUs)." The technology developed under this Army SBIR is a critical component of the Intense Electromagnetic Pulse (IMP) Grenade being developed for counter improvised explosive device (IED) applications.

The Army Achievement Awards process is extremely competitive. This year, 471 projects were eligible to compete for an award, and only 11 were selected - one from each technology area. They were evaluated based on four criteria: originality and innovation of research; relevance of the research to the Army mission; immediate commercialization potential of the research, reflecting the primary goal of bringing technology and products to the marketplace; and overall quality performance of the project.

In 2009, Loki Incorporated received the same award for their work in 2008 developing the Ferroelectric Generator (FEG), which is a power supply for new type of munitions. The key component of the FEG is a ferroelectric ceramic called PZT 95/5. Because PZT 95/5 is not commercially available, TRS wanted to develop a process for producing PZT 95/5 for FEGs and won a Phase I SBIR to do so. They successfully produced enough PZT 95/5 during their Phase I for USASMDC/ARSTRAT to test FEGs with these new ceramics and to established that the FEGs with PZT 95/5 outperform FEGs with commercially available ceramics.

Dr. Michael Lavan and Dr. Larry Altgilbers of USASMDC/ARSTRAT are the Contracting Officer's Technical Representatives (COTR) for the winning contract.

Altgilbers said the FEGs with PZT 95/5 are currently being investigated for use in advanced munitions for defeating electronic systems and electro-explosive devices by organizations such as USASMDC/ARSTRAT, the U. S. Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC), the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), and Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). With all of these organizations expressing interest in its use, the effort is very relevant to the Army mission as well as to other services' use.

The Achievement Awards Ceremony will take place May 24 with Dr. Thomas H. Killion, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research and Technology/Chief Scientist, officiating. Lavan and Altgilbers will be attending the award ceremony on behalf of USASMDC/ARSTRAT.