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June 10, 2002 — British nanoparticle developer Oxonica Ltd. announced it has raised approximately $6 million in its first round of institutional financing.

VCF Partners, which represents Foresight Technology VCT and TriVest VCT, led the round. BASF Venture Capital GmbH, NextGen Partners LLC Enabling Technologies, Northern Venture Managers and Generics Asset Management Ltd of the Generics Group also participated.

Oxonica was spun out of the University of Oxford in 1999 and specializes in creation of nanoparticles. According to a company spokesman, the funds will be used for expansion, product commercialization, and sales and promotion. Oxonica is currently conducting field trials for products the areas of catalysis, medical diagnostics, health care and personal care.

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MEMGen Corp., a MEMS fabrication company, has widened its scope to include applications that are not strictly MEMS.

“We view ourselves as a MEMS manufacturer, but with additional capabilities,” said Adam Cohen, MEMGen’s founder, president and chief executive officer.

MEMGen can manufacture devices ranging from “smaller than a grain of sand to about the size of a match head,” Cohen said. Overall device size can span from tens of microns to several millimeters.

This “intermediate area” is a manufacturing gap between the micro and macro world that has been overlooked, said Chris Bang, director of applications for MEMGen. “We’re meeting an important area of need.”

Along with his business titles, Cohen also is the primary inventor of EFAB, electrochemical fabrication, the trademarked name of MEMGen’s micromanufacturing technology.

The EFAB process is automated in a machine about the size of two refrigerators. The manufacturing technology doesn’t use silicon, but rather traditional engineering materials such as metals, including nickel and gold. The company continues to develop new materials and substrates, Cohen said.

EFAB is more akin to large-scale rapid prototyping than integrated circuit manufacturing in clean rooms, Cohen said.

Rather than machining an object from a solid block, rapid prototyping builds up layers to create a 3-D object. The big difference is that EFAB is a batch process for volume production of fully functional devices, not just prototypes.

“You can make more arbitrarily complex 3-D structures by stacking enough layers,” Cohen said.

Although projects and partners are kept close to the Burbank, Calif., company’s vest, MEMGen has reported producing structures of more than 38 layers.

Applying principles of rapid prototyping in the MEMS world was a natural progression for Cohen. An MIT-trained physicist, Cohen was at the center of the action when rapid prototyping took off in the 1980s.

As program manager/systems engineer at Valencia, Calif.- based 3D Systems Inc., Cohen led development of the SLA-250 stereolithography system. The SLA-250 “essentially got the whole (rapid prototyping) industry going,” he said.

Cohen also co-founded Soligen Technologies Inc. Northridge, Calif.-based Soligen developed and commercialized Three Dimensional Printing, a rapid prototyping process invented at MIT. The process fabricates metal casting molds directly from CAD designs.

Cohen then took a break from the business world to lead the EFAB project at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. His group unveiled EFAB in 1999 during a poster session at the IEEE International Microelectromechanical Systems Conference in Orlando, Fla.

When Cohen left USC to found MEMGen, the company acquired the exclusive worldwide license on the patented technology. MEMGen and USC, which has an equity stake, continue to pursue patents on EFAB, Cohen said. This includes a patent granted last year to market EFAB in Japan.

The privately held company employs 27 people and has a 22,000-square-foot facility.

“Intriguing,” Marlene Bourne, MEMS analyst for In/Stat MDR, said of MEMGen’s marketing evolution. Bourne questioned when the company will show its hand. “How far away are they from announcing customer specifics?”

MEMGen has made a “tremendous amount of progress in hitting a lot of refinement issues,” said Warren Packard, a managing director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. MEMGen is one of several MEMS and nanotech companies the Redwood City, Calif., VC firm has funded. “The technology is coming down to a very stable process that is repeatable and commercializable.”

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An array of spray nozzles designed by MEMGen, which can
manufacture devices ranging from “smaller than a grain of sand
to about the size of a match head.”

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Company file: MEMGen Corp.
(last updated June 10, 2002)

Company
MEMGen Corp.

Headquarters
1103 W Isabel St.
Burbank, Calif., 91506-1405

History
The company was founded in August 1999 based on technology developed by Adam Cohen and others at the University of Southern California.

Industry
MEMGen manufactures MEMS and precision devices for strategic partners spanning a range of industries. The company markets services to clients rather than selling equipment.

