Tag Archives: Small Times Magazine

Nov. 9, 2005 – Motorola Inc. said its equity investment division Motorola Ventures made an investment in Tekion Inc., which develops micro fuel cells for mobile products. Financial details were not disclosed.

Tekion is currently working on the Formira Power Pack, which is designed to fit inside mobile products and allow users to stay connected for as long as needed. Motorola said the technology works with portable electronics with a power range of milliwatts to 50 watts and energy range of 10 to 100 watt-hours. A number of products fall within these ranges, including industrial handheld computers, satellite communication devices, and notebook computers.

Nov. 8, 2005 – Singapore-based nanotechnology spin-off Singular ID is to supply its magnetic protection tags to the Singapore subsidiary of automotive parts manufacturer Sanden International. The tags contain micro- and nanometer sized magnetic components that create a unique magnetic signature, but are fairly expensive and pose some problems when operating in metallic environments.

Other marking technologies such as shot peening and laser etching can generate two-dimensional barcodes, but they are relatively difficult to reproduce. Singular ID is backed by U.S.-based Advance Nanotech.

Source: INSEAD InnovAsia

Nov. 8, 2005 – Power Paper Ltd., a provider of thin and flexible micro-power source technology and devices, announced that it has completed a $30 million fundraising round.

The round was led by funds advised by Apax Partners, which invested $16 million, and Clal Industries and Investments and the Infinity Venture Capital Fund, which together invested $12 million. Previous investor Banc America Capital Partners also participated in the round, investing $2 million.

Established in 1997, Power Paper specializes in developing and marketing technology applications that operate with the thin and flexible, environment-friendly micro-power source that the company has developed. The power source does not require metal casing and can be printed cost-effectively directly onto paper, plastic, or other substrates, using standard printing equipment. The battery technology allows product manufacturers to design a power source that suits a specific product, rather than match the product to the form factor of the power source.

Nov. 7, 2005 – Qcept Technologies Inc. announced that the company has appointed Erik Smith as president and COO. Reporting to CEO Bret Bergman, Smith will be responsible for product development, applications, sales and marketing, and day-to-day operations at Qcept.

Smith’s background includes 15 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, 12 of which were with Ultratech Inc. where his most recent position was senior vice president of world wide sales and marketing. Qcept manufactures, sells, and supports chemical surface inspection tools to detect yield-lowering defects.

Nov. 7, 2005 — Biophan Technologies Inc., a developer of next-generation medical technology, reported the completion of phase II and phase III of its development agreement with Boston Scientific. The satisfactory completion of these milestones allows the company to recognize $225,000 of previously received development payments as current quarter revenues.

Biophan said it expected to receive additional revenue from Boston Scientific in January 2006 as a result of the recently executed license agreement between the two companies.

Nov. 7, 2005 – Synopsys Inc., a maker of semiconductor design software, announced the availability of a unified current source model for accurate and efficient modeling of nanometer effects.

The intent is that by using Synopsys’ Composite Current Source modeling technology, designers will be able to perform comprehensive timing, noise and power analysis using a single, open library model. To speed adoption, Synopsys is providing a support system for library creation and validation.

Nov. 4, 2004 — Veeco Instruments Inc. (Nasdaq: VECO) announced that it has promoted two key executives responsible for the company’s largest revenue and margin growth this year — its metrology and ion beam operations.

Jeannine Sargent, formerly executive vice president and general manager of its research atomic force microscope/nano-bio business unit, has been named executive vice president, metrology and instrumentation. Sargent is now responsible for all Veeco atomic force microscope and optical profiler products. She will also maintain her corporate business development responsibilities.

Robert Oates, formerly senior vice president of Veeco’s ion beam operations, has been named senior vice president of data storage. He is now in charge of all of Veeco’s data storage process equipment products, including its ion beam etch and deposition, physical vapor deposition, atomic layer deposition, precision lapping, dicing and slicing product lines.

Nov. 4, 2005 — Owlstone Nanotech Inc., a developer of nanotechnology-based chemical detection products, announced a beta testing program with Kidde, the global fire and safety group.

Owlstone said its nano-fabricated chemical detection system will be tested for suitability in the next generation of Kidde’s safety detection, prevention and protection systems.

Owlstone is developing a revolutionary micro-machined gas sensor, which, with its associated electronics and software, provides what is in effect an analytical instrument on a chip, programmable for a range of analytes. The technology holds significant promise for the cost-effective detection of volatile organic compounds related to pre-combustion fire events and indoor air quality monitoring. These are currently very difficult to detect and differentiate in an inexpensive manner using existing chemical sensors.

Owlstone Nanotech is a subsidiary of Advance Nanotech Inc., (OTC.BB:AVNA). Kidde is part of UTC Fire & Security, a business unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX).

Nov. 4, 2005 — Fuji Photo Film U.S.A. Inc. announced the introduction of a new enterprise-grade tape media designed to provide 1.5 terabytes of capacity (with compression) on a cartridge for the Sun StorageTek T10000 Enterprise Tape Storage system.

Fuji says the new media is based on the same NANOCUBIC technology found in other Fujifilm media products. NANOCUBIC uses an ultra-thin layer coating to produce higher resolution for recording digital data, ultra-low noise and high signal-to-noise ratios that are ideal for magneto-resistive heads. The technology combines a new binder to provide more stable chemical performance and a super-fine magnetic particle in order to provide stable physical performance.

Nov. 4, 2005 — Arrowhead Research Corp. (Nasdaq:ARWR), a provider of financing for nanotechnology research and a developer of nano companies, announced that it will work with Duke University and Jie Liu, a nanotube expert, to develop nanotube-based interconnects as a replacement for copper in computer chips.

Arrowhead has agreed to provide approximately $680,000 in funding over the next two years to develop Liu’s technology. In exchange, Arrowhead will have the exclusive right to license the resulting intellectual property and commercialize the process developed at Duke.

“Our intention is to fund development of a CMOS compatible process at Duke over the next two years,” said Bruce Stewart, Arrowhead’s president, in a prepared statement, “and then partner with device manufacturers to integrate carbon nanotube-based interconnects into their manufacturing processes.”