Category Archives: LEDs

NuGEN closes $7.5M C round


August 20, 2003

Aug. 20, 2003 — NuGEN Technologies Inc., a San Carlos, Calif., developer of nucleic acid amplification and detection products, announced closing on $7.5 million in Series C financing.

The round was led by William Rutter, George Rathmann and James Wilson. Rutter is a co-founder of Chiron Corp., an Emeryville, Calif., biotech company, and joins NuGEN’s board. Rathmann is co-founder and a former chief executive officer of the biotech company Amgen Inc.

Sutter Hill Ventures of Palo Alto, Calif., also participated, as did previous investors Radius Venture Partners, the Band of Angels Fund and MedCapital Ventures.

The company said in a news release that the financing will be used to build the firm’s infrastructure and develop its products pipeline.

Click here to enlarge image

Aug. 19, 2003 — Even as the energy industry struggles to understand why last week’s massive eight-state blackout occurred, experts are examining ways in which small tech could help prevent it from happening again. And they’re finding at least one new way to make the grid run more efficiently: microsensors.

Not only more efficiently, but “smarter.”

The MEMS-based systems can do that by circulating up-to-date information about what’s going on within the power systems, said John Stringer, technical director at the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit utilities consortium based in Palo Alto, Calif.

Click here to enlarge image

“The sensor and the system that produces the corrections have to be closely integrated,” Stringer said. “That’s what we mean when we say the system has to be smarter.”

He and his EPRI colleague Arun Mehta, manager of fuels technology, are compiling their research into microsystems and nanotech for the energy grid. “The electric industry has not started to look at this in a way they should,” Stringer said.

“There are more and more companies talking about power lines and transmission, in terms of MEMS technologies,” said Marlene Bourne, senior MEMS analyst with In-Stat/MDR.

“Really, this is all first-generation. It’s good ideas, and companies who are supplying sensors are interested in building this wireless-sensing infrastructure into the field. The electricity companies seem to be really interested.”

At the same time, the federal government is expected to react to the blackout by pouring new money into research and development that will buttress the grid. Influential policymakers like Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Science Committee; Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., House energy subcommittee chairwoman; presidential candidate Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.; and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Marburger have all touted nanotechnology as a possible energy savior.

And Rice University professor and Nobel Prize winner Richard Smalley spends a lot of time talking to people in Washington about the intersections of energy, nanotechnology and the federal government. He and others are pushing for a federal commitment of billions of dollars to develop nanotech energy applications.

Among the solutions Smalley advocates for enhancing the electrical grid is what he calls quantum wires to replace today’s high-voltage transmission cables. Quantum wires are nanotube fibers that have the electrical conductivity of copper wire with a fraction of the weight.

Such wires would increase the capacity of the grid by allowing the energy industry to harvest electricity from alternate sources such as solar concentrators built in remote Western deserts. “That’s real estate that doesn’t do squat but it is blessed with solar (power),” Smalley said.

He also argues nanotechnology will play a role in the fuel cells and energy storage systems needed to develop smart local power networks. A grid based on local networks would be immune from massive outages because it would generate and store energy locally but have the capability of shipping or receiving it to other networks when needed.

If the topic wasn’t exactly hot before last Thursday, the blackouts will make it warmer in Washington.

At least one utility has already started exploring small tech. Workers at Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), a $26 billion electric utility in New Jersey, confront a problem every day: sparks in transformers that can destroy the $2 million machines and even start fires that level entire power stations. It’s a problem with which all electric utilities wrestle.

The utility teamed up with the New Jersey Institute of Technology to develop a MEMS acoustic sensor that could be placed directly into transformers’ oil. The sensor is an ear-like probe that can listen for the sounds of sparks, said Harry Roman, a PSEG technology development and transfer consultant. The collaboration has led to a microsensor, still being tested, that is attuned to the sounds sparks make and can pinpoint their location.

The company and university are also working on sensors that will alert engineers to the movements of underground cables, as well as a “smart splice,” a sensor attached by helicopter to splices in high-voltage transmission lines that will transmit data to engineers. It’s important that engineers understand what’s going on with the splices before they break, shutting down power and dropping power lines hundreds of feet to the ground.

“In the movie ‘Twister,’ they are trying to get the tornado to suck up all of these radio transmitters so they can map the interior of a tornado,” Roman said. “That’s what we’re doing. We’re trying to get these sensors distributed around our system so we can know more intelligently what is going on.

