SBIR 

SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION

RESEARCH PROGRAM

PHASE I and PHASE II 

AWARDS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2023

National Institute of Standards and 

Technology

Department of Commerce
INTRODUCTION

Abstracts of Awards for Fiscal Year 2023 SBIR Program

Note: Certain non-ASCII characters may not be represented accurately in this 

document. In cases where there may be doubt, please direct your questions 

to sbir@nist.gov. 
Fiscal Year 2023 List of Awardees

Award Number Company Name Phase 

70NANB23H247 Applied Research Transformation PLLC Phase I

70NANB23H246 ACTOPROBE LLC Phase I

70NANB23H243 ChemCubed, LLC Phase I

70NANB23H255 Exabyte Inc. Phase I

70NANB23H249 Framergy, Inc. Phase I

70NANB23H256 ITA International, LLC Phase I

70NANB23H253 QuantTera LLC Phase I

70NANB23H251 Rownd, Inc. Phase I

70NANB23H244 SygnaMap Phase I

70NANB23H245 XMARK LABS LLC Phase I

70NANB23H208 Criticality Sciences, Inc Phase II

70NANB23H209 InfraTrac, Inc. Phase II

70NANB23H212 Interlink Electronics, Inc. Phase II

70NANB23H210 Julia Jean, LLC Phase II

70NANB23H211 Tiami, LLC Phase II
FY 2023 PHASE I AWARD

Actoprobe LLC (Albuquerque, New Mexico) $99,909 

Scanning Probe Microscopy with Active Optical Probes: A Novel Approach to Measurements 

and Nanomanufacturing — a novel class of near-field optical probes that will allow precise 

optical characterization on the single-molecule and even submolecular scale, with applications 

in biotechnology, 3D printing and more.

Applied Research Transformation (Durham, North Carolina) $100,000 

Sentinel 4.0TM: Measurement and Control System for 3DCP Interlayer Bond Strength — a 

commercial system for measuring and controlling the quality of bond strength in 3D-printed 

concrete under multiple environmental conditions.

ChemCubed LLC (Stony Brook, New York) $99,998 

Printable Dielectric for Flexible Hybrid Electronics — a stretchable dielectric ink for printing 

flexible electronic circuits that could be used in wearable sensors, ultra-lightweight and flexible 

photovoltaics and other applications where flexibility is needed.

Exabyte Inc. (Walnut Creek, California) $99,895 

Developing Data Standards for Accelerated Digital R&D of Semiconductor Materials from 

Nanoscale — data standards for accelerated research and development of semiconductor 

materials at the nanoscale.

Framergy Inc. (College Station, Texas) $100,000 

A Novel Advanced Manufacturing Pathway for Direct Incorporation of Metal-Organic 

Frameworks in Polymeric Sponges — polymer composites that incorporate metal-organic 

frameworks (MOFs), for potential use as air and water filters for the treatment of harmful 

chemicals. 

ITA International LLC (Newport News, Virginia) $99,292 

Method for Quantifying Fitted Filtration Efficiency of Face Mask and Respirator Products — 

research leading up to development of a novel Fitted Filtration Efficiency (FFE) protocol to 

assess mask/respirator effectiveness for as-worn conditions.

QuantTera LLC (Tempe, Arizona) $99,977 

Heterogeneous Millimeter-Wave Gallium Nitride Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor — 

development of high-performance radio frequency power amplifiers for use in wireless network 

communications systems.

Rownd Inc. (Raleigh, North Carolina) $96,644 

Accelerating Adoption of Anti-Phishing Authentication Methods — analysis of the costs of 

moving from password-based to passwordless systems, understanding the various 

passwordless options and their merits, and recognizing the risks of maintaining passwordless 

methods to increase phishing-resistant systems. 

SygnaMap (San Antonio, Texas) $100,000 

Metabolite Reference Standards to Normalize Spatial Metabolomics Across Tissue Sections — 

an innovative computational platform to analyze data from spatial metabolomics — an emerging 

field of bioanalytical chemistry that aims to observe cellular biology with the greatest detail 

possible — for use in drug development.
Xmark Labs LLC (Barrington, Rhode Island) $100,000 

Feasibility and Proof of Concept of a Dense, Low-Cost Network of Sensors Driving Intelligent 

Building Agents for Air Quality and Energy Control — establish the feasibility and proof of 

concept of a networked, affordable environmental sensor to enhance energy control and air 

quality regulation for commercial buildings.

FY2023 PHASE II AWARD

Criticality Sciences (Alexandria, Virginia) $400,000 

Network Resilience to Cascading Failure — validation of data inputs and outputs and the 

development of methods to use metrics to support resilience investment and financing for 

critical infrastructure such as water and power utilities.

InfraTrac Inc. (Silver Spring, Maryland) $400,000 

Analytical Quality Management for 3D-Printed Small Molecule Drugs — predictive modeling and 

near-infrared spectroscopy for 3D drug printing to enable customized doses, child-friendly 

formulations and easy-to-remember combination polypills.

Interlink Electronics Inc. (Irvine, California) $398,622 

Materials for Gravure Printing of Chemical Gas Sensors — development of manufacturing 

techniques such as roll-to-roll printing to enable mass production of electrochemical gas 

sensors, as well as suitable chemistries for large-scale printed sensors and testing methods.

Julia Jean LLC (Irvine, California) $400,000 

On-Chip Cold Cathode Electron Sources for X-Ray Generation and Imaging: Advancing a NISTPatented Technology — a project to identify and compare the variables in a new lithography 

procedure for the best process for manufacturing the technology at scale. 

Tiami LLC (Elk Grove, California) $399,979 

Digital TV-Based Positioning for First Responder Tracking in GPS-Denied Environments — 

prototyping of a portable digital television-based positioning receiver and demonstration of the 

use of over-the-air Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 broadcast 

transmissions to improve indoor positioning and navigation where GPS coverage is not 

available.