Luna Innovations Incorporated is an American developer and manufacturer of fiber-optics- and terahertz-based technology products for the aerospace, automotive, communications, defense, energy, infrastructure, security, and silicon photonics industries. It is headquartered in

Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. It lies in Southwest Virginia, along the Roanoke River, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Blue Ridge range of the greater Appalachian Mountains. Roanok ...

. Luna's products are used to test, measure, analyze, monitor, protect and improve products and processes to enhance the safety, security, and connectivity of people. Luna Innovations holds more than 450 U.S. and international patents in

fiber optics An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

and specializes in products for fiber-optic testing of components, modules and networks, as well as

integrated optics A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) or integrated optical circuit is a microchip containing two or more photonic components that form a functioning circuit. This technology detects, generates, transports, and processes light. Photonic integrated ci ...

and distributed

fiber-optic sensor A fiber-optic sensor is a sensor that uses optical fiber either as the sensing element ("intrinsic sensors"), or as a means of relaying signals from a remote sensor to the electronics that process the signals ("extrinsic sensors"). Fibers have m ...

solutions. Their fiber-optic test and measurement devices include optical analyzers, reflectometers, tunable lasers, optical switches and customized systems for strain, temperature, shape and position sensing. Luna Labs works with government agencies on technology development in these four core areas:

sensor A sensor is often defined as a device that receives and responds to a signal or stimulus. The stimulus is the quantity, property, or condition that is sensed and converted into electrical signal. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a devi ...

s and systems (

and

ultrasonics Ultrasound is sound with frequency, frequencies greater than 20 Hertz, kilohertz. This frequency is the approximate upper audible hearing range, limit of human hearing in healthy young adults. The physical principles of acoustic waves apply ...

); health sciences; and advanced materials including corrosion inhibitors, self-cleaning and self-healing

coating A coating is a covering that is applied to the surface of an object, or substrate. The purpose of applying the coating may be decorative, functional, or both. Coatings may be applied as liquids, gases or solids e.g. powder coatings. Paints ...

s, impact indicators,

flame retardant Flame retardants are a diverse group of chemicals that are added to manufactured materials, such as plastics and textiles, and surface finishes and coatings. Flame retardants are activated by the presence of an combustion, ignition source and pr ...

additives and

nanomaterial Nanomaterials describe, in principle, chemical substances or materials of which a single unit is sized (in at least one dimension) between 1 and 100 nm (the usual definition of nanoscale). Nanomaterials research takes a materials science ...

s; and

secure computing Secure Computing Corporation (SCC) was a public company that developed and sold computer security appliances and hosted services to protect users and data. McAfee acquired the company in 2008. The company also developed filtering systems used b ...

using hardware-based anti-tamper technologies. Luna Innovations was founded by Kent Murphy, an

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

professor at

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

and was originally headquartered in

Blacksburg, Virginia Blacksburg is an incorporated town in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 44,826 at the 2020 census. Blacksburg and the surrounding county is dominated economically and demographically by the presence of Virginia T ...

, and still has a manufacturing facility there. It moved its headquarters to Roanoke in September 2006. It has locations across Virginia: Blacksburg, Roanoke, and

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the seat of government of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Quee ...

, as well as locations in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Atlanta, Georgia; and Santa Clara and Chino, California. In December 2020, Luna Innovations also acquired OptaSense, which had 8 locations across Europe, North America and the Middle East. Luna Innovations had an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

in June 2006 with the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

trading symbol LUNA.

Acquisitions

Two companies developed from Luna Innovations have been sold to other companies. Luna Energy, which developed

pipeline A pipeline is a system of Pipe (fluid conveyance), pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries ...

monitoring sensors for the oil and gas industry, was acquired by oilfield services firm

Baker Hughes Baker Hughes Company is an American global energy technology company co-headquartered in Houston, Texas and London, UK. As one of the world's largest oil field services, industrial and energy technology companies, it provides products and serv ...

. Baker Hughes helped build Luna Energy in 2002 with a 40% stake in the organization. In December of 2004, Baker Hughes purchased the remaining 60%. Luna i-Monitoring, which developed a suite of integrated wireless sensors for remote monitoring for the oil and gas industry, was acquired by IHS Energy. Luna has acquired companies with adjacent and complementary technologies, including Micron Optics, General Photonics, OptaSense, and LIOS.

References

External links

Luna Innovations
Official Web site
Luna LinkedIn
Company LinkedIn site {{Authority control Companies based in Roanoke, Virginia Companies listed on the Nasdaq Virginia Tech