Category Archives: LEDs

Mar. 31, 2005 — Evident Technologies of Troy, N.Y, announced the introduction of a second generation Type 2 EviTag luminescent label.

The company says its T2 EviTag has a proprietary natural coating that provides increased flexibility, easier use, wider applications and possible reduced testing costs in biological assays and other types of life science research.

EviTags are biologically-inert, conjugation-ready fluorescent labels built around a base of the company’s EviDot quantum dots, which are semiconductor nanocrystals coated with a variety of water- stabilizing surface treatments.

March 30, 2005 – Having achieved a worldwide device market of $3.2 billion in 2004, gallium nitride (GaN) technology continues to be one of the biggest success stories in compound semiconductors, according to Silicon Valley-based market research firm Strategies Unlimited in its Gallium Nitride 2005 – Technology Status, Applications, and Market Forecasts report.

Although high-brightness LEDs dominate the market currently, GaN-based laser diodes and electronic devices are in the early stages of market growth and will achieve substantial volumes in the next five years. The total market for all types of GaN devices is forecast at $7.2 billion in 2009.

As of early 2005, 232 companies were participating in GaN production or development, and 394 universities and research centers were involved in GaN R&D. These worldwide figures represent an increase of 26% and 35%, respectively, since the publication of Strategies Unlimited’s previous GaN report in June 2003.

Gallium Nitride 2005 is a 430-page report that addresses multiple aspects of GaN technology, including material properties, substrates, deposition, etching, contacts, packaging, and device performance. It tabulates the 725 companies, universities, research centers and government agencies involved in or supporting GaN production and R&D, and profiles 32 such organizations. In addition, the report analyzes 20 applications of GaN optoelectronic and electronic devices, and provides detailed market forecasts through 2009.

More information on the report is available from Tim Carli, sales manager, ph 650/941-3438 ext. 23, or e-mail [email protected].

Mar. 28, 2005 — Dendritic NanoTechnologies Inc., a Mount Pleasant, Mich., provider of dendritic polymers, announced it appointed Michael Pirc, a chemical engineer and licensing manager for The Dow Chemical Company, to its board of directors.

As Dow’s business manager for the company’s technology licensing business, Pirc has overseen licensing for a range of business ventures. At Dendritic, Pirc is charged with helping the company better position itself to engage companies that wish to license the company’s dendrimer patents. In January, Dendritic announced a strategic partnership with Dow that gave Dendritic rights to Dow’s dendrimer patent portfolio.

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March 22, 2005 — NanoOpto Corp. announced closing its Series C funding this morning, the latest in a string of deals completed since January that will conspire to make 2005’s first quarter a very healthy one for nanotechnology funding.

The Somerset, N.J., developer of design methods and nanofabrication technology to make optical components, raised $12 million. New investor First Analysis, a private equity group in Chicago, led the round. Existing investors who participated included Morgenthaler Ventures, two Draper Fisher Jurvetson funds (DFJ Gotham Ventures and New England Ventures), Harris & Harris Group and U.S. Trust’s Excelsior Venture Partners III. The round brings the total raised to date by NanoOpto to $42.3 million.

“I think they’re looking for business models that work,” said Barry Weinbaum, NanoOpto president and chief executive, of venture capitalists as a whole. “Take the nano part out of it. We’ve been shipping products for several months now.”

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Now, he says, the trick is to build up manufacturing capability to meet anticipated demand — hence the fund raising. The company has bulked up from about 20 employees a year ago to 30 today. It recently hired Bruce Nonnemaker as vice president of manufacturing and operations to lead its manufacturing expansion. Weinbaum said NanoOpto anticipates hiring a few more engineers and technicians to staff its fabrication facility at the company’s New Jersey headquarters.

Since the start of the year, a slew of other nanotech companies have announced raising significant venture rounds. In addition to NanoOpto’s announcement, the following companies are among those that have announcing closing on financing this year:

  • ApNano Materials Inc. of New York, N.Y., closed on $5 million.

  • Nano-Tex LLC of Emeryville, Calif., closed on $35 million.

  • Nantero Inc. of Woburn, Mass., closed on $15 million.

  • Starfire Systems Inc. of Malta, N.Y., closed on $500,000.

And that doesn’t include non-U.S. nanotech companies, like Oxonica (which announced closing on $4.9 million in February) or microtechnology companies working at the edge of nanotech.

Weinbaum and other experts say the funding suggests that nanotechnology companies are entering a next stage where they can be evaluated by metrics like revenues, manufacturing capacity and book-to-bill ratios.

“What you’re seeing is the companies that have advanced beyond the science project phase,” he said.

Mar. 21, 2005 — Evident Technologies introduced a new line of EviComposites – quantum dots integrated into resins and polymer matrix materials used in commercial manufacturing processes and products.

Evident engineered its EviDot quantum dots into a series of new forms designed to speed the development of new materials and new products by making quantum dot nanomaterials more applicable to common manufacturing processes.

The company says its EviComposites have wide applicability for applications ranging from paints, inks, molded parts, films, fibers, solar cells, optical standards or numerous other areas. They are available in ultraviolet curable clear resins, as well as thermal and UV sol-gels. The EviComposite particles and powders are available in polycarbonates, polystyrene, Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA) and polyethylene, and are available in colors ranging from blue to into reds, with a selected set of polymers in the near infrared.

