CeLight Receives $2.25M Government Subcontract for Next Phase of DOD’s Secure Optical Communications Program

August 2, 2005 – Silver Spring, MD.– CeLight, a leader in coherent optical technologies, has been awarded a $2.25M subcontract by Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems to support the second phase of the Secure Digital Coherent Optical Communications program with the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD) Defense Micro-Electronics Activity (DMEA). The program leverages CeLight’s unique VectorWAVE platform to overcome atmospheric effects and to avoid malicious jamming and eavesdropping of optical links in order to provide secure and reliable communications.

“The continuation of this program underscores CeLight’s demonstrated progress towards providing secure, high-bandwidth optical communications links for the challenging environments faced by the DOD. In addition, the vast applications potential of our VectorWAVE platform includes standoff detection of improvised explosives, truck bombs and suicide bombers, a pervasive and growing threat to our soldiers, allies and civilians” said Toomas Kilm, CeLight’s CEO.

Under the agreement, CeLight will leverage its VectorWAVE digital platform for coherent optical signal synthesis and analysis to provide advanced security at the physical optical layer by providing counter-measures to avoid jamming and eavesdropping of optical communications links. While CeLight’s long-term goal is to provide a secure, ultra high-speed optical transceiver, this phase of the program builds on previous accomplishments to mature and demonstrate key enabling components, algorithms and subsystems. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is providing additional technical subject matter guidance for this one year phase of the program.

Dr. Isaac Shpantzer, CeLight’s co-founder and CTO, stated “our phase 1 results verify that a critical differentiator of digital, coherent optical technology is the ability to implement algorithms and advanced functionality in the digital domain in order to mitigate real-world issues like atmospheric perturbations and platform vibrations. By working with Northrop Grumman, a global leader in advanced opto-electronic systems, we have a team that can deliver a practical solution meeting the communications needs of the Department of Defense.”

About CeLight: CeLight, Inc.(www.celight.com) is a leader in coherent optical technologies for military, homeland security and commercial applications. CeLight’s VectorWAVE is a unique, multi-application platform that combines state-of-the-art coherent optical technology with digital processing to synthesize, transmit, receive, analyze and process a vast array of high-speed, coherent optical signals. CeLight’s products and services enable system integrators to offer solutions with advanced capabilities and improved price-performance to their end-customers. Headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, CeLight is a privately held small business founded in 1999 and is backed by over $47M of funding from world-class investors including: The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.(www.gs.com), Concord Ventures (www.concordventures.com), Advanced Technology Ventures (www.atvcapital.com), Tamir Fishman Ventures (www.tfventures.com), and Vertex Management(www.vertexisrael.co.il).