A final tranche of $3 million in the form of an equity investment was made by Ray Stata, the co-founder and current chairman of Analog Devices, a leading designer and manufacturer of analogue, mixed signal and DSP integrated circuits.
Building on technology conceived at MIT, Nano-C’s has developed a range of nanostructured carbon materials and chemicals - carbon nanotubes, spherical forms of carbon known as fullerenes and functionalised materials.
“New materials are the key to unlocking future innovation in many markets because they possess qualities traditional materials cannot deliver,” said Stata. “When you look at the markets and applications that Nano-C can impact, it’s easy to see the opportunity this company has for growth.”
Commenting Viktor Vejins, President and CEO of Nano-C, said, “All of our customers are positioned to become leaders in their industries because they can leverage the power of our material solutions, which are vital to their success. We are excited that Ray will join the Board as an Observer.”
Nano-C said that it will use this capital to expand its support to existing and future customers. The funds will also enable Nano-C to implement an initial increase in production and staffing at its Westwood, MA, factory to meet the growing demand for its materials.
Nano-C’s materials are being deployed in a wide range of markets including:
- Next Generation Memory - Nantero is using Nano-C’s carbon nanotubes in its new non-volatile random access memory (NRAM) chips, which are expected to have the read-write speeds of today’s DRAM with far lower power consumption.
- Photovoltaic Devices - The Performance Materials Division of the German industrial giant Merck, plans to put a custom small molecule developed at Nano-C into polymers for flexible organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices.
- EUV Photo-Resist - UK-based Irresistible Materials is using Nano-C’s molecules for a new type of photoresist that will make possible the semiconductor industry’s advance to the N5 node via EUV lithography, keeping Moore’s Law on track. Leading memory and logic chipmakers are targeting pilot-scale trials of these materials in 2018/2019.
- Display Materials - Nano-C has been working with a display manufacturer to qualify Nano-C’s patented transparent carbon nanotube films, including its patented concept to “reinforce” conventional ITO. Initial tests with a commercial ITO film manufacturer show over a 30x improvement in mechanical durability.
