Tosca Final NSF I-Corps Presentation

Terahertz on Silicon Chip Arrays (TOSCA) Rensselaer I-CORPS SCPD 2011 EXISTING PRODUCT : Si-based terahertz detector outperforming commercial detectors. PRODUCT TO BE DEVELOPED : complete THz system for a new multi-billion dollar market. USED FOR SECURITY, MEDICAL IMAGING, HAZARDS Talked to over 100 prospective customers

Michael Shur PI Alexey Gutin Entrepreneurial Lead Kerry Bohmert Mentor Michael Shur received MSEE Degree (with honors) from St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute, and PhD and Dr. Sc. Degrees from A. F. Ioffe Institute. Alexey Gutin is a fourth year doctoral student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute studying terahertz detection using FETs. Kerry Bohmert is a Marketing Coordinator at Sensor Electronic Technology, Inc. Other members: CEO Remis Gaska and Director of Marketing Tim Bettles, Team

Communications
Size
Product demo
Training
IP licensing
IP
Customer visits
Fabrication companies
Fabrication
Universities
IP development
Much lower cost
Human
Facilities
Support
Feedback
Conferences
Website
Imaging
Spectroscopy
Sales
IP protection
Employees
Government & corporate contracts
Business Canvas 1

Who we talked to
BAE Systems (Dr. Chao - Technical Director, Microelectronics Center )
NASA (Dr. Lumelsky- Lead Technologist @ NASA – Goddard Space Flight Center)
SEMATECH (Dr. Veksler - Technical Staff )
SYNOPSIS ( Dr. Mickevicius, Director of Engineering )
Power Photonics, Inc (Dr. Belenky, Founder )
SUNY Stonybrook (Dr. Luryi, Center Director )
Phillips Medical Systems (Dr. Parizh, Senior Manager )
ARL (Dr. Wikner, Team Lead, mm Wave group )
NASA (Dr. Abedin, Engineer )
ARL (Dr. Amirtharaj, Chief of Electronics and RF Division )

Learned: need complete system
Discovered IP Licensing would not be a viable revenue source
Customers want a finished product not fab themselves
Buying decisions at large corporations (TI, Motorola) are evaluated by engineers, then aggressively negotiated by purchasing department.
Customers are looking for something smaller, lighter, cheaper.
While most were impressed by our detector, the majority want an entire system (emitter/detector).
Our value proposition only provides the detector, so it is only half of a complete system. This severely limits our market size

Channels 1 2

Size
Product demo
Training
IP
Customer visits
Fabrication
Universities
IP development
Much lower cost
Human
Facilities
Support
Feedback
Conferences
Sales
IP protection
Employees
Robotics
Hazard Detection
THz companies
Entire THz system
Imaging
THz companies
Business Canvas 2

Who we talked to next
THz emitter research (Dr. Hella, Associate Professor )
Z Omega (Mr. Tongue, CEO )
SOC, Inc (Dr. Suh, Vice President and Resarch Fellow)
STR, Inc. (Ms. Zimina, Marketing )
SYNOPSIS ( Dr. Mickevicius, Director of Engineering )
Cardiologist and small medical business (Dr. Rapoport)
SET, Inc. (Dr. J. Yang, Senior Manager and Board Member )
Three THz researchers at RPI (Dr. Hella, Dr. Yamaguchi, Dr. Wilke)
Dr. Mosbacker from Traycer Diagnostic Systems

Learned: need more R&D
Professors at universities can serve as early adopters of our technology
Several people have been interested in our technology for gas detection
We need to partner with other groups to bring such a system to market quickly
We still need to develop a complete system

Market size 2011 2016 $50M THz Applications M M M

Size
Product demo
Training
IP
Customer visits
Fabrication
Universities
IP development
Much lower cost
Human
Facilities
Support
Feedback
Conferences
Sales
IP protection
Employees
Gas detection
THz companies
Entire THz system
Imaging
THz companies
Government
Business Canvas 3

University Partners Brown (J. Xu) Si nanoarrays for THz detection RPI (M. Hella) Si sub-THz VCOs for biochips Si THz camera design Buffalo (V. Mitin) QCL for sources and mixers IFU (N. Pala) Si THz chips for biodetection U of Aizu (V. Ryzhii) Transit time THz sources UC Davis (A. Balandin) THz graphene on Si U of Paris (R. Colombelli) QCL sources U of Montpellier (W. Knap) THz arrays RAS (V. Popov) THz array modeling University Partners will team with us to develop software, characterize prototype devices, and even purchase our first systems

Government Partners M. Wraback (ARL) THz spectroscopy K. Gatskill (ONR) THz graphene A. Efros (ONR) THz theory N. Abedin (NASA) THz detectors for space A. Davydov (NIST) THz nanowires S. Suresh (JPL) Si cryo THz detectors for space Jeff A. Hughes (WPAFB) THz landing systems V. Lumelsky (NASA) THz detectors for space P. Seagal (JPL) Si THz detectors for space We will seek Government funding to take our technology to the next level

Industrial Partners X.C. Zhang (ZOmega) THz spectroscopy P.C. Chao (BAE) THz radar G. DeSalvo (Northup Grumman) THz camera D. Wobschall (eSensors) THz mixers R. Gaska (SET) THz GaN vs. Si Board Member D. Singh (Honeywell) THz sensors Industry partners could get involved in co-production and co-distributing

Where we go from here
Recruit full time CEO or Senior Scientist (US citizen or national)
Apply for SBIR and STTR grants
Quickly develop a complete THz system
Demonstrate that the specifications of such a system exceed what is available commercially
Demonstrate our system for customer’s desired application (chemical detection, imaging, security)

Tosca Final NSF I-Corps Presentation

by steve blank on Dec 14, 2011

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Tosca Final NSF I-Corps Presentation Presentation Transcript