Advanced Materials, Semiconductors, Optics and Water

ABOM

Project Title: Next Generation No Fog Applications

Prinicipal Investigator: Chih-Hung Chang, Oregon State University

Company Principal: Don Megrath, CFO, ABOM, Inc.

Project Description: Working with the Oregon State University (OSU) School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering (CBEE), Abom intends to develop the next generation of transparent, thin-film conductive materials for eyewear. This collaboration will enable Abom to extend its reach into smaller, and more complex, protective eyewear systems.

The OSU team will develop state-of-the-art, visibly transparent nanocoatings using innovative, scalable manufacturing processes. This ONAMI project is built on the infrastructure and expertise made possible by an ongoing Scalable Nanomanufacturing project supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Company Website: abom.com

Agility Robotics

Project Title: Advanced Robotics Development

Prinicipal Investigator: Dr. Jonathan Hurst, Oregon State University

Company Principal: Damion Shelton, CEO, Agility Robotics Inc.

Project Description: Agility Robotics designs and builds legged robotic platforms for a diverse set of industries, including academic and corporate R&D, telepresence, military and law enforcement, and logistics and delivery.

Agility's flagship robot, Cassie, is one of the first commercially available bipeds that can operate both indoors and outdoors over a variety of terrains. Building on technology licensed from Oregon State University, in this project the Agility team is working to expand the capabilities of Cassie walking untethered utilizing virtual reality technology.

At Agility, our philosophy is that mobile robots should adapt to and move through human spaces, without requiring re-engineering of existing infrastructure.

Company Updates:

• April 22, 2022: Agility Robotics today announced that it has raised $150 million led by DCVC and Playground Global. The Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund also joined as an investor to help spur innovation in the logistics industry.
• February 2022: Watch the company's short video, A Year of Agility Engineering, on the technical advances the company made in 2021.
• September 2021: Meet Agility Robotics' new humanoid, Digit. 
• October 15, 2020: Agility Robotics announced the close of a $20 million investment. The investment will enable the company to meet the demand from logistics providers, e-commerce retailers and others for robots that can work alongside humans to automate repetitive, physically demanding or dangerous work safely and scalably, even in the majority of spaces that are not purpose-built for automation. Read more here.
• March 2018: Agility announced $8M Series A funding with investment from Playground Global, Sony Innovation Fund, Robotics Hub. Read more here.
• August 2017: Agility and Cassie were featured in WIRED Magazine, in the article "Want a robot to walk like you? Don't expect it to look human".
• February 2017: Agility released Cassie as its first product and has since shipped multiple units of Cassie to leading institutions.

Company Website: agilityrobotics.com

Amorphyx

Project Title: Diode-Based Display Backplane

Principal Investigator: Douglas Keszler, Oregon State University

Company Contact: John Brewer, Amorphyx

Project Description: The goal of this project is to demonstrate proof-of-concept process integration and testing capabilities that will enable the realization of a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) diode-based display pixel switch employing discrete MIM diodes fabricated with amorphous metal electrodes. This effort supports the team's vision for replacing the thin-film transistor (TFT) in backplane switching technology with a MIM diode that supports a 3x improvement in display backplane manufacturing line throughput and capacity for current e-ink, liquid crystal, LED, organic LED (OLED) and 3D displays.

In addition, the MIM diode’s physical flexibility offers the potential to uniquely enable the coming generation of flexible OLED-based displays that promises to redefine mobile electronic communications, entertainment, and computing devices. Amorphyx plans to initiate work with a leader in the flexible display industry with the goal of establishing a joint venture for the design and production of flexible displays in Oregon.

Company Update:

• March 2022: Amorphyx' footprint in Hangzhou, China—China's 'Entrepreneur City"—is highlighted in a new video produced by Hangzhou's Municipal Bureau of Culture, TV and Radio.

Company Website: amorphyx.com

Birch Biosciences Inc.

Plastic recycling needs a better solution.

9% of plastic is recycled in the United States, a number unchanged over the past 15 years. Most recycled plastic is lower in quality and higher in cost than 'virgin' plastics from petrochemicals. As a result, there is limited plastic circularity today, and we depend on new plastic made from oil or gas for most of our plastic products.

Birch Biosciences is fixing this. Their recycling process uses enzymes that act as molecular scissors to break down plastic naturally and efficiently. Unlike recycling today, their process yields high quality, environmentally sustainable, and cost-competitive recycled outputs, truly enabling a ‘circular’ plastics economy.

Contact the company at https://www.birchbiosciences.com/contact

Canopii

Working to Make Healthy, Locally-Grown Produce Affordable And Accessible For All Through Environmentally Conscious Means 

Canopii incentivizes farming through the creation of turn-key urban farms that utilize novel end-to-end labor automation and energy management systems to reduce costs.