“The question is,” he added, “can we go beyond the fence, go onto the pole lines, into the lines themselves, the cables. It’s like looking at the utility infrastructure as a skeleton and trying to stretch an intelligent skin over it. The nerves are the microsensors. They will be the first line of information to bring the data into us.

Outside of sensors, solar cells might also have a near-term impact on the industry. They could aid in distributed generation — a growing trend in which people use devices to either supplant or complement the power they get from the grid. The more distributed the generation, the less dependent users are on the grid.

Current work at companies like Nanosys Inc. in California and Konarka Technologies in Massachusetts will lead to cheaper, versatile, flexible and more efficient solar cells.

Nanosys has scheduled a 2006 release for solar cells integrated into roof shingles that produce energy at a cost of about $1 a watt, making solar power comparable with fossil fuels, said Stephen Empedocles, the company’s co-founder and director of business development.

At Konarka, solar cells are composed of nanometer-scale crystals of semiconductor covered with light-absorbing dye. The dye oxidizes, electrons travel through a wire that powers the electronic device, and then the electron re-enters the cell, getting absorbed by an electrolyte solution.

As the technology becomes more mature and efficient, smart power companies will invest in discovering ways to use it to, as Konarka President Bill Beckenbaugh said, “put power back into the grid.”

Small Times Features Editor Candace Stuart contributed to this report.

Isonics finds investors


August 18, 2003

August 15, 2003 – Isonics Corp., Golden, CO, a developer of isotopically-engineered semiconductor materials, says it has received a commitment for $8 million in equity financing from Quivira Venture Partners, led by a former Isonics director. At least part of the funds are expected in the next month, just weeks after Isonics filed as a “going concern” with the SEC.

AUG. 14–NEW YORK–Looking closely into the iris-shaped map of a microbial genome, the Sanger Institute’s Julian Parkhill sees more than just sequence, Genomeweb.com reports.

When he compares this slivered circle of sequence to those of closely related genomes he starts to discern the story of the organism’s molecular evolution.

Most recently, Parkhill and colleagues have traced this evolution by sequencing the Bortedella pertussis, the organism that causes whooping cough, along with two related pathogenic bacteria, Bortedella parapertussis and Bortadella bronchiseptica, and comparing the sequences in a paper published online in Nature Genetics.

“Our data indicate that at the genetic level, B. pertussis and B. parapertussis each derived from a B. bronchiseptica-like ancestor,” the authors wrote.

Parkhill’s group has conducted similar comparative sequence analysis on Salmonella typhii and a related genome, S. typhimurium; as well as Yersinia Pestis and closely related species of Yersinia spp, Parkhill said at a genomics conference in late May at Cold Spring Harbor Labs.

These genomic comparisons not only demonstrate what is possible when multiple closely-related species are sequenced-something that researchers in other areas from Drosophila to primates are lobbying to have done. They also shed light on a key scientific question with implications for public health and medicine: why do bacteria become human pathogens?

In the case Bordatella species comparisons, Parkhill and colleagues found that there had been a number of gene deletions in B. pertussis, making its genome smaller, along with “enormous expansion of selfish, mobile elements,” Parkhill said at the Cold Spring Harbor conference.

“It may be that B. pertussis followed this evolutionary path owing to the opportunities for increased transmission rate provided by the increase in size and density of the populations of its specific host, Homo sapiens,” the authors wrote in the Nature paper.

With bacteria, there is an evolutionary trade-off between virulence and transmissibility-the more virulent a pathogen becomes, the less transmissible, as the host is less likely to survive to pass it on, Parkhill said at the Cold Spring Harbor meeting. But in the case of B. pertussis, he and his colleagues believe the evolutionarily recent increase in human population density may have made that dilemma a bit easier for the organism-leading it to evolve to become more virulent within the narrow niche of its human host, while discarding the elements that enable related species to infect multiple hosts and be transmitted more easily from host to host.

Parkhill and colleagues found a similar pattern in comparing the genomes of S. typhii to S. typhimurium: These comparisons indicate that S. typhimurim, a broad gut organism with many hosts, appears to have evolved over the past 40,000 years into the more systemic pathogen (the cause of typhoid) with one (human) host.

In other words, human urbanization may have in fact led the bacteria to become more pathogenic, rather than merely serving as a mechanism for an existing pathogen to spread more rapidly.

If this hypotheses proves correct, it is one that could apply to currently emerging infectious diseases as well, said Parkhill, as human populations are only becoming more dense–and bacteria are likely to be evolving along with them.