Small tech-related products and services
MEMGen uses proprietary EFAB technology for contract micromanufacturing services, enabling speedy prototyping and volume production without a clean room.

Management

  • Adam Cohen: founder, president and CEO

  • John Evans: CTO

  • Dan Feinberg: director of sales and marketing

  • Chris Bang: director of applications

  • Michael Lockard: VP of operations

    • Employees
    27

    Investors
    MEMGen has raised more than $11 million in first round funding, plus $1.5 million in a financing agreement with Pentech Financial Services Inc. DynaFund Ventures led the series A round. Other investors included Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Chevron Technology Ventures LLC, Zone Ventures, Atherton Venture Partners LLC, Venture Law Group and Riordan & McKinzie.

    Barriers
    Market education: “Building a broad awareness among prospective customers of the existence and capabilities of EFAB,” said CEO Adam Cohen.

    Competitors
    No direct competitors; MEMS foundries are indirect competitors.

    Short-range and long-range goals
    “Our short-range goal is to deliver EFAB technology to the market and demonstrate its value through customer success stories,” Cohen said. “Our long-range goal is to become the first choice for companies needing a micromanufacturing partner to get to market with innovative new products.”

    Why they’re in small tech
    “We believe the micromachine industry has tremendous potential that is very difficult to realize since it is constrained by conventional manufacturing approaches that are not flexible, versatile, fast, affordable or accessible to most engineers and designers,” Cohen said. “We have developed EFAB, our flagship technology, from the ground up to address these problems and to help catalyse the long-promised explosive growth of the industry.”

    What keeps them up at night
    “Remembering all the things we need to do the next day.”

    Contact
    URL: http://www.memgen.com/
    Phone: 818-295-3996
    Fax: 818-295-3998

    Recent news
    MEMGen gets Japanese patent for technology
    MEMGen’s automated machine uses metal layers to build 3-D MEMS

    — Research by Gretchen McNeely

    June 10, 2002 — Using an atomic force microscope tip as a pen and different single-stranded DNA as inks, scientists at Northwestern University have demonstrated a technique that could lead to the ultimate high-density gene chip because it takes gene chips to the limit of miniaturization — down to the scale of the DNA molecules themselves, according to a university news release.

    This development, which uses the same tool to write patterns and read the results on the nanometer scale, could have an enormous impact on genomics and proteomics research.

    Results of the DNA patterning on both gold and silicon oxide, which is important for electronic and optical materials applications, was published in the June 7 issue of the journal Science.

    “With this new tool, we can take a normal chip that’s made and sold today for studying a problem in genomics and miniaturize it to 1/100,000th of its size,” said Chad A. Mirkin, director of Northwestern’s Institute for Nanotechnology, who led the research team.

    “In a normal chip with 100,000 different spots of DNA, each spot is 20 to 40 micrometers in diameter. Using state-of-the-art dip-pen nanolithography we can prepare 100,000 DNA spots in the area occupied by a single spot in a conventional gene chip.”

    June 6, 2002 — Measurement Specialties Inc. said trading of its common stock resumed Wednesday on the American Stock Exchange after a nearly four-month suspension.

    Trading of the MEMS-based sensor maker’s stock was halted in February after the company decided to delay filing its quarterly report. The company said it needed to evaluate whether to restate earnings for most of 2001.

    The firm also announced it had defaulted on bank loans and formed a special committee to investigate the conduct of its chief financial officer, who later was fired for failing to provide timely or accurate information about the default issues. Additionally, the committee probed stock sales by the CFO and chief executive officer, which led to revised standards for buying and selling stock by employees.

    Lawyers have filed several class action lawsuits against the company, alleging violations of federal securities laws. The firm has been charged with, among other things, improperly recognized revenues and overstated inventories that led to falsely enhanced financial results.

    Measurement Specialties said it will “vigorously defend” against the lawsuits.

    Chaska, MN – The surface conditioning division of FSI International Inc. has joined The Dow Chemical Co.-sponsored SiLKnet Alliance to participate in the advancement of low-k surface conditioning solutions, for use in processing SiLK semiconductor dielectric resins.

    Membership in the alliance will provide FSI with the opportunity to integrate its low-k cleaning capabilities into an end-to-end low-k solution. Collaboration among the SiLKnet Alliance members enables the development of proven, production-ready low-k products and processes that support the integration of SiLK in the 130-nm technology node and beyond.

