News

For Immediate Release:
Press Release Chip Laingen
St. Paul, Minnesota

Minnesota Defense Awarded Federal Research Grant for "Smart Connector"

St. Paul, MN, 03/18/05 – Minnesota Defense has won its first Department of Defense "Phase II" award in the highly competitive Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The division of Minnesota Wire & Cable Co. will receive the federal research and development (R&D) grant for a minimum of $750,000 to continue R&D on "Smart Connector" technology prior to commercialization.

Originating from a U.S. Air Force requirement for diagnostics on the F-16 Falcon fighter aircraft, Smart Connector is designed to provide rapid, imbedded fault detection in aging wiring systems. According to Minnesota Wire & Cable Co.’s R&D Manager, Tom Kukowski, "The technology has considerable promise for broad applications, from aircraft to applications in any serious infrastructure product with high reliability wiring for control, communications, information or power."

The research project generated by the SBIR Phase II award represents a two-year program, during which Minnesota Wire will be working with LiveWire of Salt Lake City, Utah, the electronics producer for Smart Connector. Minnesota Wire and Cable Co. is the ultimate "commercialization agent" in the partnership with LiveWire, which means the company would be the finished goods manufacturer for the Smart Connector Device. Smart Connector technology uses "spread spectrum time domain reflectometry" electronics. This technology will be used initially for ground maintenance tools, and eventually embedded in aircraft and other vehicles for permanent product life cycle "in-situ" (on board) health monitoring.

Minnesota Defense has been successful in pursuing Department of Defense (DoD) research and development (R&D) funding for the past two years, winning three SBIR Phase I proposals and now a Phase II. The SBIR program includes 12 federal agencies and targets the innovation that resides within small companies. In the case of DoD, SBIR helps solve critical military needs for the armed forces.

Minnesota Defense has aggressively pursued the complex military market through a multi-track approach. The division has teamed with major service programs and prime contractors, including: the Army’s Land Warrior project, where the division helped to produce Soldier Interconnect 1.0 ™ solving soldier-borne connector problems; the Spider interconnect for Alliant Techsystems’ Alternative Land Mine system; and fiber optic cabling for United Defense’s Advanced Gun System (AGS).