Cree, APT sign die pact


August 7, 2003

August 5, 2003 – Advanced Power Technology, Bend, OR, has signed a deal to repackage and sell the SiC Zero Recovery Schottky diode die from Cree Inc., Durham, NC. APT will add its MOSFETs and IGBTs to the diodes in various combinations, including boost and buck configurations and power modules. Volume production is slated for 4Q03.

Alien lands $38 million


August 7, 2003

Aug. 7, 2003 — Alien Technology Corp., a Morgan Hill, Calif., provider of radio frequency identification (RFID) products, announced closing on $38 million in Series F funding.

null

Advanced Equities Inc. led the round. Lago Ventures Fund, Forsythe Technology and H&S Ventures also participated, along with three new strategic investors and sixteen existing investors. Manhattan Associates Inc., a provider of supply chain solutions, was one of the strategic investors.

null

The round will be used to fund the company’s expansion plans. In July, a production expansion in Fargo, N.D., was announced. Alien Technology uses a proprietary fluidic self-assembly manufacturing process to create its RFID products.

Aug. 7, 2003 — Solicore Inc., a Lakeland, Fla., provider of solid state battery technology, announced a $13 million first closing of its Series B round. The company expects to raise an additional $2 million with strategic investors.

null

Draper Fisher Jurvetson led the round. New investors Braemar Power and Communications Partners LP and Firelake Capital Management also participated, along with existing investors OPG Ventures Inc. and Hydro Quebec CapiTech Inc.

null

The company is developing batteries using a polymer electrolyte film that can be adapted to many shapes and designs, according to Alexei Andreev, a Draper Fisher research associate. Andreev said the technology offers greater flexibility and less degradation over time, both aspects that lend themselves particularly well towards active radio frequency identification (RFID) and smart card applications, as well as hand-held electronic devices.

AUG. 5–ORANGE, Calif.–Officials at UltraSonic Cleaning/Film Division have announced the changing of their company’s name from UltraSonic Cleaning /Film Division to Cleanroom Film and Bags.

Bruce Lanfried, chief executive officer, and Daryl Garbers, chief operating officer, say the company is planning a major expansion of their facilities and product lines.

While they currently operate one cleanroom designed for the extrusion and converting of Poly, the current plan is to open a second room that will be used primarily for the cleaning and converting of specialty films such as Aclar, Poly/Nylon, Static Shielding, Nylon and Barrier Films.

With higher standards being required in the precision Cleaning business, UltraSonic Cleaning elected six years ago to start a spin-off support company to manufacture a package that would meet those new standards, as the quality required was not available.

UltraSonic Cleaning/Film Division was developed through the combined expertise of the principals (Lanfried in cleaning, Garbers in manufacturing) who led the company to build a facility that extrudes and converts within a cleanroom.

“This is an exciting time for our company,” says Lanfried.. “We are looking forward to expanding our line of products to our existing customers, as well as introducing ourselves to new customers.”

July 28, 2003 — Sensicore Inc., an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based developer of lab-on-a-chip technology for chemically profiling potable water and other fluids in real time, secured $6.5 million in an ongoing Series B funding round, according to a news release.

NGEN Partners LLC  led the round. Topspin Partners, Firelake Capital, Ardesta LLC and an unnamed corporation active in the water market also participated. Sensicore was originally funded by Ardesta, the parent company of Small Times Media.

The company, which expects to close on a total of $10 million, has developed technology based on the work of Richard Brown, a University of Michigan professor and Sensicore founder. Peter Grubstein of NGEN and Paul Wimer of Topspin will join Sensicore’s board.

July 26, 2001 — Back in 1979, Donald Tomalia discovered how to make synthetic molecules branch out like trees. But until recently, he has not been able to get money to grow the same way.

null

Now, the former Dow Chemical Co. chemist says he

Donald Tomalia discovered a way to bring

order to the artificial. Dendrimers grew with

uniformity, each time doubling the number of

tips, just like branches on a tree. The result

was the ability to produce precise, pristine,

pure macromolecules, with seemingly endless
possibilities for biological science.

null

nearly has the venture capital lined up to get his new company, Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Dendritic Sciences Inc., up and running. It’s this company, Tomalia says, that will help him realize his two-decade-old dream of using his discovery — what he dubbed dendrimers — for everything from drug delivery to nanoscale machines.

null

But about nine years ago, he had similar hopes that never materialized. In 1992, as co-founder of Dendritech Inc., he had said he was going to make dendrimers by the ton — a goal that he did not have the means to attain.

