DISCOVERY SEMICONDUCTORS, INC.

Semiconductors · Private

Ultra-low capacitance quadrant InGaAs photoreceivers for space-based gravitational wave detection

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Updated Oct 23, 2026 · discoverysemi.com

Sector: Semiconductors
Total capital: $5.2M

Federal grants: $225K; 2 awards · 2017; Rank in peer group#20 of 57
Private capital raised: None on recordNo Form D filings on SEC EDGAR. Some raises are not filed.
Federal contracts: $5M; 90 awards · Defense, Commerce, NASA; Rank in Semiconductors#60 of 707
Granted patents: 2; 4 pending · first 2021; Rank in peer group#10 of 57

Capital timeline

Latest events

Sep 2025Federal contractDefense · Photodiodes$60K
May 2024Federal contractDefense · High Power Balanced Pin Photodiodes$31K
Jul 2023Federal contractDefense · DSC100S-39-FC/APC-SMA-1$29K
Aug 2021Federal contractDefense · Balanced Pin Photodiodes To 16+GHZ$158K
Jul 2020Federal contractNASA · Pn DSC-R212-89-FC/APC-G-2 10PLUS Ghz Linear Agc Balanced, Uncooled 2.2 Micron Wavelength Pin Photoreceiver$15K
Sep 2019Federal contractDefense · Ingaas Pin Photodiode$21K
Apr 2019Federal contractDefense · Photodiodes Pr# 56-9506-19$31K

