Aosense, Inc.

Aosense Inc., a Fremont, California-based manufacturer of quantum sensing technologies, operates as a prime contractor on federal research and development awards, competing predominantly under the Small Business total small-business set-aside category across SBIR and STTR programs. The company specializes in atom optics sensors, cold atomic beam sources, quantum gravity gradiometers, laser-pumped atomic clocks, and related quantum-enhanced navigation and timing systems for defense and civilian space agencies.

Aosense's customer concentration centers on defense research and space agencies. The top five funding agencies account for 84% of combined potential value, led by the Air Force Research Laboratory (26 awards, $47.2 million) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (6 awards, $42.3 million), with the Department of the Navy Office of Naval Research (35 awards, $9.8 million), NASA Shared Services Center (15 awards, $9.7 million), and NASA Goddard Space Center (7 awards, $8.8 million) rounding out the set. The award-count and potential-value rankings diverge notably: ONR dominates volume (35 awards) but ranks third in dollars, while DARPA anchors most of the value with only six awards, signaling larger individual contract magnitudes from DARPA. Aosense's work spans SBIR Phase I, II, and III contracts, as well as purchase orders for delivered hardware. Recent representative awards include a $1.7 million Army SBIR Phase II contract (awarded April 13, 2026) for high-efficiency low-power microwave oscillator technologies for rubidium atomic clocks, a $3 million Shared Services Center SBIR Phase III award (August 23, 2024) for quantum gravity gradiometer atomic physics package maturation, a $1.7 million Naval Air Warfare Center SBIR Phase II contract (September 24, 2024) for advanced quantum sensing research and development, and a $149,914 Phase I SBIR award (September 29, 2025) for an advanced narrow-linewidth tunable laser for Rydberg sensors. The company also delivers manufactured quantum sensing hardware under purchase orders—a $197,350 cold calcium beam system from Naval Observatory (March 19, 2025) and a $285,000 external cavity diode laser and atomic beam ovens order from Naval Observatory (April 29, 2024) exemplify this product-focused work.

Activity has been volatile year-to-year: 30 awards in 2022, then a sharp drop to 1 award in 2023, with recovery to 6 awards in 2024 and 4 in 2025, followed by 1 award in 2026. Only three awards carry ultimate completion dates within the next twenty-four months (combined potential value $12.2 million), limiting near-term recompete exposure. The vendor's award portfolio clusters around NAICS codes for research and development in physical, engineering, and life sciences (58 and 52 awards respectively), with secondary concentration in laboratory instrument and semiconductor manufacturing. Aosense competes as a prime on 76% of its awards; its 24% sub-award footprint routes primarily through Assurance Technology Corp (multiple R&D labor and materials sub-awards in 2022) and Aerodyne-Sgt Engineering Services (a February 2025 integrated laser delivery under the MIST II space systems engineering task-order contract). The company also acts as a sub-recipient on federal grants from Teledyne Scientific & Imaging (physics package and electronics design work in 2024 and 2025).

SCI-reported federal service contract invoicing totaled $921 thousand across FY2022–FY2024 (FY2022: $185 thousand, FY2023: $325 thousand, FY2024: $412 thousand), reflecting roughly 0.4–0.5 FTEs delivered per fiscal year on contracts above the $150,000 reporting threshold. On federal services contracts captured in SCI, median government-paid rates ran around $309/hr, with senior labor pricing through $517/hr and entry-level rates near $185/hr. Aosense reported zero sub-engagement hours across its SCI-reportable prime contracts, indicating the company executes its federal services work with internal labor.