    “With the addition of FSI, the SiLKnet Alliance gains an established cleaning company. FSI brings nearly 30 years of experience and expertise in batch spray, and its proprietary CryoKinetic technology will expand the capabilities of the Alliance,” said Greg Bauer, development director for the SiLKnet Alliance.

    Low-k and ultra low-k technology development is critical to advancement within the IC industry. The ITRS calls for the implementation of ultra low-k for production by 2005, which means that it must be in R&D by 2002. Involvement with the Alliance will allow FSI to play a key role in developing low-k and ultra-low-k technology through the enhancement of its BEOL cleaning solutions.

    FSI will use its ZETA 300 BE Surface Conditioning Systems and ANTARES CX Advanced Cleaning Systems for the development work, as well as its lab facilities in Chaska for development and demonstration purposes. The development will focus on using the ZETA Systems for post-ash clean and resist strip, and using the ANTARES Systems for pre-deposition particle removal. FSI’s low-k clean capabilities have already been demonstrated in its process lab and at several customer sites.

    May 28, 2002 – Santa Clara, CA – Intel Corp. has signed an agreement to conduct microprocessor R&D at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona, Spain.

    Under the terms of this agreement, UPC will operate a research center, Intel Labs Barcelona (ILB), on behalf of Intel.

    In a speech at the Intel Developer Forum, Intel VP and CTO Patrick Gelsinger said that Intel is teaming up with the UPC to work on microprocessor R&D. As part of this relationship, Intel will open a research facility on the UPC campus in Barcelona later this year. The center will help expand Intel’s capabilities in microprocessor R&D, as well as enable Intel to continue delivering performance on future generations of microprocessor.

    The relationship maintains ILB’s academic origins, enabling Intel to work with some of the best microprocessor researchers in Europe without separating them from the European academic community. This unique arrangement offers significant benefits to both parties.

    Intel’s microprocessor researchers will collaborate with researchers from UPC’s computer architecture department on advanced microprocessor technologies for future Intel Itanium processor and Intel Pentium processor family designs. R&D efforts will focus on increasing processor performance, reducing power consumption, and extending battery life.

    The center will be led by three professors from UPC: Antonio Gonzalez, Roger Espasa, and Toni Juan.

    May 14, 2002 – Sunnyvale, CA – UltraRF Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cree Inc., has signed an agreement with Hitachi Kokusai Electric of Japan for the development of high power amplifier modules based on UltraRF’s LDMOS-8 technology.

    John Quinn, UltraRF vice president stated, “UltraRF and Hitachi Kokusai are responding to the demand for system operating cost reduction by investing in new circuit and device level technologies that are expected to be made available to infrastructure manufacturers via a range of modular power amplifiers similar to the recently released UltraRF PFM 21020. These modules are portable from platform to platform and enable additional cost saving system architectures such as tower-top PA’s which eliminate traditional system power losses between PA and antenna.”

    Hitachi Kokusai Electric is an integrated manufacturer of electronics equipment that develops, manufactures, and markets a line of products focused primarily on three key areas: wireless communication and information systems, broadcasting and video systems, and semiconductor manufacturing systems. The company’s overseas network comprises affiliates and sales offices in Europe as well as affiliates, sales offices, and technical centers in the US.

    By Paula Doe
    WaferNews Contributing Editor

    It may not be the big guys who benefit most from China’s expanding semiconductor production. While the top tool companies focus on shipping the latest technology, smaller equipment makers and remarketers of used equipment may actually find a bigger market for their older generation products.

    “People are waiting for the market to come back, but it ain’t going to come back the way it was before,” says Gary Alexander, president of the used equipment trade group Surplus Equipment Consortium/Network Inc. (SEC/N), Paradise Valley, AZ. “It’s going to come back with a significant number of older generation fabs in China.”

    Noting that used equipment usually leads a recovery, he adds, “We were swamped at Semicon China, and we don’t even sell the stuff. They just ask us where they can buy it.”

    Indeed, Alexander notes he has been approached by Chinese regional governments that want to buy a whole wafer fab, but don’t care what generation technology it is or what product it will make. They just have technical schools turning out engineering graduates needing jobs, so they are building an industrial park, and they want a wafer fab to get into technology.

