Startups

Actoprobe LLC designs, manufactures and sells custom optical Spectroscopy/Microscopy Instruments for conventional AFM to do single molecular spectroscopy of biomedical specimens and compound semiconductor material & devices.

Dynamic Photonics Inc. (DPI) is a developer of high-performance, inexpensive transceiver modules for high-speed lightwave communications. DPI’s extensive expertise in the design and operation of ava-lanche photodiodes, high-speed microwave circuits, and communication theory enables it to produce innovative solutions to receivers for the 40-giga bit per second optical communication market and be-yond. The key patented innovation employed in its technology is that off-the-shelf APD photodetec-tors are operated in a non-conventional manner (based on technology developed by CHTM faculty Hayat and Zarkesh-Ha and licensed from STC.UNM) specifically designed to enhance the photodetec-tor's speed well beyond conventional limits. DPI (R. Efroymson, CEO) was founded in 2013 by investors from the NM Angels and both Hayat and Zarkesh-Ha are actively participating in DPI.

Ennetix delivers Network Performance Management, purpose-built for multi-domain networks.

With the increasing adoption of Private and Public Clouds in IT infrastructures, critical resources required for application or service delivery are distributed across multiple data centers. Each data center, and the network infrastructure that connects it to other data centers, may have very different performance characteristics, and can potentially be under the administration of a different entity.

A new approach is required to gain granular network performance visibility in such multi-domain networks and to ensure that the end-to-end infrastructure delivers the performance levels needed for highly responsive application or service delivery.

Ennetix offers a unique Network Performance Management service based on its Performance Measurement Overlay (PMO) technology. Ennetix PMO is independent of the underlying networking infrastructure and provides continuous measurement of end-to-end performance of all network paths, including those in public domains.

Gratings, Inc. is a research and development firm that specializes in microstructural and nanostructural approaches to different challenges facing the microelectronics and power industries. It was founded by Dr. Saleem Zaidi, a CHTM alumni who graduated with a Ph.D in 1989. Among Gratings, Inc. special-ties are lightweight ultra- thin photovoltaics (solar cells), solar cell texturing, Schottky devices, basic molecular-electronic devices, and low-cost monocrystalline semiconductor substrates, including ul-trathin Silicon-on-quartz, Germanium-on-Silicon and Gallium Arsenide-on-Silicon.

Infralase, Inc. was co-founded by CHTM alumnus Dr. Balaji Srinivasan, a former graduate student of Prof. Ravi Jain, and has created a cumulative employment of over 10 man-years in the State of New Mexico. Its current business focus is on the development of compact lasers for otological and dermatological surgical applications.

K&A Wireless, LLC is an innovative driver of technology whose mission is to develop, manufacture and market advanced technology solutions to developing markets where there is an identifiable need to manage video, voice and data. As the market leader in the firefighting market, and servicing the law enforcement and security & surveillance markets, K&A has achieved successes through innovative and proprietary designs, meeting customer delivery requirements, and customer service unmatched in the industry. K&A was founded by CHTM alumnus, Dr. Kamil Agi, who graduated with his PhD in 1997.

Kiara Technologies is a start-up company by Prof. Ravi Jain. The mission is to develop and manufacture advanced fiber-based products. They have a silica fiber MCVD preform fabrication and fiber draw facili-ty. The Kiara R&D facility is also pursuing various optical fiber products. Currently, they provide custom fabrication of fiber preforms and provide a custom fiber draw service.

Albuquerque-based Nanocrystal LLC was formed in 2007 by three CHTM/UNM graduates, Dr. Petros Varangis (President and CEO), Dr. Lei Zhang (CTO) and Dr. Xin Wang. Nanocrystal is licensing the CHTM-developed technology for the scalable fabrication of gallium nitride (GaN) nanowires (US patent 7,521,274 B2: inventors Steve Hersee, Xinyu Sun and Xin Wang). The company closed on a round of seed funding with Verge in August 2008 and is collaborating with Dr. Steve Hersee to evaluate the commercial viability of this revolutionary technology. Targeted products include extremely low defect density GaN wafers and a new, highly-efficient generation of light emitting diodes for solid-state light-ing. Nanocrystal is currently located in STC’s business incubator unit on the UNM campus and they are a regular user of CHTM’s clean rooms and other facilities through a service center contract with CHTM.

Sandia Systems, Inc. developed scatterometry as a tool for the metrology of semiconductor structures. This novel metrology concept involved two key aspects: first, the measurement of the signal diffracted from periodic structures; second, the analysis of the diffracted signal, or the solution of the inverse diffraction problem. The experimental work was led by Prof. McNeil while Prof. Naqvi led the theoret-ical effort. The success of scatterometry was critically dependent on success in each of the company’s key aspects. Over time, Sandia Systems Inc. moved towards the development of a commercial scatterometer tool. This endeavor met with great success leading to the acquisition of Sandia Systems Inc. by Bio- Rad Inc., a significant player in the semiconductor equipment manufacturer market. Commer-cial scatterometers are successfully functioning at different locations including IBM, Texas Instru-ments, and Seagate Technology Inc., USA.

Semiconductor Bridge (SCB) initiators are fast acting, low energy electro-explosive devices. SCB initiators are extremely efficient at converting electrical energy to explosive energy to produce a squib or detonation output. This company was started by Prof. Ken Jungling and sold to Ensign Bickford. The key component of an SCB initiator is the silicon-on-insulator semiconductor bridge itself. By controlling the size and shape of the bridge area on the chip, the firing characteristics of the initiator can be very tightly controlled. Since SCB chips are built using standard semiconductor processing techniques, additional "on-chip" electrical circuitry has been added to a number of designs. A variety of SCB initiators have been developed to meet specific requirements such as immunity to electrostatic discharge (ESD), voltage blocking for Radio Frequency (RF) protection and very low initiation energy applications.

SK Infrared created the Advanced Longwave Infrared-imaging and Analysis System (ALIAS), a novel technology allowing painless, non-invasive, accurate diagnosis of melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma. Through a network of partnerships both public and private, SK Infrared is uniquely qualified to custom fabricate purpose-built infrared detector devices. SK Infrared devices can be used in a clinical setting to collect image data of actual skin lesions, with the analyzed data later compared with the biopsy results, refining devices and analytics dynamically.

Zia Laser Inc., was co-founded in 2000 by faculty and researchers from CHTM to commercialize eye-safe laser radar sources. By fall 2001 the company changed business plans to pursue the development of the quantum dot nanotechnology that had been pioneered at CHTM by Profs. Kevin Malloy and Luke Lester; and Drs. Tim Newell, Andreas Stintz, and Petros Varangis. Zia Laser’s investors included RWI Group and Sand Hill Financial Group out of Silicon Valley and Prism Venture Partners from the Bos-ton Area. The company’s products included tunable gain chips for wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) telecomm systems, temperature-insensitive DFB lasers for data communications, and quan-tum dot mode-locked lasers for optical clocking and photonic interconnects. The company also offered custom epitaxial wafers based on proprietary quantum dot designs. Zia Laser was acquired by Innol-ume, Inc. of Dortmund, Germany and Santa Clara, CA in 2006.