Block MEMS has been awarded a contract by the Department of Defense’s Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (JPEO-CBD) to provide its LaserScan™ Analyzer for evaluation in the Multi-Mission Multi-Threat Detection (M3TD) Technology Evaluation program. The goal of the M3TD program is to evaluate currently available technology for chemical detection and the potential to meet future capability requirements.

Petros Kotidis, CEO of Block, commented, “This award represents a significant and strategically important opportunity for Block to showcase its LaserScan products and demonstrate their capability to the DOD community. Block is fully committed to providing the warfighters with this unique capability, which will enable handheld, standoff detection of chemical threats.”

LaserScan is a revolutionary next-generation spectrometer that incorporates widely tunable mid-infrared (IR) quantum cascade lasers (QCL). It detects and measures substances on surfaces from a standoff distance of 6 inches to 2 feet. LaserScan identifies bulk materials and detects sub-micron films based on their mid-IR absorption characteristics. Key applications include detection of explosive materials, liquid and solid chemical agents, biological agents and toxic industrial chemicals.

About Block Engineering LLC:

Founded in 1956, Block Engineering, LLC is a leading manufacturer and marketer of high performance Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) and FTIR spectrometers for military, government, commercial, and industrial customers. Block’s Mobile Chemical Agent Detector (MCAD) system is a fixed site, passive FTIR spectrometer offered in partnership with Northrop Grumman Corp. Block’s PORTHOS™ is a portable, passive FTIR spectrometer system that remotely detects chemical threats as far as three miles and protects against chemical warfare agents and weapons of mass destruction. Block Engineering is also manufacturing and selling a line of unique QCL-based spectrometers, including the LaserScan Analyzer, for applications ranging from detection of explosives and liquid/solid chemical warfare agents to control of manufacturing operations and verification of surface conditions in a variety of industrial processes.

About Block MEMS LLC:

Block MEMS, LLC is an engineering and development company focusing on the R&D of high performance Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs) and FTIR spectrometers for military and government customers. Following the success of its commercial-off-the-shelf passive FTIR products, such as MCAD and PORTHOS, Block MEMS has applied its extensive knowledge of spectroscopy and chemical detection towards the development of its high performance QCL based spectrometers, including LaserScan™. LaserScan has attracted high interest in the Department of Defense for detection of explosives and liquid/solid chemical warfare agents. In addition, Block MEMS is developing a revolutionary MEMS-based, miniaturized spectrometer, ChemPen™, which is a low cost, FTIR chemical gas detector the size of a fountain pen.

Block MEMS and Block Engineering are affiliated through common ownership and share headquarters in Marlborough, Massachusetts, USA.