July 29, 2005 – The Maryland Industrial Partnerships program has announced the approval of 15 faculty-led research projects to help companies in Maryland develop technology-based products. The projects, worth $2.8 million, support faculty research with approximately $1.8 million from Maryland companies and $1 million from MIPS.

Approved projects include one from Pixelligent Technologies LLC (College Park) and the University of Maryland, College Park, which optimizes and demonstrates Pixelligent’s innovations to use nanotechnology to print smaller features on semiconductor wafers. Pixelligent’s technologies may extend current lithography equipment to print as small as 22nm. Current lithographers are printing at 90nm.

Another approved project is from Maxion Technologies Inc. (Hyattsville) and the University of Maryland, College Park, where a semiconductor laser is being developed for sensing chemicals. The initial target market will be natural gas leak detection from residential lines. Future applications could include medical diagnostics and therapeutics, homeland defense, real-time industrial process controls, environmental monitoring, and combustion monitoring.

This is the 36th round of MIPS funding. The program has supported 500 research projects with 337 different Maryland companies since 1987.