A cold advantage in the Sonoran Desert

A small Tucson manufacturer is positioning itself to benefit from Arizona’s expanding semiconductor, aerospace and defense economy by applying nearly six decades of experience with extreme cold. IRLabs, a company of about 20 employees, makes cryogenic systems and infrared detectors that help ground based telescopes detect faint light from distant objects. Now, its leaders say the same capabilities could support photonics, quantum devices, semiconductor testing, military technology and instruments designed for space.

That shift matters to Tucson because it builds on an industrial strength the region has cultivated for more than a century. Southern Arizona’s astronomy community has helped establish expertise in optics, precision manufacturing and scientific instrumentation, while aerospace manufacturing is already about 10 times more concentrated in the region than it is in the average American metropolitan area. As Arizona attracts new investment in chips and space security, IRLabs hopes Tucson’s existing workforce and specialized companies can become part of a much larger technology supply chain.

The company’s central skill is keeping detectors extraordinarily cold. Its cryostats, which are machined from aluminum and copper, sealed against air and wired by hand, can maintain temperatures near minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit. Cooling suppresses the instrument’s own heat emissions, allowing a detector to register extremely faint infrared signals that may have traveled billions of miles. A cryostat under construction at the company’s Tucson facility in September was awaiting wiring before a detector could be installed.

IRLabs traces its origins to 1967, when University of Arizona astronomer Frank Low founded the company. Low, known by some as the father of infrared astronomy, developed a gallium doped germanium bolometer, a detector that measures infrared light through a tiny increase in temperature. He placed the device inside an aluminum, vacuum insulated container that could protect it during launch and its return to Earth. That early work helped drive the development of infrared astronomy in Tucson.

Since then, IRLabs has produced roughly 5,000 cryostats. Its equipment has supported the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, the Gemini telescopes, the European Southern Observatory in Chile and an imaging detector at the Large Binocular Telescope on Mount Graham. The company also built the cryogenic system used to test a mirror mechanism before it flew aboard the James Webb Space Telescope. Its cryostats are scheduled to help screen detectors at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Arizona for NEO Surveyor, a planned space telescope intended to search for asteroids.

Company leaders now see opportunities beyond traditional astronomy. IRLabs has developed several versions of an Infrared Emission Microscope, which is used to analyze failures in semiconductor devices. Reganne Fornstrom, the company’s business growth consultant, said that technology could be adapted for testing photonics devices as Arizona’s semiconductor industry expands. The state has attracted more than $100 billion in semiconductor investment since passage of the 2022 CHIPS Act, creating demand for specialized testing and manufacturing services.

Other possible markets include quantum technology, where devices such as single photon detectors and nanomechanical resonators require highly controlled conditions. Photonics and quantum systems can also feed into satellite technology, radar processing and navigation. CEO Manny Teran said the company could potentially quadruple its size over the next several decades as those industries mature. He described the business as known for keeping things cold, while emphasizing that its engineering and manufacturing skills can be applied to related fields.

To support that expansion, IRLabs is launching Sub K Manufacturing, a new effort named for the sub Kelvin temperatures its systems can reach, just above absolute zero. The initiative will offer precision machining, prototyping and small quantity production to companies that have designs but lack the equipment or staff to build complex parts. IRLabs acquired a second Tucson building in 2020 for manufacturing, adding computer controlled and manual machining alongside its cryogenic equipment.

The company says its size allows it to work closely with customers and make changes quickly. Administration, sales, engineering, testing, wiring and production all operate under the same roof, and Teran said an adjustment can sometimes be made in an hour rather than moving through the slower processes of a larger manufacturer. That flexibility could fit state and federal efforts to make aerospace technology acquisition easier, including the Arizona Commerce Authority’s Arizona Office of Defense Innovation and the Pentagon funded Southwest Mission Acceleration Center. Teran and Chief Operating Officer Chris Foster are especially interested in contributing to NASA’s planned Habitable Worlds Observatory, which would search for Earth like planets. The detectors for that mission are still being developed, and building systems sensitive enough for the project would require IRLabs to advance beyond its current cryostat capabilities. For Foster, the company’s appeal is that significant scientific work is already being done inside two relatively modest Tucson buildings, with tools that have enabled research around the world.