Irvine Sensors Teams for 'Clip-On' Production

COSTA MESA, Calif., March 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Irvine Sensors Corporation (Nasdaq: IRSN) today announced that it has formalized its teaming agreement with Optics 1, Inc., of Manchester, New Hampshire, an optical systems designer and manufacturer, to support production opportunities for Clip-On Thermal Imager ("COTI") systems that have been jointly developed by the two firms over the last several years under government sponsorship.  The COTI has been designed to clip onto existing military night vision goggles and provide users with thermal images to complement the amplified low-light images that such goggles can currently provide.  Such dual capability has been long sought by the military and is intended to both enhance imagery obtainable from the existing goggles as well as providing images in circumstances where physical barriers, atmospheric conditions or lack of light limit the effectiveness of the existing goggles. There are presently about one million night vision goggles in U.S. military inventories that could potentially be retrofitted with the COTI system.

Under the newly-announced teaming agreement, which has been informally in effect for some time, Irvine Sensors and Optics 1 will exclusively share production responsibilities and intellectual property related to the COTI.   This will include support of the anticipated $37.8 million contract from the Naval Surface Warfare Center of Crane, Indiana that was recently announced as having been won by Optics 1 in a competitive procurement to provide COTIs for special operations forces.

Irvine Sensors Corporation (www.irvine-sensors.com), headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, is a vision systems company engaged in the development and sale of miniaturized infrared and electro-optical cameras, image processors and stacked chip assemblies and sale of higher level systems incorporating such products.  Irvine Sensors also conducts research and development related to high density electronics, miniaturized sensors, optical interconnection technology, high speed network security, image processing and low-power analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for diverse systems applications.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This message may contain forward-looking statements based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us. Words such as ''anticipates,'' ''expects,'' ''intends,'' ''plans,'' ''believes,'' ''seeks,'' ''estimates,'' ''may,'' ''will'' and variations of these words or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements include, but are not limited to, our ability to satisfy the delivery requirements of existing and anticipated COTI orders.  Such statements speak only as of the date hereof and are subject to change. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements as a result of various factors.

Important factors that may cause such a difference include, but are not limited to, our ability to raise additional debt or equity financing to meet the working capital needs of our business or COTI orders; the availability of components intended for integration into our thermal imaging cores products, including the COTI; military factors impacting the demand for the new military product application; impact of presently unknown competitive alternatives to our COTI products; and the general economic, market and political conditions and specific conditions that may impact our operations. Further information on Irvine Sensors Corporation, including additional risk factors that may affect our forward looking statements, is contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, our Current Reports on Form 8-K and our other SEC filings that are available through the SEC's website (www.sec.gov).

SOURCE Irvine Sensors Corporation