Show 85 earlier federal awards

Mar 2019Federal contractNASA · NASA Requires Five Variations Of Short-wave Infrared (swir) Ingaas Photodiode Subassemblies For The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem (pace) Mission. As Described In NASA S Request For Proposal, OCI-DET-SOW-0067 And Oci-det-spec- 0015 Documents, The Primary Technical Challenge For These Ingaas Photodiodes Is To Achieve A Capacitance Less Than 11 Pf At Near Photovoltaic Operation With An Active Area Diameter Of 350M. Such A Low Capacitance Device Requires An Ingaas Photodiode Stru$734K
Oct 2018Federal contractDefense · Photodiode/antenna Pr# 56-9544-18$25K
Sep 2018Federal contractNASA · DSC-R413-1-C$50K
Nov 2017Federal contractDefense · Photodiodes Pr# 56-9502-18$66K
Oct 2017Federal contractDefense · Photodiodes Pr# 56-9539-17$21K
Sep 2017Federal contractDefense · Photodiodes Pr# 56-9538-17$24K
Sep 2017Federal contractDefense · Photodetector$41K
Sep 2017Federal contractDefense · Photodiode Pr# 56-9528-17$41K
Aug 2017Federal contractNASA · Igf::ot::igfhigh Speed Detectors For The Halo LIDAR Seed Laser Subsystem.$8K
Jun 2017Federal grantNASA · Phase I · 2 Micron Wavelength Coherent Universal LIDAR With Adjustable Resolution and Sensitivity$100K
Jun 2017Federal grantNASA · Phase I · Space Flight of Ultra-Low Noise Quad Photoreceivers for Laser Interferometric Gravity Wave Detection$125K
May 2017Federal contractDefense · Photodiodes Pr# 56-9512-17$33K
Dec 2016Federal contractDefense · Photodiodes Pr# 56-9541-16$25K
Sep 2016Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$9K
Jun 2016Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$20K
Mar 2016Federal contractDefense · Photodiodes$10K
Sep 2015Federal contractDefense · Photodiodes$6K
Aug 2015Federal contractCommerce · Two (2) Extended Ingaas Balanced Photo Receivers For Use In The Greenhouse Gas Spectroscopy Project.$20K
Jul 2015Federal contractDefense · Photodiodes$6K
Apr 2015Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$10K
Apr 2015Federal contractDefense · DSC10H-39-FC/APC-K-1 Photodetector$11K
Feb 2015Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$10K
Dec 2014Federal contractDefense · Firm Fixed Price To Discovery Semiconductors, Inc, $13,410.$13K
Oct 2014Federal contractDefense · Resistor$49K
Oct 2014Federal contractDefense · Pin Photodiode$20K
Oct 2014Federal contractDefense · Photo Receiver$24K
Sep 2014Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$23K
May 2014Federal contractDefense · Progress Report$80K
Apr 2014Federal contractDefense · Photodiodes$24K
Mar 2014Federal contractDefense · Highly Linear Balanced Photodetectors$10K
Sep 2013Federal contractDefense · Semiconductor$6K
Sep 2013Federal contractDefense · Photodiodes$24K
Aug 2013Federal contractDefense · Fiber Coupled Photodiode$14K
Aug 2013Federal contractDefense · Igf::ot::igf Packaging High Power Photodetectors For 100 Mhz To 100 Ghz RF Photonic Applications$150K
Jun 2013Federal contractDefense · Bandwidth Ingaas Pin$16K
Feb 2013Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$18K
Nov 2012Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$25K
Sep 2012Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$24K
Sep 2012Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$24K
Sep 2012Federal contractNASA · 2.2 Micron Wavelength Ingaas Photodiode$4K
Aug 2012Federal contractDefense · High Pwr Photodiode$49K
Aug 2012Federal contractCommerce · Linear Balanced Photoreceiver$9K
Aug 2012Federal contractDefense · Photodetector$14K
Apr 2012Federal contractDefense · Phodtodiode$24K
Apr 2012Federal contractDefense · Balanced Pin Photodiodes$9K
Jan 2012Federal contractNASA · Fiber Optic Instruments: Balanced Pin Photoreceivers, Balanced Pin Photodiodes, And Shipping$24K
Jan 2012Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$19K
Jan 2012Federal contractDefense · Photodetector$15K
Dec 2011Federal contractDefense · DSC-R603-39-FC/UPC-K-2-G$33K
Dec 2011Federal contractDefense · 36-44 Ghz Photoreceiver$7K
Nov 2011Federal contractDefense · Balanced Pin Photodiode$7K
Sep 2011Federal contractDefense · Item 1 On Quote JM1106022, Custom Pin+ti$8K
Jun 2011Federal contractNASA · Broadband Focal Plane Arrays, Operating In Uv-to-swir Wavelength Range, Are Required For Atmospheric Monitoring Of Greenhouse Gases. Currently, Separate Image Sensors Are Used For Different Spectral Sub-bands: Gan For Uv, Si For Visible, And Ingaas For Swir, Requiring Expensive Component-level Integration For Hyper-spectral Imaging. Also, The Size Of The Ingaas Focal Plane Arrays Is Currently Limited By The Inp Substrate Area. We Propose To Develop A 640 X 512 Uv-to-swir Focal Plane Array Senso$600K
Apr 2011Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$8K
Aug 2010Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$23K
Jun 2010Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$17K
Jun 2010Federal contractInterior · Sibr 101-008: High Power, Highly Linear Photodiode Arrays With Integrated RF Power Combiner For 2 - 20 Ghz Applications$99K
Feb 2010Federal contractNASA · We Propose To Design And Develop 2X2 Quad P-i-n Ingaas Photoreceivers Having The Following Characteristics: (a) Active Area Diameter 0.75 Mm; (b) Wavelength Coverage 850 To 1700 Nm, With Responsivity Of 0.7 A/w At 1064 Nm; (c) Bandwidth Up To 20 Mhz For The Individual Quadrant; (d) Group DELAY<6 Degrees/mhz; (e) Photodiode Capacitance For Individual Quadrant OF<1.5 Pf At A Reverse Bias Of 5V; (f) Cross Talk Between The Neighboring Quadrants Of -45 To -50 Db; (g) Equivalent Excess Noise Per Quadr$600K
Feb 2010Federal contractCommerce · Ingaas Pin Photodiode$6K
Jan 2010Federal contractNASA · Broadband Focal Plane Arrays, Operating In Uv-to-swir Wavelength Range, Are Required For Atmospheric Monitoring Of Greenhouse Gases. Currently, Separate Image Sensors Are Used For Different Spectral Sub-bands: Gan For Uv, Si For Visible, And Ingaas For Swir, Requiring Expensive Component-level Integration For Hyper-spectral Imaging. Also, The Size Of The Ingaas Focal Plane Arrays Is Currently Limited By The Inp Substrate Area. We Propose A Gaas/ingap/ingaas Based Photodiode On Standard Gaas Sub$100K
Jan 2010Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$22K
Jan 2010Federal contractDefense · Photoreceivers$20K
Dec 2009Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$16K
Nov 2009Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$22K
Oct 2009Federal contractDefense · Scientific Research Services$70K
Sep 2009Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$5K
Sep 2009Federal contractDefense · Photoreceiver$3K
Jun 2009Federal contractCommerce · Recovery SBIR Phase II Award TAS::13 0549::TAS Arra::yes::arra$300K
Apr 2009Federal contractDefense · Photodiodes$10K
Apr 2009Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$23K
Apr 2009Federal contractDefense · Diode/receivers$18K
Feb 2009Federal contractDefense · Photodiodes$20K
Jan 2009Federal contractNASA · Ultra-low Noise Quad Photoreceiver For Space Based Laser Interferometric Gravity Wave Detection Gravity Wave Detection Using Space-based Long-baseline Laser Interferometric Sensors Imposes Stringent Noise Requirements On The System Components, Including The Large Area Photoreceiver Front Ends. The Proposed Innovation Utilizes Dual Depletion Region Technology To Produce A Large Area (1MM Diameter) 2X2 Quad P-i-n Ingaas Photodiode Array Having ~2.1PF Capacitance Per Quadrant. The Small Capacitanc$100K
Dec 2008Federal contractDefense · Semiconductor Equip$13K
Oct 2008Federal contractDefense · Photoreceiver & Lab Buddy Option$3K
Sep 2008Federal contractDefense · 56-5213098 Wafer$6K
Sep 2008Federal contractDefense · Amplifier And Receiver$19K
Sep 2008Federal contractDefense · Resistor$25K
Aug 2008Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$23K
Aug 2008Federal contractDefense · Baa Topic "ultra-linear High Power Handling P-i-n Photdiodes" Se-em$375K
Aug 2008Federal contractDefense · Photodetector$9K
Jul 2008Federal contractCommerce · SBIR Phase I Award$90K
Jul 2008Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$18K
Jun 2008Federal contractDefense · Photodiode$5K
Mar 2008Federal contractDefense · Analog$25K

