Berkeley, CA, January 24, 2004 Iris AO, Inc., an innovative developer of adaptive optics systems, today announced that it had been awarded an SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation under its "Electronics" topic.

The grant will allow Iris AO to research a novel means of controlling the movement or "actuation" of its deformable mirrors using piezoelectric technology. This approach promises to further development of very high speed, low-power adaptive optics systems. This novel approach to deformable mirror actuation has the potential to yield an order of magnitude improvement over traditional approaches.

About The National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, with an annual budget of nearly $5.6 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 universities and institutions.

About Iris AO, Inc.
Iris AO is building small-scale, micro-electro mechanical (MEMS) AO systems that can radically improve the performance of optical systems. Iris AO technologies offer major improvements in cost, size, power consumption and flexibility over traditional AO. Iris AO's systems can dramatically improve image quality for a host of applications such as biomedical/retinal imaging, satellite/airborne surveillance, portable laser communications, and optical guidance among many others. Iris AO can be contacted in the US at (510) 849-2375 or www.irisao.com.