By automating the entire food-growing process and controlling each farm remotely, Canopii can remove the unpredictability, inefficiencies, and expertise associated with industrial agriculture. This will allow us to create a reliable and sustainable network of farms in the communities they serve.

Get in touch with the company here - https://canopii.us/contact/

Defunkify (formerly Dune Sciences)

Project Title: Anti-microbial Fabric Treatment using Nanosilver

Prinicipal Investigator: Kurt Langworthy, University of Oregon

Company Principal: Richard Geiger, Ph.D., Dune Sciences, Inc.

Project Description: Dune Sciences, working with researchers from the University of Oregon and with access to facilities and equipment at the Lokey Laboratories, is working to develop a protocol for increasing the manufacturing scale of their wash-on, durable, antimicrobial fabric treatment that prevents bacterial contamination of treated textiles. The product can be safely and economically applied to virtually any textile at any step in the textile manufacturing process from treating thread to treating finished products at home by consumers in their own laundry. The company is also using ONAMI funds to gather the data required to gain EPA regulatory approval for their antimicrobial treatment.

Company Updates: 

• 2022: Defunkify is a sponsor of the sustainability-focused Conscious Chatter podcast. The March 8, 2022 show, Episode 264, is a focus the fashion industy's greenwashing problem and the need for mandatory measures & regulation. Defunkify's Chief Sustainability Officer, Eddie Rosenberg, discusses greenwashing in the context of the laundry industry and the company's plans for turning the laundry industry upside-down by creating not only the safest formulas, but also the most environmentally-responsible practices and packaging. Listen here.
• 2021: The company was certified to have removed ​​41,571 pounds of plastic waste that would have otherwise been burned, sent to landfills, or leaked into the ocean and waterways. Defunkify is addressing the pressing issue of plastic pollution in their industry by funding the recovery of as much nature-bound plastic waste as it uses across its packaging and distribution. 
• 2020 and 2021: For two years in a row, Defunkify earned the EPA Safer Choice Partner of the Year Award with their ProvenSafe™ Process.
• 2016: The technology was launched under the Defunkify® brand name and is now available nationally in grocery, specialty retail, industrial cleaners and online.
• 2015: While working to increase the durability and effectiveness of new textile coatings, Dune’s scientists invented technology that has been used on an entirely new line of high-performance and environmentally friendly cleaning and deodorizing products.

Company Website: defunkify.com

Diatomix

Project Title: Improving Indoor Air Quality Using A BioEngineered Self-Cleaning Paint Additive

Prinicipal Investigator: Drake Mitchell, Portland State University

Company Principal: Adrian Polliack, CEO, Diatomix Corp.

Project Description: Working with Portland State University, the Diatomix team is developing and characterizing a paint additive to be inserted into paint mixes to improve indoor air quality by photocatalytically reducing VOCs.

Company update: Diatomix has expanded its product application space beyond paint and now see applications as floor cleaning products and air filters. The company believes their photo-catalytic technology actively and continuously improves indoor air quality by adsorbing and degrading airborne toxins to safe byproducts.

In 2018, Diatomix was named a TechConnect Innovation Awardee and won the Impact Invention Award at the 2018 Elevating Impact Summit by The Lemelson Foundation.

The company has since launched Airprizm®, an air purification device that fits directly into standard residential ductwork. Airprizm destroys household pollutants that aggravate conditions such as asthma, eczema, and allergic reactions. The technology breaks down chemical pollutants into harmless molecules using Photoregenerative Adsorbent Technology (PAT). Inside the AirPrizm, dirty air comes into contact with a special material called Ditanium that has the unique ability to adsorb chemical pollutants at the molecular level.

Company Website: diatomixcorp.com, airprizm.net

Inpria

Project Title: Inorganic Printed and Spin-On Materials for High-Performance, Low-Cost Printed Electronics

Principal Investigator: Douglas Keszler, Oregon State University

Company Contact: Dr. Andrew Grenville, Inpria Corporation

Project Description: Oregon State University and Inpria used ONAMI Gap funding to demonstrate application of a new technology that provides highly efficient deposition of and patterning of functional materials for device applications at all length scales.

Company Status: Inpria has focused it's technology on the development of metal oxide photoresists, seeking to unlock the full potential of EUV patterning for the fabrication of latest generation semiconductor devices.  Inpria received a prestigious NSF SBIR award in 2010, and in May 2011 announced receipt of Series-A venture funding.