Federal awards are summed by year (92 awards); hover a bar for the split. Form D reports securities sold, which can differ from an announced round; filings are numbered in the order they were made.

Standing among 57 peers

Line = median

Semiconductors · Device

Federal grants#20 · top 35%
Granted patents#10 · top 18%
Linked publications#1 · top 2%

Cumulative measures favor older companies. Rankings describe position today, not outcome. Below the median, ranks show as a band rather than a number.

Founders and team

No founders are linked to this company yet.

Founders appear once a person is matched to the company through its own patents, grants or filings. We never infer people from social profiles.

Checked: USPTO inventors; federal award principal investigators; SEC Form D related persons · Oct 23, 2026

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What it has protected

USPTO · 2 granted of 6

Nov 15, 2022GrantedProgrammable Pseudo-Random Sequence Generator for Use with Universal Lidar and Its Associated Method of OperationUSPTOUS 11,500,615
May 4, 2021GrantedSystem and Method for Improving the Resolution and Sensitivity of LidarUSPTOUS 10,996,334
PendingEfficient Implementation of Programmable Pseudo-Random Noise Generator for Universal Lidar with Adjustable Resolution and SensitivityUSPTOApplication 62845278

Show all 6 patent records

Programmable Pseudo-Random Sequence Generator for Use with Universal Lidar and Its Associated Method of OperationNov 15, 2022 · US 11,500,615Granted
System and Method for Improving the Resolution and Sensitivity of LidarMay 4, 2021 · US 10,996,334Granted
Efficient Implementation of Programmable Pseudo-Random Noise Generator for Universal Lidar with Adjustable Resolution and SensitivityApplication 62845278Pending
System and Method for Improving the Resolution and Sensitivity of LidarApplication 62634441Pending
Method And Apparatus For Repeaterless High-speed Optical Transmission Over Single-mode Fiber Using Coherent Receiver And Electronic Dispersion CompensationApplication PCTUS2008012424Pending
Feedback-controlled Coherent Optical Receiver With Electrical Compensation/equalizationApplication PCTUS2007005308Pending

Recent research by its founders

In situ 100 MeV proton and gamma radiation testing of 25 Gbaud balanced photoreceivers20250 cites
In-situ gamma radiation testing of 2.4 micron wavelength extended InGaAs photodiodes at dry ice temperatures20240 cites
Radiation testing of 25 Gbaud balanced photoreceivers with bismuth ions for linear energy transfer up to 70 MeV cm^2/mg20240 cites

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Quintessent Inc.Similar federal contract value in Semiconductors · $4.6M in contracts
IQ-Analog CorpSimilar federal contract value in Semiconductors · $4.6M in contracts

Sources

Federal grants from SBIR/STTR, NIH, NSF and DoD records. Federal contracts from USAspending.gov. Private capital from SEC Form D. Patents from USPTO. Publications from OpenAlex. Regulatory activity from the Federal Register. Press matched on company name.

How to read this page

Figures show associations in public records, not causes or predictions. Nothing here is investment advice. An em-dash means no record was found under this company's name, not that none exists.

Data freshness

SEC Form D filings through Oct 23, 2026. SBIR and STTR awards through Oct 21, 2026.