LEXINGTON, Kentucky, January 21, 2020 – Engi-Mat has a long history of applying its technical expertise and production capabilities to satisfy customers with challenging requirements for advanced materials. Today, the company’s most recent success in meeting critical needs of the U.S. Navy electronics community has been recognized with additional funding from the U.S. Navy.
Proof of concept funding was provided to Engi-Mat (along with key collaborators at the University of Kentucky and 3M Ceradyne) to develop a composite powder that enables improved cathode performance. The critical need for the U.S. Navy is the ability to support longer operational lifetimes and/or enable lower operational temperatures.
During Phase II of the STTR program, entitled “Reliable Manufacturing of Scandia-doped Tungsten Powders for Thermionic Cathodes”, the team successfully demonstrated that the incorporation of the tungsten-scandia composite powder from Engi-Mat significantly improved cathode performance relative to the standard M-type cathode. Today, the program’s funding has been increased by $500K by the U.S. Navy so further scaling and commercial work may continue.