null

Tomalia was touting the virtues of a unique branch of chemistry that had the potential to clean up all the messy problems for scientists trying to recreate nature. Dendrimers are synthetic products built on the nanoscale. What they have is precision. Tomalia and his Dow co-workers stumbled on a way to translate the branched structures of trees into chemical structures. That’s where the name “dendra,” a Greek word meaning tree, sprang up.

null

“I was trying to imitate the branch of a tree with polymers,” Tomalia said.

null

The significance is that until then, polymers, which are long, unruly molecules used to produce plastics, paints and coatings, had ruled the world of artificial products. Polymers were chaotic and the way they were made resulted in molecules in a range of sizes.

null

But Tomalia had found a way to bring order to the artificial. Dendrimers grew with uniformity, each time doubling the number of tips, just like branches on a tree. The mass doubled with every generation.

null

The result was the ability to produce precise, pristine, pure macromolecules. By 1990, Tomalia’s discovery was dazzling the scientific community. The largest dendrimers, which could be the size of proteins in living cells, intrigued Tomalia with biological possibilities. The potential seemed endless. Dendrimers could be used to build microscopic capsules for drug delivery or to build nanoscale machines.

null

There was only one problem. And in the world of the small, it was a big problem. Money. The cost to produce dendrimers has been prohibitive and has not resulted in major commercial applications for the products. Tomalia has yet to make dendrimers by the ton.

null

“An incredible amount of science has gone into developing many, many different (dendrimer) structures, but I would say hope springs eternal in terms of substantive commercialization,” said Robert Nowak, president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit Michigan Molecular Institute (MMI) and former director of central research and development and chief scientist for Dow Chemical.

null

“Dendrimers are incredibly expensive to make,” Nowak said. “They intrigue scientists and polymer chemists who have never seen these structures, but we’ve been having a terrible difficulty finding what they are good for.”

null

Dendrimers are so expensive because they grow in generations. The bigger they get, the more time it takes to grow them. For instance, a 10th generation dendrimer would have to go through 22 different chemical reactions. “That could take three months,” Nowak said. And time is money.

null

“If you start getting up to the levels for gene therapy or amino assays, you can’t afford it,” he said. The cost, for instance, for generation four Polyamidoamine dendrimers, which is a trade name for one type of the product that has the potential to be used as a drug delivery system, would be about $15,000 a pound, Nowak estimated.

null

Dr. James Baker Jr., chief of allergy and immunology at the University of Michigan, agreed. Baker has been doing work on dendrimers related to drug delivery. “This is ongoing research,” Baker said, adding that most of the work now is at a “nascent” level. “We don’t view this as an explosive area right now.”

null

Tomalia remains determined to prove the concept is a good one.

null

When he is not earning accolades in academia, Tomalia tends his 50-acre tree farm. “It’s these branching patterns of trees that have always fascinated me,” he said. “I’ve been growing trees since I was a teen-ager.

null

“I was trying to imitate the branch of a tree with polymers,” Tomalia said.

null

He became fascinated with the artificially manufactured synthetic molecules. “We filed patents extensively at Dow,” Tomalia said. However, according to Tomalia, Dow didn’t see how dendrimers fit its business at the time.”

null

“I really believed in the technology, so I asked for a leave of absence” to continue research, Tomalia said. That decision led him to MMI, which offered him his first taste in business. In 1992, he co-founded Dendritech, a subsidiary of MMI that was licensed by Dow to manufacture and sell certain types of dendrimers.

null

But last year, Dendritech imploded. Dow ended up acquiring Dendritech’s assets, which included the original patent portfolio licensed in 1991 to MMI, and new technology developed after Dendritech was incorporated, Nowak said.

null

The only commercial application that Dendritech sells for now is very small additive for ink jets. “A couple of companies still use that material, it seems to enhance some of the attributes of writing with ink, particularly in very moist environments,” Nowak said.

null

Tomalia is no longer with Dendritech. In a deal recently struck with Dow, Tomalia said the giant chemical company gave him licensing rights globally for his science applications in dendrimers. In return, Tomalia said, he waived future royalty rights that he had. “So I waived those (royalty) rights in return for these patent rights.” That created the basis for Dendritic Sciences, he said.

null

“We expect to be the premier producer of dendrimers by the end of the year,” Tomalia said last week at a nanobiotechnology conference in San Diego. As for start-up capital, he said, “we’re talking multimillions we feel we’re close to, or will be.”

null

During the conference, Tomalia told a Ph.D.-laden audience about the biomedical applications of a certain type of dendrimers that have all the qualities of proteins. The technology is “quite remarkable,” Tomalia said. “I’m very excited.”