Inprentus says demand is surging for dual-use infrared gratings

Inprentus says it is filling a supply gap for custom infrared gratings used in defense, space and commercial systems. The Champaign, Illinois company says demand is rising across satellite, laser and counter-drone markets because few suppliers can make high-precision master gratings that withstand extreme conditions.

Why it matters: - Dual-use infrared gratings sit inside systems used for national security, space and advanced sensing. - Inprentus says the market is constrained by a shortage of suppliers that can serve both commercial and defense customers. - The company says that shortage can create a supply-chain chokepoint for critical technologies.

What happened: - Inprentus said it is meeting rising demand for custom infrared gratings used in dual-use applications. - The company is based in Champaign, Illinois. - Demand is coming from national security, defense, space and emerging industrial applications. - The company said it has sold more than 200 LIDAR gratings to one customer over the past two years. - James Lee, business development associate at Inprentus, said the company’s digital manufacturing platform supports volume production with high grating-to-grating consistency. - Subha Kumar, chief executive officer of Inprentus, said the company is a domestic scale-up partner for deep-tech optical grating components.

The details: - Key markets include terrestrial sensing, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites in low Earth orbit, optical communication satellites, high-energy lasers for space power beaming and counter-unmanned aircraft systems. - In terrestrial sensing, gratings tune and steer a pulsed long-wave infrared laser for long-range standoff detection of toxic gases. - The system uses differential absorption LIDAR, or DIAL, to fire infrared pulses and read the reflected light. - The wavelength and intensity of the return identify the gas, and the return time can locate it at ranges of up to 4 miles. - Several commercial space companies and government laboratories have asked Inprentus this year to design and manufacture blazed diffraction gratings for compact infrared spectrometers on small satellites. - NASA contracted Inprentus this summer for an optical design study for a blazed grating for mid-wave infrared and long-wave infrared spectroscopy. - The NASA mission is intended to track the recovery of Earth’s ozone layer and support longer-range weather forecasting. - Two commercial space companies and a U.S. government laboratory are in design and manufacturing discussions with Inprentus about infrared blazed gratings for Earth observation satellite constellations. - In early 2026, the Taiwan Space Agency awarded Inprentus a contract to produce convex spherical diffraction gratings for a miniature greenhouse gas observatory. - Those gratings are designed for imaging clouds and gas plumes by their MWIR and LWIR signatures, including methane and carbon dioxide. - Inprentus said it will soon deliver the gratings to TASA for ground testing. - Defense demand is being driven by counter-drone systems and space security. - High-energy lasers used in those systems rely on spectral beam combining to merge multiple lower-power lasers into one higher-power beam. - In those systems, one or two master diffraction gratings per high-energy laser are central to combining the beams. - Kumar said Inprentus is in discussions with multiple companies in counter-UAS and space power beaming. - Kumar said the company recently tested a bare gold blazed grating at near-infrared wavelengths and saw no damage at intensities up to 600 kW/cm². - Inprentus said it is now developing specialized coatings for even higher damage resistance. - The company was founded in 2012 by University of Illinois professor Peter Abbamonte to supply gratings for synchrotron beamlines. - Inprentus said the company’s origins in soft X-ray beamlines helped prepare it for conditions such as ultra-high vacuum, intense radiation and high heat loads.

Between the lines: - Inprentus is positioning itself as both a custom shop and a scale manufacturer. - That combination matters because defense and space buyers often need specialized optics in limited quantities, but they also need reliable domestic supply. - The company’s pitch centers on resilience, not just performance. - The grating market appears to be tightening around a small number of suppliers that can meet durability and precision requirements.

What's next: - Inprentus plans to develop specialized coatings for its infrared gratings to withstand higher laser damage thresholds. - The company is moving forward with ground testing deliveries for Taiwan Space Agency work. - Additional work could follow from ongoing design and manufacturing talks with commercial space companies, government laboratories and defense customers.

The bottom line: - Inprentus is betting that the same precision grating technology can serve satellites, sensors and lasers if it can be made reliably at scale.