Company Updates:

• September 2021: JSR Corporation announced it has signed an agreement for the acquisition of Corvallis, OR based Inpria Corporation, the world’s leading innovator of metal oxide photoresist design, development and manufacturing for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, for USD $514 million. Read more here.
• July 2017: Inpria takes off
• November 2016: Inpria lands two more high-flying investors
• March 2016: Inpria raises $1.5M for new semiconductor production technology
• June 2014: Inpria announces $4.7M in new investment
• February 2014: EUV Photoresist Pioneer Inpria raises $23.5 Million in Series B Funding Led by Samsung Ventures

Before the JSR acquisition Inpria worked with the following clients and investors: Samsung Ventures, ASML Ventures, Applied Ventures (the venture capital arm of Applied Materials, Inc.), Intel Capital, and ALIAD, the investment arm of Air Liquide.

Company Website: inpria.com

Liquid Wire Inc.

Project Title: Stretchable Printed Electronics

Company Principal: Mark Ronay, CEO, Liquid Wire Inc.

Project Description: Liquid Wire enables low resistance stretchable electronics with stable performance through a patent pending class of materials called "metal gels".  With room temperature processing and no loss of conductivity through fatigue, their high conductivity gels provide an ideal solution for wearable sensing, power and signal transmission. Through ONAMI GAP funding Liquid Wire has developed scalable roll to roll processes to print antennas, interconnects, strain gauges and capacitive sensors onto a wide variety of common stretchable substrates. From silicone rubber to polyurethanes, nearly any plastic can now be the support layer for elastic circuitry, revolutionizing electronics form factor and function.

As part of their GAP project, the Liquid Wire team is undertaking several business development tasks designed to build strategic relationships, and expand product offerings and customer relationships.

Company Update:

• July 2020: Liquid Wire announced it has closed $10 Million Series A funding to bring stretchable electronics technologies to the medical wearables market. The financing was led by Deerfield Management Company. Read more here.

Company Website: liquidwire.com

Magwire

Project Title: Magnetically aligned Copper Nanowires

Prinicipal Investigator: Dr. Shankar Rananavare, Portland State University

Company Principal: John Brewer

Project Description: Through its patent-pending use of a magnetic nickel coating on copper nanowires licensed from Portland State University as the foundation for uniformly highly conductive and optically transparent metal films, Magwire seeks to improve the performance and manufacturability of touch interface for the new generations of communications devices.

The initial goal of Magwire's operation validates the ability of the company’s Nickel-plated Copper Nanowire (NiCuNW) materials and transparent conductive films (TCF) fabrication processes to produce prototype bespoke TCFs on customer-supplied substrates in quantities suitable for initial flexible smartphone display product development.

Company Website: magwire.org

Microflow CVO

Project Title: Commercialization of Laminated Micromixers

Principal Investigator: Todd Miller, Oregon State University

Company Contact: Steve Leith, Microflow CVO

Project Description: Microflow CVO is working to commercialize high performance micromixers developed at OSU's Microproducts Breakthrough Institute (now the Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Institute) in Corvallis, Oregon. The efficient fluidic mixing offered by Microflow CVO's micromixers finds utility in many research and industrial applications including nanoparticle synthesis, precision stream blending, and laboratory automation. Micromixing technology improves reaction control, reduces waste, and lowers capital costs associated with production of chemicals and nanomaterials in industries ranging from pharmaceutical and fine chemical to petrochemical and consumer products.

Company Update: 

Microflow CVO now designs and manufactures microfluidic devices and flow chemistry systems using patented technologies. The company offers standard products ideal for application development, but specialize in custom devices for your exact process and process scale-up. Devices include:

• Mixers
• Reactors
• Emulsifiers
• Heat exchangers

Company website: microflowcvo.com

Nano3D Systems

Project Title: Characterization of Self-Assembled Catalytic Nanolayers and Selective Electroless Adhesion/Barrier Layers

University Partner: Prof. Dave Johnson, University of Oregon

Commercial Partner: Dr. Val Dubin, Nano3D Systems LLC

Project Description: The goal of this project is to characterize and optimize nano-particle assisted electrochemical deposition process for selective electroless adhesion/barrier layers to enable CMP-free and PVD-free fabrication of 3D through-Si via interconnects that will drastically reduce the cost of Cu metallization technology. A novel nanoactivation process based on photosensitive and self-assembled nanolayers with catalytic nanoparticles is being developed to initiate electroless metal plating on the isolation surface (SiO₂).

The self assembling catalytic nanolayer followed by electroless Ni (Co) adhesion/barrier layer deposition will eliminate the current issue of the poor adhesion for electrochemically deposited Cu films on SiO₂ surface which limits reliability of copper interconnects. This project will attempt to accelerate the mass-scale adoption of low cost and scalable selective electrochemical metallization technology in semiconductor manufacturing.

