National Science Foundation awards MONSTR Sense Technologies SBIR Phase IIB Grant to Commercialize Ultrafast Imaging for Materials Analysis

New funding accelerates maturation of the KRAKEN™ ultrafast microscope for advanced materials science research

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES, July 17, 2025 – MONSTR Sense Technologies, LLC, today announced it has been awarded a $500,000 Phase IIB Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The funding will contribute to continued improvements to MONSTR Sense’s BIGFOOT® spectrometer and  NESSIE® laser-scanning microscope, as well as accelerate the commercialization of KRAKEN™, MONSTR Sense’s ultrafast technology platform for material characterization and inspection of compound semiconductors used in industrial applications.

The Phase IIB award is based on the successful completion of Phase II objectives and the generation of more than $1 million in revenue from products developed based on both Phase I and Phase II technical R&D. MONSTR Sense’s NESSIE® laser-scanning microscope, as well as the KRAKEN™ Turnkey Ultrafast Microscope, were released as part of Phase I and Phase II development and emphasize MONSTR Sense’s commitment to providing Ultrafast for Imaging solutions.

Ultrafast Imaging is already used in academic labs to probe the morphology and electronic functionality of advanced materials, from two-dimensional materials and perovskites to compound semiconductors such as silicon carbide or gallium nitride. KRAKEN’s ability to easily provide hypertemporal, hyperspectral, and volumetric imaging enables users to gain insight into: (1) the inhomogeneity of material lifetimes and dynamics; (2) distinguish sample features with different spectral responses due to material composition, concentration, strain, defect states; and (3) obtain the three-dimensional morphology of samples with high axial resolution.

The KRAKEN™ turnkey ultrafast microscope makes ultrafast imaging compact and accessible to researchers in academic labs and shared user facilities. 

“With its automated broadband wavelength operation, easy-to-use and eye-safe interface, and stable long-term alignment, KRAKEN™ takes the complication out of ultrafast imaging and ultrafast experiments in general”, said MONSTR Sense President and Co-Founder Eric Martin, Ph.D. “With the help of America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF, we have moved our technology from proof-of-principle to commercial reality in academic and industrial R&D settings. With the Phase IIB award, the NSF enables us to mature the KRAKEN Turnkey Ultrafast Microscope platform with enhanced manufacturability, more capable analysis software and higher degrees of automation. ”

With the Phase IIB Funding, MONSTR can provide customers with a powerful, non-destructive tool to unlock new insights into carrier dynamics, defect physics, and quantum phenomena, accelerating the discovery and development of next-generation materials.

Additionally, the further development of its KRAKEN Microscope platform will enable MONSTR Sense to improve automation of its existing BIGFOOT® and NESSIE® platforms, to increase accessibility and improve long-term system stability.

About the U.S. NSF’s Small Business Programs

America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF awards more than $200 million annually to startups and small businesses, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact. Startups working across almost all areas of science and technology can receive up to $2 million to support research and development, helping de-risk technology for commercial success. America’s Seed Fund is congressionally mandated through the Small Business Innovation Research program. The NSF is an independent federal agency with a budget of about $9 billion that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering.

For more information, visit seedfund.nsf.gov.

About MONSTR Sense Technologies

Founded in 2018 by Eric Martin, Ph.D., and Professor Steven Cundiff, MONSTR Sense is a technology company spun out of the University of Michigan. The company’s first products, BIGFOOT® and NESSIE®, are equipment designed for scientists looking to augment their labs with ultrafast technology that is easy to use. MONSTR Sense’s newest product, the KRAKEN™ Turnkey Ultrafast Microscope is a first-of-its-kind ultrafast microscope designed for rapid and automated acquisition of hyperspectral, hypertemporal, and volumetric images, to enable advanced analysis of a wide array of material systems.

The goal of MONSTR Sense is to offer Ultrafast for Imaging to a wide variety of end users, including scientists conducting fundamental research, as well as for semiconductor manufacturers at all stages of the semiconductor development process.

For more information, visit monstrsense.com.

SOURCE: MONSTR Sense Technologies, LLC