Behind the Startup Framing Fusion’s Fastest Moments

They set out to take pictures of nuclear experiments—and ended up building a startup with matching sriracha shirts. 

Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration, a team from Sandia National Laboratories began developing a technology capable of capturing visible phenomena occurring near the speed of light, with their first large-format image sensor fielded in 2012. Today, thanks in large part to DOE’s Office of Technology Commercialization’s (OTC) Energy I-Corps program, the team leads a thriving company fueled by precision, purpose, and a bit of fun. 

The technology was born from a high-stakes need: give fusion physicists more than a single snapshot of what’s happening during their experiments.  “One frame doesn’t tell the story,” said Liam Claus, cofounder of Advanced hCMOS Systems. “You need to see how an experiment evolves over time, especially when it’s happening on a nanosecond scale.” The team’s sensor system makes it possible to take up to four time-gated images during a single experiment, filtering out background radiation and allowing physicists to validate complex simulations. 

Deployed at facilities like Sandia’s Z Pulsed Power Facility and Lawrence Livermore’s National Ignition Facility, the system quickly became essential to stockpile stewardship diagnostics and fusion research. As requests for the sensors kept rolling in, the team found themselves wondering about the technology’s future. That’s when they enrolled in Cohort 10 of the Energy I-Corps program—OTC’s intensive entrepreneurial training for lab researchers—to find out if their innovation had legs in the market. 
“Energy I-Corps taught us a lot,” said Marcos Sanchez, also a cofounder of the startup. “What we learned wasn’t that we had a billion-dollar idea, but that we had a viable one. We could build a sustainable business doing what we love.” 

Claus has become a vocal advocate for the program. “The point of Energy I-Corps is getting scientists to think about business. It gave me a mindset I never would’ve entertained on my own, and it gave our team the courage to make the leap,” he said. 

With support from Sandia’s entrepreneurial leave program, Claus and Sanchez, along with Matthew Dayton, a colleague from Lawrence Livermore National Labs, launched Advanced hCMOS Systems. Today, their four-person startup continues to design and supply high-performance sensors for the National Laboratories while also expanding into the fast-growing commercial fusion sector.  

Operating beyond the lab has allowed the team to streamline development and reduce costs, all while deepening their technical contributions to the national research mission. Their close ties to the lab community remain central to the company’s work. 

Amid the high-stakes work, the team has built a company culture that doesn’t take itself too seriously.  

“We don’t really have a Chief Executive Officer or Chief Technology Officer,” Claus said. “The only official title is CFO—our Chief Fun Officer.” 

Each month, the CFO gets a small budget to surprise the team. Sometimes that means custom sriracha-themed company shirts. Other times, it’s temporary tattoos for conference giveaways (“I heart Photons” is a crowd favorite among physicists). 

“It’s our way of staying connected and having fun,” said Sanchez. “It reminds us that this business is something we get to shape and enjoy.” 

The company is currently working on new sensor designs, including a partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to engineer devices capable of operating reliably in even more extreme test environments. They are also preparing to launch their first commercial product line.  

But for the team, it’s not just about commercial success. It’s about building tools that expand what scientists can observe and understand. As Claus puts it: “We’re nerds at heart, and we’re building a business that reflects that.”