Company Website: nano3dsystems.com

NanoVox (tormerly Vadient Optics)

Project Title: Microwave enabled Flow Synthesis for Industrial Manufacturing of nanoparticle materials

Principal Investigator: Greg Herman, Oregon State University

Company Contact: George Williams, Nanovox, LLC

Project Description: The VoxtelNano team led by Dr. Greg Herman of Oregon State University, in partnership with commercial partner VoxtelNano Inc., are using ONAMI Gap funding to develop a high throughput, automated, microwave-assisted continuous-flow, High-volume, Nanoparticle Engine (MACHINE). The team's development targets also include continuous product monitoring, quality feedback, and process control with low product composition size and morphology variation. This development is aimed at meeting the market's need for full-scale manufacturing of high-quality, low cost nanomaterials - a capability not currently available.

Update: The technology associated with this project was acquired by Shoei Electronic Materials, Inc. Shoei is a provider of tailored nanocrystalline quantum dots (NQDs) and nanoparticles (NPs). They provide high quality, mono-disperse NQDs and NPs that are tailored to meet customers’ specifications. Using proprietary processing capability, they produce these custom materials at low cost with high batch-to-batch reproducibility.  Shoei uses the shared user facilities of OSU's Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Institute (ATAMI) on the Hewlett Packard Campus in Corvallis, Oregon, for continuing product and process development. 

Company Update:

• 2020: the VadientOptics group, originally a Voxtel Inc R&D program that conducted this research, was spun out to form the new company Nanovox, LLC.

Phosio Corporation

Make it bright the first time.

Phosio serves the tech hardware industry with nano-imprintable high index optical materials for use in components such as Augmented Reality, OLED, μLED and more. Materials are only as good as they are manufacturable. We make transparent high refractive index, 1.6 < n < 2.4, solutions viable for mass production.

Contact the company here - https://www.phosio.com/welcome#contact

Puralytics

Project Title: SolarBag^® Plus: High Performance Photocatalyst for Purifying Drinking Water

Principal Investigator: Tyler Radniecki, Oregon State University

Company Contact: Heather McKenna, Puralytics Corp.

Project Description: Puralytics is a water purification equipment company located in Beaverton, Oregon. Puralytics has developed a patented photochemical water purification process that harnesses light energy from LEDs or sunlight to remove contaminants. The light energy activates an advanced nanotechnology coated mesh to result in photocatalytic reactions and interacts with contaminants directly in photolysis reactions. Water is purified through these simultaneous photochemical reactions, breaking down organic compounds (such as petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals) and sterilizing bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens. 

Puralytics' has recently made improvements to its advanced nanotechnology coated mesh that effectively doubles the reactivity of their SolarBag product and enables it to be produced at a lower cost. Working with Oregon State University, the team is validating the new nanotechnology and demonstrating its performance enhancements to purify drinking water to meet to meet EPA Microbiological Purifier Guidelines and WHO health based performance objectives.

Company Website: puralytics.com

SupraSensor Technologies

Project Title: Soil sensor for real-time nitrate fertilizer measurement in situ

Principal Investigator: Darren W. Johnson, University of Oregon

Company Contact: Calden Carroll, SupraSensor Technologies

Project Description: Working with the University of Oregon, SupraSensor Technologies is developing a real-time wireless sensor capable of in situ measurement of nitrate anion concentration in soil. Agricultural non-point source pollution from nitrate fertilizers is the major contributor to ground and surface water fouling, and reducing the millions of tons of nitrate fertilizer wasted annually through runoff and over-fertilization is one of the National Academies’ “Grand Challenges” faced by the sciences in the 21st century. SupraSensor is a UO startup launched from a collaboration between the labs of Profs. Darren Johnson and Mike Haley. Its initial nitrate selective environmental interface is being developed with support from an NSF SBIR Phase I grant, and the underlying hardware development is supported by this ONAMI Gap grant.

Company status: Following funding from ONAMI, Suprasensor continued to develop a nitrate sensor for agricultural applications and in December 2016 was acquired by Climate Corporation, which works with farmers to sustainably increase crop productivity with digital tools. Climate Corporation is a division of Monsanto.  

ZAPS Technologies

Project Title: Development of automated water quality monitoring system

Principal Investigator: Gary Klinkhammer, Oregon State University

Company Contact: Matt Johnen, ZAPS Technologies, Inc.

Project Description: ZAPS Technologies, working with the Keck Collaboratory at Oregon State University, is working to develop a means to quickly, reliably and automatically measure water quality. The ZAPS / OSU team have been granted funds under ONAMI\'s Gap program to expand the ZAPS compound library which is expected to enable expansion into new markets. Funds from this collaboration will be used to apply the LiquiID(tm), the first solid-state optical water quality monitoring instrument developed by ZAPS, for rapid detection of TOC, BOD and multiple compounds in large amounts for flowing water.