Senseeker Corp

Senseeker Corp, a small business based in Goleta, California, designs and manufactures advanced infrared sensor technologies—digital pixel readout integrated circuits (DPROICs), focal plane arrays, cryogenic test equipment, and related optoelectronic components—and competes as both a prime contractor (56% of recent awards) and subcontractor (44%) under predominantly Total Small Business set-asides on defense and aerospace R&D contracts.

Senseeker's customer base concentrates heavily on defense research agencies. The top five funding entities account for 68% of recent prime awards by count and 89% by combined potential value. The Office of Naval Research leads by dollar volume at $6.9 million across three awards, followed by the Army Materiel Command's Research Development and Engineering Command at $5.3 million across nine awards and the Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory at $4.3 million across ten awards. The company has worked with fifteen distinct federal agencies, spanning Army, Air Force, Navy, Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Air Warfare Center, NASA Shared Services Center, and others. Award concentration skews toward Army and Air Force SBIR programs, with 26 of 41 awards coded to NAICS 541712 (Physical and Engineering Sciences R&D, excluding Nanotechnology and Biotechnology).

Representative prime work includes a $6.7 million Office of Naval Research definitive contract (December 2022, completed July 2026) for a complete readout integrated circuit solution with tested ROIC wafers, test electronics, software, and cryogenic sensor test unit under the MUST HITS DROIC program; a $2.35 million Air Force Research Laboratory cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (March 2022) for a large-format high dynamic range long-wave infrared solution for airborne applications; a $1.8 million Air Force Research Laboratory SBIR Phase II award (August 2025) for multi-spectral infrared focal plane array development; and a $1.7 million Naval Sea Systems Command SBIR Phase II award (November 2022) for advanced sensor R&D. Most recent activity includes an April 2026 Army $2 million definitive contract (Total Small Business set-aside) for evolution of 3GEN+ advanced process intellectual property, with completion scheduled October 2027 and performance in Golden, Colorado.

Activity has accelerated sharply—one award in 2023, nine in 2024, thirteen in 2025—with three awards (combined potential value $10.5 million) reaching completion within the next twenty-four months and facing recompete. Senseeker holds positions on the Information Analysis Center Multiple-Award Contract (three task orders) and the Air Force Research Laboratory Indefinite Delivery Contract FA852821D0008 (one task order). As a subcontractor, Senseeker supplies infrared focal plane array components, ROIC wafers, cryogenic test equipment, and engineering labor to Northrop Grumman (advanced staring infrared search and track systems), Leidos (electro-optic sensing and defensive electronic warfare), KBR Wyle Services (optoelectronic technology research for AFRL), DRS Network & Imaging Systems (high-rep-rate integrated optics and lidar detector systems), The Aerospace Corporation (sensor testbed engineering), Amentum Services (maritime electro-optic infrared systems), and others. The vendor's footprint centers on next-generation infrared and millimeter-wave sensor development for contested-environment military applications, with particular depth in focal plane array architecture, readout circuitry, and cryogenic integration.