A recent infusion of $1 million from a private investor will allow IRradiance Glass Inc. to expand its manufacturing facility at the University of Central Florida, the company said this week.

IRradiance Glass makes chalcogenide glasses, which are transparent in the infrared spectrum, for infrared optical components and optical systems used in security and defense, medicine and environmental sensing, among other applications. The company has four employees, and its manufacturing operations are in the physics department at UCF.

"All products and systems that utilize infrared light, such as night-vision goggles or video game motion sensors, require infrared-transparent optics to manipulate that light. There are many materials that are used in infrared optical systems, yet only chalcogenide glasses have the flexibility to be tailored to the huge range of desired applications," said J. David Musgraves, Ph.D., president and CEO of IRradiance Glass.

Musgraves said IRradiance will use the capital to fund new equipment to expand its manufacturing operations at UCF, where it is a member of the UCF Business Incubation Program's Photonics Incubator. He added that IRradiance is currently pursuing seven separate contracts valued at more than $2.5 million and is working to secure more from a variety of sources.

For more information, visit: www.irradianceglass.com