SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Vadum will develop a Scalable Integrated Magnetic Sensing System (SIMSS) that detects and classifies solid explosive substances with up to 10 inches of standoff in buried or concealed non-metallic housings. The low-SWaP 100W design represents the first truly portable NQR-based sensor in the market. The RF sensor identifies solid nitrogen-based explosives (ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate, sodium nitrite, RDX, HMX, PETN, TNT, tetryl, urea nitrate, glycine), and solid oxygen-based explosives (TATP). This technology will detect these explosives regardless of mixture formulations or impurities, and can detect substances with masses down to 1 gram. A single military rechargeable BB-2590 battery delivers a full day of mission time when configured as a dismount sensor or an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) mounted sensor. The versatile modular arrangement also enables depot inspections, laboratory analysis, or manual ground placement around shaped objects to augment x-ray detection systems. Vadum will fabricate a rugged system and demonstrate TRL-6 capability by the end of the program.