    Alexander figures the total used equipment market was about $1 billion in 2001, down from $2 billion in 2000, with sales supported largely by the China market, though no one has good numbers for the actual size of China’s used tool demand. “Some companies in the used equipment business had their biggest year ever last year because they were selling into China,” he says, though declining to name names. “OEMs are waiting around to sell 300mm equipment, but 150mm is going big-time.”

    Another indication of just how heavily the China market is weighted towards the low end is Applied Materials’ smaller than expected market share there, points out Robert Castellano, president of The Information Network, New Tripoli, PA. He figures Applied sold about $157 million worth of equipment in China in 2001, for a 7% share of China’s total $2 billion total frontend equipment market, or about 20% share of the $800 million segments in which Applied competes. In contrast, Applied has some 20% share of the total equipment market worldwide, and nearly 50% share of the available market in the segments in which it competes.

    “If Applied can’t do better, with all the infrastructure they have in China,” says Castellano, “the market for advanced new equipment must not be so big. They’re selling high-end, next-generation tools. But China is buying older stuff.”

    Castellano figures about 60% of the China market then must be older generation equipment or used tools. None of these figures include the tools a chipmaker transfers from its own plants elsewhere in the world to its own ventures in China. China currently has only two fabs producing at 0.25 to 0.35-micron geometries, two at 0.5 to 0.8-micron, five at 0.8 to 1.2-micron, and 13, or 60%, still at two microns and larger. “No one is going to go from 1.0-micron to 0.13,” he notes.

    While global foundries SMIC and Grace aim to produce as close to the leading edge as the market demands and export controls allow, and investment by some others may mean three to four newer generation fabs are built in China this year, most production for some time will still be of far simpler stuff, where labor costs remain more significant. Castellano says labor makes up 30% of the cost of running a 1 to 2-micron fab, 20% at 0.5 to 1-micron, compared to 10% below 0.5-micron.

    Significant growth in sales of used equipment to China will, however, require development of a better supporting infrastructure. The Chinese got severely burned by their first attempts at buying used equipment, and were often unable to install the tools, with no support or parts available. That’s led to defensive measures by the Chinese government, with rules on imports, certification requirements, even sometimes stepping in to tell banks not to pay on letters of credit.

    “There’s a whole opportunity to educate folks over there who are buying (and the government) on how the international market works,” says Alexander.

    WaferNews

    Hsinchu, Taiwan – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) said its planned manufacturing facilities in China will be aimed at the growing mainland market and not exports.

    TSMC Chairman Morris Chang said the company’s motive was not to cut costs, but to compete with mainland chipmakers that may get preferential treatment, reported Reuters.

    “Even if we had competitors in the United States, the US would not favor domestic manufacturers, but we believe that China will not be such an open market,” Chang said. “We would have major difficulties selling there. This is the reason why we are going to the mainland — if it was completely open, we wouldn’t have to go there.”

    TSMC studies showed the costs of semiconductor production in China could actually be greater than that of Taiwan, he said.

    TSMC is currently scouting for sites to set up a semiconductor plant in China, where the market for semiconductors is growing at an estimated 20% a year as the global market is set to rise about 6% this year.

    At the same time, it has also scheduled to break ground on two more microchip plants in Taiwan this year.

    Additionally, TSMC’s board of directors has approved NT$69.28 billion (US$1=NT$34.565) in capital spending for several projects, the company said.

    The projects include expanding production capacity for the company’s 0.15-micron and advanced copper process technologies, as well as the increase of its maskmaking capacity for 0.13-micron and 0.09-micron process, Dow Jones reported.

    The company didn’t give a timeframe for the spending plan.

    TSMC’s board also decided to allocate an additional NT$ 1.11 billion for spending in 2002 to be used for R&D investments, production improvements, and IT updates, the company said.

    The board also approved a US$20 million investment in EUV LLC, a consortium led by AMD, IBM, Infineon Technologies, Intel Corp., Micron Technologies Inc., Motorola Inc., and TSMC. It’s dedicated to developing EUV lithography technology.

    By Jack Mason
    Small Times Correspondent

    ALBANY, N.Y., May 7, 2002 — Chances are you’ve never heard of Tech Valley, the region stretching up and down the Hudson River and centered on New York’s state capital.

    Chances are better that you’ll be hearing more about the area.

    The Capital District around Albany is home to ambitious development plans, and a cluster of organizations with small tech aspirations:

    Moreover, with strong state government support and cross-institutional collaboration among the 1,000-plus high-tech companies in the area, Tech Valley has every chance of becoming a lot more than a marketing mantra.

