High-tech company with operations in Palmer Twp. wins contract from US defense agency that helped create the Internet
Coherent Corp., a high-tech company that has operations in Palmer Township, said Tuesday it has won a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop optical technology that may promote low-cost global communication.
The agency, known as DARPA, is the research and development agency of the U.S. Department of Defense. It was founded in 1958 during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and later helped pave the way to the modern Internet. DARPA also promoted technology for modern computers, speech recognition, touch-screen displays and wireless communication.
Coherent, formerly known as II-VI (pronounced two-six) Inc., did not disclose the terms of the contract. The contract supports DARPA's Space-Based Adaptive Communications Node program, which seeks to create low-cost, high-speed data links to enable communications between government and private satellite groups in low-Earth orbits.
"Beyond just defense applications, these satellite arrays offer tremendous potential for low-cost global communications, sensing, imaging, space exploration and more," Dr. Chris Koeppen, chief technology officer of Coherent, said in a statement.
Incompatible and proprietary links prevent sharing information between satellite "constellations," as groups of the orbiting devices are known. Lower costs have enabled government and private operations to launch many satellites. SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, plans to launch enough satellites to provide wireless Internet coverage to everybody on Earth.
Coherent Corp. is the combination of the former II-VI, which took on the name of acquisition target Coherent Inc. The newly christened Coherent is based in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.
The company has three divisions: the materials segment, formerly known as compound semiconductors; the networking segment, previously photonic solutions, and a lasers segment.
Coherent is traded on the NASDAQ market under the ticker symbol COHR. Shares in the company fell $1.32, or 2.9%, to $43.57 Tuesday.