Empire State Development (ESD) has declared that College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering’s (CNSE) Smart System Technology and Commercialization Center (STC) will obtain funding worth $5 million via the SUNY Research Foundation.
ESD’s Upstate Regional Blueprint Fund is the source of the funding and the grant will support STC to develop new technologies and prototypes that will expand private ventures and create jobs in the New York region.
The project is likely to be completed by July 2012. It will help to retain the services of 40 staff and create additional 20 permanent jobs at STC as well as another 50 positions at Moser Baer.
Kenneth Adams, President and CEO of ESD, has stated that the grant will further strengthen the position of New York in the utilization of nanotechnology for developing new products and also for improving their commercialization efforts. He added that with the support of ESD, STC can enhance its ability to extend its commercialization practices in intelligent systems and the project will reinforce their invention economy in the Finger Lakes Region.
Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, Senior Vice President and CEO of CNSE thanked Governor Cuomo and Empire State Development for arranging this major investment. He mentioned that the grant will leverage around $25 million worth financial assistance from their private industry collaborators to further advance facilities at STC, which may lead to exciting opportunities to draw nanotechnology careers, firms and funding to the Greater Rochester Region.
STC will allocate $8 million to improve the current cleanroom space measuring 10,000 sq ft, buy new machines and devices to assist the pilot scale production of organic light emitting diode (OLED) panels and also developing a capacity for drawing other applications based on intelligent system technology.
The project involves two significant parts. The first component is the fit-out of cleanroom space for Moser Baer Technologies, an on-site collaborator of STC, which is offering $17 million worth private investment. Another component of the project involves transferring tools from CNSE’s Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics and Nanotechnology to STC, buying new tools and updating current tools. This will help STC to strengthen its position in the emerging smart system technologies market and by 2015 this market is expected to reach $200 billion.
Two additional major features of the program include developing a new method called ‘Through Silicon Via’ technology and also accomplishing the U.S. Department of Defense Trusted Foundry certification.
Source: http://www.esd.ny.gov