COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 8 -- Columbus-based Srico Inc. has been awarded a US Army Small Business Technology Transfer contract to develop new optical communication technology to improve signal transmission in chemical and biological detection systems. The University of Dayton will collaborate with Srico in this effort. Srico said remote sensing systems that detect and identify chemical and biological agents would ideally work from as far away as possible, but increasing the distances without signal degradation is a challenge. Srico said it is working to improve the signal-to-noise ratio by 20 dB or more, which would more than triple the typical standoff measurement distance. The company said the emerging nonlinear optic technology "represents the next frontier in communications, sensing and signal processing." In addition to chemical and biological detection applications, it may also be used in a variety of ultrahigh performance optical devices, such as environmental pollution monitoring systems, biological contamination monitoring in the food service industry and other chemical and biological monitoring systems, the company said. "The enabling technology will lead to new laser technologies in second harmonic generation and optical amplification," said Sri Sriram, president of Srico. "It could also be used for the creation of a variety of photonic devices including frequency converters, modulators, filters, switches and sensors used in ultrafast fiber optic communications and high-performance sensor systems." Srico said it expects the technology developed in this program will step up manufacturing and substantially lower the unit cost of optical components. Srico specializes in high-performance optical integrated circuits and optoelectronic subsystems for military and aerospace applications, optical communication networks, sensors, test instrumentation and medical devices. For more information, visit: www.srico.com