What Blueshift Optics does

Blueshift Optics, LLC is a privately held radiation-detection materials company founded in 2020 and headquartered in Oakland, California. The company develops and sells Organic Glass Scintillators (OGS) — a stable, amorphous, small-molecule host matrix containing performance-enhancing additives such as wavelength shifters, produced via additive manufacturing (melt-casting) into molds and complex shapes. Its principal product, BSO-100, is a highly luminescent scintillator with pulse shape discrimination capability that delivers light yields above 17,000 ph/MeVee and prompt emission decay timing of 1.3–1.6 ns, with performance characteristics positioned as comparable to crystalline trans-stilbene while offering the form-factor flexibility of plastic scintillators. Custom fabrications — including right circular cylinders, bars up to 20 cm in length, plates, and pixelated arrays — are produced for integration with PMTs and SiPMs, and a pulse-shape-discriminating plastic scintillator line and an SiPM module prototype are in development.

The company serves a research-focused customer base centered on U.S. national laboratories, university nuclear physics groups, and instrumentation engineering teams, with collaboration evidence in the form of more than a dozen peer-reviewed publications (2016–2022) in journals including Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, JINST, JACS, and IEEE NSS/MIC. Its business model is hardware sales of scintillator materials, with a publicly downloadable BSO-100 price list for standard parts covered by master molds and quote-based pricing for custom fabrications that require customer engagement, custom molds, and longer lead times. Non-dilutive R&D funding has been received via a $255,788 Phase I SBIR award from America's Seed Fund (NSF, 2021), supporting development of pixelated neutron detector arrays via additive manufacturing. The company operates with 1–10 employees, ships from Oakland, CA, and conducts all commercial activity directly through its own website.

Name

Blueshift Optics

Legal name

Blueshift Optics, LLC

Website

https://blueshiftoptics.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Blueshift Optics develops and sells Organic Glass Scintillators (OGS) — principally the BSO-100 product — for neutron/gamma discrimination in radiation detection, serving national laboratories, university nuclear physics groups, and detector instrumentation teams via direct sales of standard and custom-fabricated scintillator parts.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Radiation Detection Materials

NAICS

Glass and Glass Product Manufacturing (32721), Electric Lamp Bulb and Other Lighting Equipment Manufacturing (335139)

SIC

Optical Instruments & Lenses (3827), Glass Products, Made Of Purchased Glass (3231)

akta.pro primary industry

Optoelectronics & Photonics (LED/Laser/Optical ICs) (HDAHAAAH)

akta.pro secondary industry

Display & Optoelectronics Chemicals (OLED/LCD materials, polarizer chemicals) (IMAEAKAN)

Keywords

• Organic scintillators
• Neutron detection materials
• Radiation detection hardware
• Pulse shape discrimination
• Nuclear instrumentation

Headquarters

HQ city

Richmond

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Standard Organic Glass Scintillator part sales: Sale of BSO-100 products in standard form factors covered by master molds, with pricing published via downloadable BSO-100 Price List (PDF) on the company website. One-time hardware sales of radiation detection materials.
2. Custom Organic Glass Scintillator fabrication: Quote-based custom fabrication services for RCCs, bars, plates, pixelated arrays, and other geometries. Customers are asked to engage early for funding applications; additional lead time applies for custom mold fabrication. Quote-driven, project-based revenue.
3. Pulse-Shape-Discriminating plastic scintillators (in development): Future revenue stream from PSD plastic scintillator products that blend organic glass with optical-grade plastics; currently in formulation finalization and not yet on sale. Anticipated to be one-time hardware sales.
4. Non-dilutive R&D funding (SBIR grant): Phase I SBIR funding received from America's Seed Fund (NSF program) to develop neutron detector arrays using organic glass scintillators via additive manufacturing — non-equity grant funding supporting R&D.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Blueshift Optics manufactures and sells Organic Glass Scintillator (OGS) products, with its principal offering being the BSO-100 line of high-purity and plastic-formulation scintillators fabricated via additive manufacturing (melt-casting). The company supplies standard form factors (RCCs, bars, plates, pixelated arrays) under a publicly disclosed price list and delivers quote-based custom fabrications for radiation detection and nuclear physics research customers.

Product overview

Blueshift Optics offers a focused single-product platform centered on its proprietary Organic Glass Scintillator (OGS) technology, with the principal commercial offering being BSO-100 as the core product. Around BSO-100, the company delivers complementary offerings including custom OGS fabrications (RCCs, bars, plates, pixelated arrays) tailored to customer form-factor needs, an in-development line of Pulse Shape Discriminating (PSD) Plastic Scintillators that blend OGS with optical-grade plastics, and an SiPM Module prototype that integrates BSO-100 with Silicon Photomultiplier readout. The company also pursues SBIR-funded development of pixelated neutron detector arrays, tying together its additive-manufacturing scintillator expertise with downstream detector system designs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• BSO-100: Blueshift Optics' principal Organic Glass Scintillator (OGS) product line; a highly luminescent scintillator with pulse shape discrimination, short emission decay timing, and high light yields, offered in RCC, bar, plate, and custom cast form factors.

Products and services

• BSO-100 Organic Glass Scintillator (OGS) The BSO-100 Organic Glass Scintillator is a highly luminescent amorphous-matrix scintillator composed primarily of pure fluorophore, with exceptional particle discrimination, light yields above 17,000 ph/MeVee, and short 1.3–1.6 ns prompt emission decay timing. It is available in standard form factors (RCCs, bars up to 20 cm, plates, pixelated arrays) under a published price list and as custom cast fabrications (including one-piece detector plus light-guide designs) for researchers and engineers in nuclear physics, radiation detection, and instrumentation teams.

Quantifiable outcome

• Light yield above 17,000 ph/MeVee
• +4 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature7 records

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Mirion Technologies: Large diversified radiation detection and nuclear measurement company with broad portfolio of scintillators, detectors, and instruments. Compares as a broad incumbent that could bundle scintillator materials into wider systems.

Direct peers

• Amcrys: Supplier of scintillation crystals (stilbene, CLYC, CsI, etc.) for nuclear physics, medical imaging, and radiation detection. Comparable specialty materials manufacturer serving overlapping research customer base.
• Eljen Technology: Leading manufacturer of plastic scintillators including EJ-276, the only other commercial PSD plastic scintillator on the market that Blueshift explicitly positions against. Most directly comparable competitor serving nuclear physics and radiation detection researchers.
• Scionix Holland: Producer of scintillation crystals and detectors for radiation detection applications, including custom-form-factor components for physics research and homeland security. Comparable in custom fabrication and target customer base.
• Radiation Detection Technologies: Custom manufacturer of radiation detectors and scintillator-based assemblies including organic scintillator neutron detectors. Comparable niche competitor in custom-form-factor scintillator-based detectors.
• Saint-Gobain Crystals (Crytur): Manufacturer of crystalline scintillators including trans-stilbene, the benchmark against which BSO-100 is compared. Directly competes in high-performance neutron/gamma discrimination detector materials.

Emerging players

• CapeSym: Manufacturer of scintillation crystals and radiation detector materials with overlap in neutron/gamma detection applications, including novel scintillator formulations. Comparable scale and customer overlap.

Others

• Inrad Optics: Manufacturer of crystalline optical and scintillator materials including stilbene. Adjacent supplier with comparable specialty crystal processing capabilities and partially overlapping customer base.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/blueshiftoptics

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Blueshift Optics