Tetrahive Wins USAF Phase II SBIR Contract for NDE-based Electronics Reverse Engineering

Tetrahive Technologies has been awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to continue developing capabilities for non-destructive and semi-automated reverse engineering of electronics. The Phase II contract comes on the heels of the successful Phase I effort which demonstrated feasibility of using X-ray computed tomography data (CT scans) to reverse engineer a printed circuit board.

This technology promises to provide organizations with an easier non-destructive pathway to obtain the designs of mission-critical legacy components. Components for which the original designs and/or suppliers are no longer available. These designs are required to produce on-demand or small lot replacements & spares that plug-and-play with existing systems and meet form-fit-function requirements necessary to avoid costly and time-consuming re-certification.

During the two year Phase II contract, Tetrahive will continue to develop and ultimately commercialize/transition this technology by:

1. Perfoming CT testing (both physical and virtual) in order to ‘engineer the data collection process’ - that is determine the best CT hardware setups, data acqusition techniques, and post-processing methods needed to produce high-quality CT imagery needed for precision re-engineering.
2. Develop and deliver a custom CT imaging application specifically built to perform functions necessary for processing the 3D CT voxel data, using both automated and manual routines, in preparation for re-engineering.
3. Continuing our collaboration with ScanCAD International by sub-contracting them to develop a custom import tool which allows for communication between their existing products and our custom CT imaging application - thereby lowering the burden for our DoD end-users and providing a more integrated experience.

“We were thrilled with how Phase I of this project turned out and are excited and honored to continue on to Phase II. Certainly Phase I was not without its challenges, but we learned a lot and were able to find ways to overcome some of the long-standing technical hurdles that have been holding back this type of technology from becoming a reality.”

“This sort of thing would not be possible without the support of the USAF and SBIR program in general. It is a truly spectacular program which affords small businesses like us the opportunity to invest in advancing technology through R&D. It ultimately benefits everyone involved - the small business, the government agency, and everyone else the technology eventually touches.”

“We are very exicted to be a part of it and we look forward to the future of this program.”

-Rob Matthews, CEO & Founder