    The second annual Summit in Tech Valley, held April 30 at the Albany Marriott, drew more than 350 business executives and technologists to discuss the challenges of building the region into the next high-tech hot zone.

    The event also featured a business plan competition that earned a $100,000 prize for Starfire Systems Inc. of Watervliet, N.Y. A local venture with a small tech focus, Starfire makes high performance silicon carbide ceramics materials, and is a product of RPI’s tech-company incubator, one of the oldest in the country, founded in 1980.

    NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, who has hosted similar gatherings in Silicon Valley and New York City’s Silicon Alley, moderated two panels with area executives and educators as well as CEOs of local companies. Participants included executives from nearby Intermagnetics General Corp. a superconducting materials maker, MTI MicroFuel Cells Inc., Mechanical Technology Inc., and MTI’s sister company, stationary fuel cell systems maker Plug Power.

    During a break between panels, Plug Power’s chief executive, Roger Saillant, showed off one of the company’s five-megawatt fuel cells running a model home set up under a tent in the parking lot.

    Saillant explained that the fuel cell, which is about the size of two refrigerators, would benefit from advances in small tech. Saillant pointed out that the perfect membrane inside one of Plug Power’s PEM (proton exchange membrane) fuel cells would be nanoscale –just large enough to let protons through, while forcing hydrogen atoms to give up their electrons to produce energy. He also noted that carbon nanotubes and other small tech approaches could help solve the challenge of storing hydrogen, the ideal fuel-cell fuel.

    Over lunch, Gov. George Pataki presented an overview on New York State’s billion-dollar plan to build the Capital Region into a center for new energy and biotech companies, nanotechnology R&D and high-tech education. A statewide plan, Pataki’s Centers of Excellence program would support similar development in the Buffalo and Rochester areas.

    Pataki noted that building Tech Valley was an economic imperative for New York “because we’re not just competing with others states, but with other countries as well.” He also cited the impact of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the New York’s economy as another driver: 135,000 jobs lost, 377,000 workers displaced, 14 million square feet of office space destroyed and a loss of $7 billion in state revenues.

    If Tech Valley is to take off, General Electric will likely play a pivotal role. One of the largest and most diverse corporate research centers in the world, its 1,700 scientists and engineers work on everything from advanced polymers to medical imaging devices such as the MRI machine, a GE invention. General Electric has said it will invest $100 million in the center, located just outside Albany.

    Scott Donelly, senior vice president of GE Research, says that nanotechnology runs through and across a wide range of GE projects, from creating new composite materials to “solid-state” lighting of energy efficient, light-emitting materials built with small tech. Such full-spectrum LED lighting may replace the conventional incandescent bulb.

    Donelly, an engineer, came over to GE Research two years ago from running the company’s medical systems division. As an example of how Tech Valley is becoming both cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional, he describes how GE researchers are working with scientists at the Albany Medical Center to create new contrast agents for MRI machines. Such designer molecules would be injected into patients to help doctors better “see” early signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

    William Acker, president of MTI MicroFuel Cells, said Tech Valley has the “right mix of resources, companies and institutions to make it a standout as a cultivator of new energy initiatives.” His own company, which is aiming to have portable, PDA-sized fuel cells on the market by 2004, is taking full advantage of those resources: it is developing the microfluidics system for its direct methanol fuel cells with University of Albany’s innovative new nanotech complex, Albany Nanotech.

    A quick visit through Albany Nanotech with Michael Fancher, the nanocenter’s director for economic outreach, reveals a unique organizational blend of industry and university. IBM has committed $100 million, and the state $50 million more, to create a Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics at the center.

    In addition to 35,000 square feet of clean room facilities under construction, Albany Nanotech is a multifaceted complex structured and operated more like a company than an academic institution. It is also tackling a unusual mix of programs: incubating new nanotech companies, training nanotechnicians, educating young adults about small tech and working with companies to design and build machine tools and manufacturing equipment for nanotechnology.

    The second Summit in Tech Valley was better attended and more introspective than last year’s, according to those who were at the inaugural event.

    Whether Tech Valley will grow as fast as its ambitions is an open question. However, like nanotechnology itself, only time will tell. In 10 years, the region and the small tech field may both be booming.

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