MOLECULAR IMPRINTS NAMED 2004 COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Jeff Karoub
No startup can guarantee the path to profitability. But the strongest prospects do the next best thing: craft a clear guide to getting there.
For Molecular Imprints Inc. (News, Web) (MII), the past year has been all about refining its roadmap. In the process, the Austin, Texas-based firm has made strong inroads into the development plans of the semiconductor industry.
The accomplishments of Molecular Imprints and its CEO led it to one top honor and a runner-up award in the 2004 Small Times’ Best of Small Tech Awards. Molecular Imprints received the Company of the Year title. Norman Schumaker, president and CEO, won a runner-up award in the business leader category.
The awards were announced today and will appear in the November/December issue of Small Times magazine. The full list appears here.
One of the most impressive accomplishments for MII and Schumaker was securing $30 million in equity backing. The Series B round included Alloy Ventures, Brewer Science, Carl Zeiss SMT AG, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Hakuto Co. Ltd., Harris & Harris Group Inc., KLA-Tencor Corp., Lux Capital Group and Motorola Inc.
The investors recognized the University of Texas at Austin spinout for its management team and the broad base of industry support for its step-and-flash imprint lithography, which uses a form of room-temperature patterning that produces nanostructures and devices at a potentially lower cost and complexity that traditional optical lithography techniques.
MII also was praised for putting that process on the semiconductor map. KLA-Tencor, one of the world's leading semiconductor equipment makers, agreed to distribute the firm's systems into the silicon-based integrated circuit markets in the United States and Asia.
Brewer Science, which develops semiconductor chemicals and specialty materials, announced it would distribute MII's imprint materials. Tokyo Electron Ltd., a major supplier of semiconductor and flat-panel display production equipment, joined the funding round and described the company as an industry pioneer.
"There were more strategic investors than VCs," Schumaker said. "Most people are very happy with one strategic investor. We have eight strategic investors.
"In some respects, we're getting third-party endorsements of the potential of the technology. Everyone sees that the promise of the technology is sufficient that they're willing to gamble some of their corporate resources in order to make that happen. … If step-and-flash is successful and Molecular Imprints is successful, each of these individual companies … will expand their markets and opportunities."
The deals offered marketplace proof that Molecular Imprints' technology was an appropriate addition to another kind of map. Last December, the company announced that step-and-flash was placed on the 2003 edition of the International Roadmap for Semiconductors.
The roadmap's purpose is to ensure advancements in IC performance, and supporters argued that MII's industrial partnerships would help reduce the risks associated with a new technology and could accelerate the introduction of ever-smaller feature sizes.
Fitting into future plans isn't keeping the firm from logging sales in the sector. It recently identified the purchase of its Imprio 100 system by Hewlett-Packard. That followed announced shipments to Motorola and South Korea's National NanoFab Center.
"For a tool company such as Molecular Imprints to be successful, we have to be able to sell into the manufacturing environment," Schumaker said. "We may not be able to sell to all research people because of budgetary limitations, but we'll bend over backwards to sell to … manufacturing. We want to be able to sell more than one tool."
Schumaker hopes that current customers, as well as many other major nanoscale players, will evolve with his company. MII plans to launch a full production tool next year, and is undergoing a facility expansion to more than double its size and accommodate anticipated demand.
Meanwhile, the R&D machine continues. The company leads a three-year, $36-million project that's part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Advanced Technology Program. The award includes $17 million from the government and $19 million from MII and its joint venture partners: KLA-Tencor, Photronics, Motorola Labs and UT-Austin. The objective is to establish system, materials and template development associated with the step-and-flash process.
Creating the infrastructure necessary for a new lithographic process is no small feat, according to JoAnne Feeney, vice president of research at Punk, Ziegel & Co. in New York. For example, she said, MII works with what's called 1X lithography, which means the pattern on the template is the exact pattern that will transfer to the wafer. By contrast, optical lithography is 4X, which can shrink by a factor of four the pattern that's on the mask.
"The challenge remains to make those masks at the fine resolution that Molecular Imprints' tool is capable of making that meets the standards of critical dimension, overlay and defect control," said Feeney, a Best of Small Tech panelist in the company category.
Feeney gives high marks to Molecular Imprints for not only attracting so many industrial investors seeking to develop the complementary technology, but also for leading the charge in securing the federal funding that is subsidizing the development of the infrastructure.
"(The investors) have the experience to be able to look at this technology and know its risks and know its promise. That is an important signal," Feeney said. "It isn't only a stamp of approval, or a vote of confidence. It's also an investment of resources to develop the complementary technology essential for Molecular Imprints to break into semiconductor manufacturing."
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