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May 13, 2003 — Three years after branching off from Hewlett-Packard, Agilent Technologies Inc. is building on its history to become a leader in the emerging world of small tech. To do so, it is investing in research that won’t show up in products for five to 10 years.
Supporting the company’s long-term goals is Agilent Labs, which is divided into research groups corresponding with its divisions — test equipment, semiconductors and sensors for chemical and biological instruments. Small tech-related research shows up in the Electronics Research Laboratory, headed by James Hollenhorst, and the Life Science Laboratory, headed by Darlene Solomon, as well as throughout the company’s MEMS projects.
Agilent is spending as much as one percent of its $1 billion research and development budget and keeping 50 of its 5,000 researchers busy on a wide variety of small tech-related research, according to Hollenhorst.
Agilent claims a strong foothold in several fields crucial to small tech. In biotech, it provides instrumentation equipment. Its optical networking work keeps it abreast of sensor developments. And its MEMS researchers boast of their lineage straight back to the first MEMS: a 1974 HP microwave power sensor.
Agilent is looking past today’s silicon-based technology to integrating compound semiconductors, MEMS and microfluidics. “Navigator” chips could integrate image sensors and processing to capture and compare images and thus determine motion. In communications, lasers can reroute data traffic from one fiber-optic line to another by moving microscopic lenses with a MEMS device.
Recently, the company introduced a surface-drive motor: an ultra-high precision micromover, capable of providing linear two-dimensional movement in steps of 1.5 nanometers.
“A company with their history, involvement, and resources, can be involved in any number of research directions,” Marlene Bourne, a MEMS analyst at Instat-MDR, said. HP’s long involvement in MEMS has given Agilent deep roots in the industry, she noted.
Agilent capitalizes on the need for instruments to accelerate drug therapeutics and genetic analysis. Its innovations in DNA microarray analysis, showing which genes are affected by a particular drug therapy, have positioned Agilent solidly in biotechnology by providing simple and reliable methods for testing drug efficacy during trials. Its Agilent 2100 bioanalyzer uses “lab on a chip” technology co-developed with Caliper Technologies Corp. to automate sample injections, separation, detection and analysis.
“This technology will eventually be used in what’s called “point-of-care” testing directly on patients, rather than restricting the equipment to non-urgent research usage,” Bourne said.
Microfluidics and computational biology for new molecular diagnostics for cancer and cardiovascular disease are also on the agenda, according to Solomon.
Agilent is working on nanopore technology licensed from Harvard University. Nanopores (a manmade cell part) would be made from carbon nanotubes — tiny tubes made only from carbon atoms allowing faster dispersion of chemicals. Direct DNA sequencing would then be possible, Hollenhorst said. Faster, more sensitive nanopore technology could lead to DNA measurements being made in a doctor’s office, according to Solomon.
“It’s exciting to bring together these disciplines, to build up from the atomic level,” Hollenhorst said. “Carbon nanotubes, for example, are a holy grail in molecular electronics. We’re looking for applications in the lab right now. The business opportunity is often not what you might expect.”
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COMPANY FILE: AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES
(last updated May 13, 2002)
Company
Agilent Technologies
Ticker symbol
NYSE: A
Headquarters
395 Page Mill Road, PO Box 10395 Palo Alto, Calif. 94306
Branches, division and subsidiaries
More than 40 international locations, with manufacturing facilities in Australia, China, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom the United States. Subsidiary Agilent Laboratories has locations in the United States, Japan, Scotland and China.
History
Spun off by Hewlett-Packard in 1999.
Industry
Agilent develops more than 20,000 testing and measurement instruments, semiconductor products and chemical analysis tools for varied markets.
Selected small tech-related products
Management
Employees
Approximately 39,000
Investment history
Initial public offering on Nov. 18, 1999 at a $30/share price. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings are available here. Annual report is available here.
Selected strategic partners
Revenue
Barriers to market
Deep pockets are needed for long-term research, and Agilent is contending with lower revenues (down 44 percent in its first quarter ending Jan. 31) and depressed stock prices. Agilent also has its small tech involvement spread across a large and diversified corporate culture.
Why they’re in small tech
It’s a natural evolution of the company’s MEMS and other developments over the years, says James Hollenhorst, head of the Electronics Research Laboratory.
What keeps them up at night
“What is the end game in silicon electronics — where will we end up?” Hollenhorst says. “Also, it is enormously expensive to stay at the forefront.”
Competitors
Small tech competitors include:
Contact
Recent news
U.S. government to push nanopores, molecular electronics
DARPA and Agilent invest $6.1M to make DNA synthesis cheaper
— Research by Gretchen McNeely