Atomic-Scale Design, Inc. Wins
Grand Prize at
First International Nanotechnology Business Plan Contest
Innovative Business Strategy
Honored
By Lyle Bunn and Jim Bennett
Special Report
to the
April 2003
Atomic-Scale Design
Incorporated, a USA advanced materials company focusing on nanocomposites for
the electronics and aerospace industries, won the grand prize at the First
International Nanotechnology Business Plan Contest, sponsored by NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology
Development Organization of the Japanese Government) and
Mitsubishi Research Institute.
The contest took place
during the Nano Tech 2003 + Future Conference in Makuhari, Japan which was
attended by 20,000 people and included over 100 exhibitors from industry,
academia, and government labs. Speakers
at the events were luminaries in the nanotechnology field from around the
world.
"The objective of the contest was to establish a business model
for nanotechnology ventures and improve the business sense of young researchers
by holding a competition for scenarios for the industrialization of
nanotechnology research achievements,” said contest organizer Dr. Katsuya
Honda of Mitsubishi Research Institute.
The companies were judged based on the novelty of the basic idea, the business model, the technology, feasibility, and general
impressions.
The prize was awarded
for Atomic-Scale Design's (ASD) business model and strategy, showing a
combination of research and development in pilot-scale production, along with a
strategy to partner with larger, well-established companies to establish the
company's nano-structured low-k material in the market. In addition, the company described how a
licensing strategy for many nanotechnology companies, including ASD, makes
sense and can provide the highest return to shareholders.
Atomic-Scale Design
finished ahead of finalists from Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, India, United
Kingdom, and the United States.
Dr. Miwako Waga, Managing Director of the Global Emerging
Technology Institute speaking on behalf of the judging panel said “The companies who received top awards were companies that
were well-balanced in terms of financial planning, management team, technological merit, and skills of presentation. Atomic Scale
Design is to be congratulated as the best of the best”
ASD focuses on
advanced materials development and commercialization in the area of
nano-composites and atomic-scale composites.
ASD was founded by Dr. Benjamin Dorfman as an independent research
laboratory. It is world-recognized for
its developments and discoveries exhibiting the utmost physical limits of
nano-structured materials and has recently made the shift to commercializing
its developments. Nathen Fox joined the
company nine months ago to head up this transition and grow the company.
There are many
applications of ASD's nanomaterials in electronics, aerospace, and energy, but
the company’s primary focus is nano-structured low-k (low capacitance) dielectrics.
Low-k dielectric materials are one of the key enablers to continue Moore's Law.
These materials are needed for the interlayer dielectrics (insulators) required
in future computer chips that can satisfy the ITRS roadmap (http://public.itrs.net) for the next ten
years and will help insure the continuation of the Moore’s Law driven
performance increases which have been the 30 year hall-mark in the logic-chip
industry. If the logic-chip industry
were to fail to achieve this expected recurring performance increase then a
world-wide worry on the end of the high tech era would ensue.
Left to right. Dr. Meyya Meyyapan,
Director of Center for Nanotechnology at NASA Ames Research Center; Dr. Louis
Shu; Nathen Fox, CEO Atomic Scale Design Inc.