Adjusting the picture: LCDs and Quantum Dots

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Robert Oszakiewski

An article, "Dotting the Eyes" published in the June 16, 2011 issue of The Economist, noted something that many of us who spend a good part of their day looking into Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screens, such as the monitor for the pc that I'm writing this on or the one you're reading it on, have long known - the color range is very limited. Jason Hartlove, President and CEO of California based Nanosys, believes his company may have found a way to expand the color range available to LCDs, using plastic sheets coated with quantum dots that his company manufactures. which - according to the Nanosys website - enables

 LCDs to display about 50% more color than they can today. This means richer, more viscerally alive reds, a deeper palette of greens (the color the human eye sees more intensely than any other color) and vivid blues. Browsing through photos on a tablet is now more like holding a stack of high quality, professional prints. Watching a movie on a big screen in the living room is more akin to attending a private screening at a Hollywood studio.

Other companies, such as Samsung Electronics and QD Vision of Massachusetts, have also begun to design, test and market their own products with the same goal as Nanosys - using quantum dots to improve the picture quality and color range of LCDs, efficently and at low cost.

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Quantum Dots, Patent Infringement and Chapter 11

Posted on July 8, 2009 by Robert Oszakiewski

All of us have seen or directly experienced some effect of the recession, ranging from friends or co-workers losing their jobs to budget cut backs to bankruptcy.

Nanoindustries have not been immune to the recession's effects. Many. if not the majority of nanoindustries are small businesses and lack the depth of financial resources that older, more established companies have.

Evident Technologies, Inc, located in Troy NY and specializing in the production of quantum dots and nanocrystals, filed a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and reorganization in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York on Monday. Evident's press release cites as the major contributing factor to the bankruptcy a patent infringement case in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (Invitrogen Corporation et al v Evident Technologies In 08cv163). Evident Technologies was also involved in a trademark infringement suit (Evident Technologies Inc v Everstar Merchandise Company LTD et al 08cv10230) in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, which was dismissed with prejudice and with each party having to bare the cost of counsel. The cost of the cases and a lack of clients are, presumably, the reason that Evident's monthly income was $10,000 while monthly expenses added up to $200,000 a month. No business can last for long bleeding cash like that.

Evident Technologies has arranged DIP financing of either 2.7 million or 1.35 million (the article in the Albany Business Review gives the 2.7 million figure, while the press release gives the lower one) to enable it to continue in business while reorganizing. In addition to its financial problems, the bankruptcy petition indicates that there's been some instability among the corporate officers, with the former CEO and COO both resigning in May of 2009.

Nanotechnologies and nanoindustries have often been seen as one of the keys to a brighter economic future - a newspaper in Sri Lanka described nanoindustries as the way to solve the current global recession - but nothing prevents nanoindustries from suffering the same business problems as any other industry. Evident Technologies probably isn't the first nanoindustry to file for bankruptcy nor will it be the last. Some, as with other companies, will not emerge intact, either having to file Chapter 7 petitions or being merged into other companies. Others will survive the recession and the venture capitalists will look at them again as viable investments.

Here's hoping that Evident Technologies is one of them.

 

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