News: Optoelectronics
10 July 2025
Aeluma secures new contracts from NASA and US Navy
Aeluma Inc of Goleta, CA, USA — which develops compound semiconductor materials on large-diameter substrates — has won new contracts with NASA and the US Navy that could accelerate development and commercialization for next-generation quantum and sensing systems.
Aeluma’s platform combines the performance of compound semiconductors with the scale of mainstream silicon manufacturing, enabling cost-effective solutions across high-growth markets including mobile, AI, defense & aerospace, robotics, automotive, AR/VR, and quantum computing.
The firm recently demonstrated nonlinear optical materials integration on CMOS-standard 200mm-diameter silicon substrates, providing a path to scale complex quantum photonic circuits. The new contract with NASA will advance Aeluma’s efforts to commercialize entangled photon sources, a critical enabler for quantum computing and communication systems. By integrating nonlinear optical materials on CMOS-standard 200mm silicon, Aeluma provides a path to scale complex quantum photonic circuits while meeting NASA's stringent SWaP (size, weight and power) requirements.
The new US Navy contract will support Aeluma's low-SWaP imaging sensors for next-generation submarine systems. Leveraging its ability to directly integrate SWIR (shortwave infrared) sensors on silicon, Aeluma enables multi-spectrum VIS (visible) + SWIR sensing in a single, compact chip. This technology is also directly aligned with Aeluma’s commercial roadmap across mobile, AR/VR, robotics, and industrial sensing.
“We continue to build momentum in scaling our high-performance semiconductor platform for a diversity of applications across quantum, communications, and sensing,” says founder & CEO Jonathan Klamkin Ph.D. “These contracts provide additional funding to accelerate development and commercialization, and to strengthen our relationships with government agencies, partners, and customers. Each contract we have secured is synergistic with our go-to-market strategy aimed at bringing performance semiconductors to high-growth commercial markets.”
Aeluma wins NASA contract to advance quantum dot photonic integrated circuits for aerospace and AI