Mar. 21, 2005 — Quantum Dot Corp. announced the launch of its Mosaic gene expression assay system, intended to allow pharmaceutical, biotechnology and functional genomics researchers the ability to measure quantitative expression of 100 user-specified mRNAs simultaneously from small amounts of sample.

The system includes the Mosaic Q1000 scanner and computer, Mosaic software, and custom gene panels configured in kit format. It is designed for automated processing on liquid-handling workstations.

Each custom gene panel is designed and manufactured with gene-specific beads that are coded with the company’s Qdot nanocrystals. Fluorescent spectral codes are identified and gene data is measured by the scanner and analyzed by the Mosaic software modules.

March 14, 2005 – Genus Inc. announced today that the merger with AIXTRON AG, a provider of equipment for compound semiconductor epitaxy, has been completed pursuant to the laws of the state of California. The shareholders of Genus, at a special meeting held on March 10, approved the merger with a majority of approximately 61% of the Genus outstanding shares entitled to vote at the meeting. Of the shareholders who voted, 94% were in favor of the transaction.

Commenting on the merger, Paul Hyland, CEO of AIXTRON AG, said, “We are delighted that the Genus shareholders voted in favor of the transaction. By combining the two companies we are creating one of the world’s premier suppliers of advanced deposition technologies for the semiconductor industry. This transaction enables us to leverage the two companies’ complementary strengths and gain the critical mass required to successfully compete in both the compound semiconductor and semiconductor equipment industries.”

“We would like to thank all of our shareholders for their support on this very important strategic move,” commented Bill Elder, chairman and CEO of Genus. “In the combined companies’ position portfolio, AIXTRON’s leading MOCVD equipment for the production of LEDs, high frequency chips and lasers, and in particular their ALD technology, will nicely complement Genus’ leading-edge ALD technology, which is required in the production of advanced semiconductors and hard disc drives.”

“Strength in both consumer and storage components, driven by new products and an early end of the supply chain inventory correction, contributed to the raising of our first-quarter revenue guidance,” says Wilfred J. Corrigan, LSI Logic chairman and CEO. “In consumer, secular growth is being led by the DVD recorder market and the ramp of new digital audio products, mitigating usual first-quarter consumer seasonality.”

Mar. 9, 2005 — Nantero Inc., a Woburn, Mass., developer of next-generation semiconductor devices using carbon nanotubes, announced the closing of a $15 million third round of investment.

New investor Globespan Capital Partners led the round. Returning existing institutional investors include Charles River Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Stata Venture Partners and Harris & Harris Group.

This past year Nantero partnered with LSI Logic Corp. to develop semiconductor process technology which it says will expedite the use of carbon nanotubes in CMOS fabrication. It also joined with BAE Systems to evaluate the potential to develop carbon nanotube-based electronic devices for use in advanced defense and aerospace systems. Brewer Science Inc. also entered into an agreement with Nantero to commercialize CMOS-grade carbon nanotubes to be used in semiconductor fabs by Brewer Science customers.

Along with the investment Nantero announced that Ullas Naik, a managing director with Globespan Capital Partners, has joined its board of directors.

March 3, 2005 – Gordon E. Moore, the chemical engineer who in 1968 co-founded Intel, spearheading decades of technological research and developments that made the company a leader in semiconductor manufacturing and technology, has been named the Marconi Society’s 2005 Lifetime Achievement recipient. The award will be presented on November 4, at the annual Marconi Society awards dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

John Jay Iselin, president of the Marconi Society, credited Moore with “his innovative contribution to the technology that drives our daily lives, his entrepreneurial spirit and his devotion to the collaborative genius that inspired the genesis and success of Intel.”

Moore is widely known for his 1965 prediction that stated that the number of transistors the industry would be able to place on an IC would double every year. In 1975, the timeline was updated to once every couple of years. Moore’s Law paved the way for semiconductor engineers to efficiently and inexpensively squeeze more transistors onto an IC to increase computing performance, creating a worldwide industry standard that has extended computing from the domain of the highly technical to the realm of the eminently practical.

“I am honored and delighted to receive the Marconi Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award and join those whose contributions have transformed the way people around the world communicate,” acknowledged Moore. “I believe society is at the beginning of this journey and that the impact of integrated circuits to the fields of computing and communications will positively affect our access to information and speed up our global understanding.”

The Marconi Society (formerly, the Marconi Foundation) is named for 1909 Nobel Prize winner Guglielmo Marconi, whose early experiments with Hertzian waves led to the wireless revolution of the 20th century. The Society is dedicated to nurturing, recognizing and celebrating individuals whose ingenious application of communications technology has had a positive and lasting impact on human progress around the globe.

Gordon Moore is the third person to receive the Marconi Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award during the organization’s 31-year history. In 2000, the award was presented to mathematician Claude E. Shannon, the founder of modern information theory who invented the concept of the bit, and in 2003, to William O. Baker, who, as director of research and later president of Bell Laboratories, oversaw the development of a wide array of technologies that earned its researchers eleven Nobel Prizes during his tenure at the helm.